a reason the magnetic and charming Mr. Jackman makes the biggest
bucks. It might abut the reason he has played the same superhero more
times than anyone else on film (six with The Wolverine, seven with
2014's Days of Future Past).
He is known as the nicest man in Hollywood, extremely versatile and so
well cut his muscles have muscles, so much so we the audience take his
exceptional 44 year-old body for granted.
Not all his wolfish outings have been successful (X-men Origins:
Wolverine sent fanboys exiting the theaters in droves) …but The
Wolverine, a standalone adventure starring the wingy-banged grumpy
immortal X-man, does a great deal to explain the continued faith
Hollywood has in Jackman as a leading man and action star.
The movie, however, is far more than just a simple action-er and in
its choice to add depth and complexity to the story and character, it
follows the great trajectory so well established by recent movies like
The Avengers and Iron Man 3.
The story follows a reclusive Wolfie (aka Logan) who is leading a
hermitic existence in the wilds of Canada, looking like a filthier
Outlaw Josey Wales, living in caves and wandering the days aimlessly
after restlessly struggling through night after night of nightmares
featuring his past lady love, whom he was forced to kill in X-Men: The
Last Stand. She serves as tortuous delusion, popping up at the worst
times to remind him how miserable he is, and how little use he has for
his near immortality. He has lost his family, and everyone he loves
dies. He is lost.
Enter a wealthy Japanese businessman, whom he outed himself as mutant
saving him at Nagasaki, in an impressive sequence that starts by
featuring Logan's swoon-enducing male physicality and ends with the
unenviable task of reproducing moments from one of WWII's worst
disasters. Mr. Yashida is now dying, we are told by Yukio, a mutant
emissary in thigh-high red striped socks, Yukio. He wants to say good
bye, and offer a gift of thanks.
Out of that annoying sense of honor and duty he can't seem to shake,
Logan goes to Japan to see his old friend. Once there, he is offered
the chance to feel physical pain, deterioration and mortality like the
rest of humanity. It is in this newfound vulnerability that Logan
finds himself and we as the audience connect more with him than ever
before.
Mortality, love, vengeance and subjective morality are all themes that
trundle this tale along, and they are none too light a set of
subjects. There is the idea of Logan as ronin, or a samurai without a
master, which thematically has been used in a variety of genres, and
here, along with other clear influences, it is what integrates the
movie's desperate influences together. These influences separate The
Wolverine from the superhero movies of the past.
Logan's "man without a name" archetype brings to mind westerns like
The Outlaw Josey Wales. The hyper-colorized scenes in Tokyo seem
influenced by films like Happy Together and In the Mood for Love by
Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai.
There is also an element of sparse expansiveness in the Japanese
seaside scenes reminiscent of classic director Yahujiro Ozu's work.
That freaky do-it-my-way auteur Darren Aronofsky (of Requiem for a
Dream and Black Swan) was originally attached to direct speaks to how
far a departure they were planning for The Wolverine...
Giving credit where it's due, without Hugh Jackman's versatility, this
kind of complicated blending of genres into a Marvel comic story would
not have worked. Jackman has the ability to seem intense and off the
cuff at the same time. Coming from another actor, some of the retorts
he tosses out would seem somewhere between cliched and ridiculous.
They seem perfectly at home coming from The Wolverine as a character,
and it shows just how well Jackman can embody the role, reminding us
how much we care about this troubled misanthrope with a heart of
gold. Immortality breeds existential despair, as well as, apparently,
perfect deadpan delivery of comic-book-ready pith and sass.
It was great to hear that Hugh Jackman found a way into the
character's bad attitude during the film shoots by starting every
morning with an ice cold shower. No wonder he's grumpy.
They have emassed a collection of pedigreed actors from all over the
world to play supporting roles, with greater and less successful
results. Rila Fukushima as Yukio, is immediately magnetic as friend
and battle-ready companion (or as she calls it, bodyguard) to the
reticent Logan.
She is a mutant with an unpleasant ability she wishes she could give
back, unlike her hard won and colossal fighting skills. Her costuming
and character are both unique and badass enough to inspire Halloween
homages, to become this year's "Hitgirl." The relationship between
her and Logan shows his goodness to the audience even before he
finally sees it for himself.
The character of Mariko as Logan's love interest, is less successful.
Tao Okamoto does what she can with the role, but she is meant to be
enigmatic, a mix of damsel in distress and femme fatale, and we as
the audience never learn to care much about her in specifics, beyond
the fact that she makes Logan feel again.
It is unfortunate that the climactic last quarter of the movie gets so
buried in CGI and desperate measures to fill holes in the plot or
explain character motivations that it almost loses us all to bleed to
death in its own bluster. It is assumed that Hollywood required
neater bows than the filmmakers would have wanted to tie, and as a
result, the bluster and cacophony ensued. The rest of the film is
inventive and unusual enough to compensate for the disastrous sections
towards the end.
At the X-Men: Days of Future Past panel at San Diego Comic-Con,
someone facetiously asked about Wolverine singing as part of the
movies. After saying no one wanted to see that, he burst into a song,
"I'm gonna SLICE 'em, i'm gonna DICE 'em…", bringing laughter and
cheers from the assembled masses. And speaking of Days of Future
Past, stay past the credits, for a scene worth going to see the movie.
It ties together the upcoming and highly anticipated movie to The
Wolverine, and features big talent and big hints about the next year's
star studded release.
Aussie man-meat, sharp claws, an over-the-top balletic fight atop a
bullet train, a nuclear explosion, an exciting clip from X-Men in 2014
that "plays the future cast," and more…Wolverine. See it. It's a
howling good time.
Leslie Combemale, "Cinema Siren", is a movie lover and aficionado in
Northern Virginia. Alongside Michael Barry, she owns ArtInsights
Animation and Film Art Gallery in Reston Town Center. She has a
background in film and art history. She often is invited to present at
conventions such as the San Diego Comic Con. In 2013 she will
moderate "Legendary Animators of Classic 60s Cartoons" at SDCC. She
previously moderated "The Art of the Hollywood Movie Poster" and is a
perennial panelist on the Harry Potter Fandom panel. Visit her art
gallery online at www.artinsights.com, and see more of her reviews and
interviews on www.artinsightsmagazine.com.
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