The Wolverine

Making a spinoff Wolverine movie shouldn't be this hard. I enjoyed the X-men trilogy and I felt the filmmakers wrapped up the story nicely with "The Last Stand". Then came "X-men Origins: Wolverine" and I was not impressed because the story didn't add anything to the X-men film series. Logan loses his memory so there was a lack of character development and the film didn't provide any answers to his origin that we didn't learn from "X2". I felt that "X-men: First Class" was a much better story idea so I am more happy with that film. I went to see "The Wolverine" with low expectations and those weren't even met. I can't tell which is worse: this film or "X-men Origins: Wolverine". There were continuity errors in "The Wolverine" and it once again doesn't contribute to the film series. The 3D was also very poor but at least I got to see the mid-credit sequence on the big screen.

What reason does this movie have for existing? I know this is an adaption of a series from the comic books but a movie should appeal to fans that are not familiar with the comics like me. The best movies include everyone in their target audience. I will say that I liked the opening Nagasaki scene. For us westerners, we don't fully understand the devastation that occurred and the sound of screaming people was quite powerful during the blast. Then again, how does Logan remember saving Yashida? I thought he lost his memory in the first place. From what I can recall of the other movies, he remembers how he got his adamantium skeleton but that is it in terms of his past. Also, I thought Logan fought in Europe during WWII as we see in the opening credit sequence of "Origins", not Asia. One might argue that "The Wolverine" is important because Logan is overcoming his inner demons, hence the hallucinations of Jean. My answer to that is Logan seemed to be at peace at the end of "The Last Stand". The filmmakers had to ignore the resolution of the trilogy so as to create some relevancy in this show and I am not in favor of that. There are some humorous moments that I liked in "The Wolverine" such as during the battle on the bullet train and the Mission to Mars hotel room. In regards to the climax of this show, I knew that Yashida was in the Silver Samurai suit because he was the only character left in the movie that could be inside. They should have had the big reveal much earlier than it was because it would have made for better drama during the fight. I thought that a metal cannot cut itself even if is red hot. That is a big problem I have with "Origins" and it seems like the filmmakers continue to pretend that adamantium can cut itself. Another piece of evidence I have of the meaninglessness of "The Wolverine" is the ending scene on the plane with Logan and Yukio. Neither of them know where to go. The movie did not provide any direction. You could delete it from the film series and you wouldn't miss a thing. The best part of the whole movie is the mid-credit sequence. I did not see this coming and I am excited for "Days of Future Past". Even though this movie was pretty unentertaining, Oscar-nominated actor Hugh Jackman did his job well as usual. A great character however cannot carry an entire film all by himself.

If you want to see this movie, better not spend a lot of money on 3D and such. "The Wolverine" did not make up for the disappointment of "X-men Origins: Wolverine". It includes continuity errors and does not contribute to future films with exception given to the fun mid-credit sequence.

2.5 Stars