Review: The healing process begins with 'The Wolverine'

MANILA, Philippines - (Warning: This review contains some mild spoilers)

James Mangold’s “The Wolverine” is a whole lot better than the butchered 2009 film “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”. But compared to this year’s blockbuster comic book films “Iron Man 3” and “Man of Steel”, it doesn’t quite measure up.

And that is not entirely a bad thing because who wants to see cities leveled to the ground again? Here, Logan (Hugh Jackman) is dealing with his actions in “X-Men: The Last Stand” that saw him kill Jean Grey (Famke Jannsen), whose consciousness had been controlled by the Phoenix Force.

We see Logan having regular visions of Jean and he seems content with things as it is until he is sought out by Yukio (Rila Fukushima) on orders of a certain Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi). Now the head of an empire in Tokyo, the once young soldier who Logan saved from an atomic bomb attack is dying and he has an offer for the adamantium-clawed mutant—a chance to live a normal life as a mortal.

Logan declines naturally and decides to walk away. As fate would have it, he ends up saving Yashida’s granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto) who attempted to jump off a cliff and subsequently finds himself caught up in the family’s affairs.

“The Wolverine” has ninjas and the Yakuza so there shouldn’t be any buildings falling in this film and in that aspect, the story somehow feels a little smaller in scale as compared to the aforementioned titles. But in exchange, the beauty of Japan is very much given importance in the cinematography here especially in scenes outside the city. It can probably even pass of as a romantic film with Logan protecting the damsel in distress, only, he has metal claws protruding from his knuckles.

But even that doesn’t seem enough as an unexpected kiss hinders his mutant healing powers. At one point, he would have to rely on the Japanese’s weapon of choice to ward off his enemies.

What was shown as a glimpse in trailers was the presence of Jean but having her play a bigger role in the film came as a surprise.

Somehow I couldn’t help feeling that I was watching a filler episode of LOST in that  a bad episode is still better than most TV shows during its run. “The Wolverine” doesn’t have any of the wow factors that the summer blockbusters brought though it was effective in moving the bigger story forward.

Logan, who would have ended up living the rest of his immortal life in the jungle if he had his way, is haunted by Jean and would not have been effective in case he would be needed once again to don his X-Men spandex suit. With nothing else to live for, he has every reason to want to join Jean in the afterlife.  However, a resolution on his part at the end of the film results in him becoming a healed man once again—and even in an unexpected encounter with a familiar face.

This is the sixth time that Jackman has played the character and he will do so once again for “X-Men: Days of Future Past”. It was good seeing the super-hero experience the pain of a gunshot wound for a change instead of the Logan we got used to who would just brush everything aside with his six pointy claws.

I do have to point out that the slow-motion turn he does every time he gets cut—showing how the wound just closes up—is starting to get corny. A little less of that a little more of Jackman’s acting chops (or muttons) would be a welcome.

By fleshing out one of Marvel’s most iconic characters, Mangold is off to a good start and hopefully, this minor detour in Wolverine’s story pays off not just for the studio, but for the loyal die-hard fans as well.

“The Wolverine” opens tomorrow across Philippine theatres from 20th Century Fox and is distributed by Warner Bros.