The Wolverine
Quite apart from the fact that this is a fun movie to watch, Hugh Jackman is not too shabby and the 3D version is great.
Is anyone out there, but me, wondering about the latest spate of movies related to comic book or old radio shows? So far we’ve seen Batman, Superman, Spiderman, The Lone Ranger and then, of course, there’s the zombie films. Is it that we baby boomers are so rooted in the past that we are hard-pressed to find something new?
Having that little rant out of my system, The Wolverine is an action-packed (great chase on the train scene) couple of hours, as Logan/Wolverine is called to Japan to say farewell to an old friend, Shingen Yashida (Hiroyuki Sanada), who is dying—and things go downhill from there.
Again, violence and incredible stunts are a large part of this film. The acting is so-so, but what do we want from a half man/half wolf.
Logan’s lukewarm scenes with his supposed love interest, Marika (Tao Okamoto) are a bit hard to take, but director James Mangold redeems himself with the action scenes which are plentiful.
Jackman, who has played Logan/Wolverine six times, is a big fan of the Wolverine comic (1982), particularly the Japanese saga. Interestingly, this is the first time “Wolverine” is in a movie without X-Men in the title.
To prepare for the role Jackman worked out three hours a day, ate 6,000 calories daily and sought advice on bulking up from Dwayne Johnson, who may be the King of bulking up.
As movies go, this is fast-paced and suspenseful but don’t go expecting to see great acting.
Stay for the credits and see what’s in store for X-Men.
By the way, this is not the last we’ll see of The Wolverine, he’s scheduled to come back again.
I give The Wolverine three reels for this one, but the chase scenes are awesome.
