Brittle, anguished and unruly.The Wolverine's demeanor hasn't much changed during his time in the movies. The battle-weary Logan has trudged through a ton of trouble in the "X-Men" films and eventually the popularity of the character warranted his own stand alone feature.
Unfortunately, that movie was "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," which was a turgid mess. But "The Wolverine" seeks to repair the damage done by "Origins."
Immortality has taken its toll on Logan (Hugh Jackman,"Les Miserables") and the death of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen, "Taken 2") still gives nightmare fuel to his rage.
While Logan is sulking around the wilderness and getting into bar fights, he meets Yukio (Rila Fukushima), a red headed affable stranger telling him that Yashida, a Japanese soldier he once saved in WWII (Hal Yamanouchi, "The Way Back"), is dying and he wants to see Logan one last time.
After being whisked off to Japan, Logan gets himself in the middle of some modern Hamlet style family skulduggery. Yashida, with ulterior motives prevailing, offers him the gift of an ordinary life, but Logan refuses.
Once trouble hits the fan, Logan has to embark on an escort mission with Mariko (Tao Okamoto), the Yashida corporation heir apparent, while the Yakuza is chasing after them.
"The Wolverine" is superbly gritty for a PG-13 film that it's any wonder why the makers didn't shoot for the full R rating. When Logan fights, blood stains his razor claws and when he punches someone straight on the nose it can induce wincing fits of recoil.
The fight scenes are surprisingly and excellently choreographed. There are fights when the CGI sequences don't hit as well as intended. A sequence involving a train running at high speed and Logan battling unsavory gangsters at 100 miles per hour doesn't look as well as it should.
Mangold and screenwriters Mark Bomback ("Unstoppable") and Scott Frank ("Minority Report") provide a suitable impetus for danger, now that the Wolverine is vulnerable without his penchant for self-healing, he can be killed. Though as many hits and bruises as Logan takes from bats and bullets, it doesn't stop him save for a slight limp and an increasingly angry demeanor.
The filmic narrative borrows a few hints from "Diamonds are Forever" and "The Last Samurai," but that is to be expected. "The Wolverine" does deliver thrills even though the film is built on a corny script. Characters deliver cheesy aphorisms and Logan does get to mimic the Clint Eastwood grit of "Gran Torino" and "Unforgiven" with some punchy one liners. With this being a stand alone effort, "The Wolverine" does well enough on its own delivering a mea culpa for "Origins." The first two thirds of the film are more of a serious crime thriller than the last third when the climax arrives and the Poison Ivy ingenue Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy") takes center stage in skin tight dresses and spewing venom. And the final confrontation between Wolverine and Silver Samurai certainly delivers a promising spectacle.
Mangold has directed a sturdy feature that brings the Wolverine back in a crime adventure that's never boorish, against the noir backdrop of Tokyo, and postures itself better once it leaves some of the comic-book trappings behind. Also, employed is a beautiful, dissonant score from Marco Beltrami ("Knowing").
"The Wolverine" finally claws Logan back into the good graces of the superhero sagas.
dkahen-kashi@theeagleonline.com
