With "The New Mutants" FINALLY coming out this week, it's time I talk about another film from the "X-Men" franchise. Which one though? I finally decided on talking about the most forgotten film in the series, at least in terms of reputation and popularity, which is the second stand-alone Wolverine film. Set after the events of "X-Men: The Last Stand", Logan has put himself in self-isolation following the death of Jean Grey. When he is contacted by an acquaintance of his spanning from the Second World War, he travels to Japan as he visits Ichiro Yashida, a former Japanese soldier who Logan had saved back in the day and who has known of the latter's mutant ability to heal. Ichiro hoped to repay his lifelong debt by transferring Logan's abilites to himself, allowing himself to survive his cancer while Logan can live a normal life in the process. Logan refuses while Ichiro dies the following day. During his funeral though, the Yakuza attack and attempt to kidnap Ichiro's granddaughter, Mariko. Although Logan succeeds in protecting her, he notices that his healing power has disappeared, leading to him to try to uncover a sinister plan that not only involves the Yakuza, but the Yashida family and a mutant woman known as Viper. The story itself is based on the first volume of the Wolverine comics, which is an iconic story of the long-running character. The story does go into the torment of Logan's character such as his regret for killing Jean, his immortality, his sudden loss of his healing powers, and his newfound yet short-lived romance with Mariko. Although the story itself has some confusing ideas in the background such as the CEO position of Yashida's company and the roles of certain characters, the film is really focused on Logan's journey as well as the blossoming romance between him and Mariko. There are issues, but they will be discussed in the character segment. As for the tone, it's one of the more mature films in the franchise due to a lack of an ensemble team and the emotional baggage that Logan is carrying. There's still moments of comedy though sprinkled throughout, which is mainly helped by Logan's inexperience with Japanese culture as well as some of the over-the-top action moments.
Hugh Jackman is always perfect as Logan/Wolverine. He still has that tough-as-nails attitude and gruff demeanor, but he can still find sometimes to be humble or crack a joke. While there are other films where the character goes through a thought-provoking and emotional-driven journey, this movie also manages to offer one of his more dynamic stories. From his guilt following Jean's death, questioning about giving up his immortality, falling in love with Mariko, and dealing with the sudden loss of his healing ability. Mariko, played by Tao Okamota, is Logan's love interest and the granddaughter of Ichiro who has revealed that he has entrusted his company to her following his death. Mariko is timid and a bit shy, but she can fight herself if necessary and works really well in contrast to Logan's more aggressive, outgoing personality. Yukio, played by Rila Fukushima, is a mutant ally/bodyguard of Logan who has the ability to see into the future, mainly the upcoming deaths of people. She feels a bit of a late addition, since she disappears in the second act and only seems relevant in the action sequences in the beginning and climax of the film. Viper, played by Svetlana Khodchenkova, is the secondary antagonist, a seductive mutant who can emit toxin from her tongue and is the one who plants the robotic parasite that saps Logan's ability to heal. Khodchenkova does a pretty good job as this femme fatale and the film does make you think that she's the primary villain for the majority of the film. However, once she reveals her role by the end, it does ponder the question why she has a grudge against Logan or why team up with Ichiro to begin with. The side characters include Shingen Yashida, Mariko's ruthless father, Kenuichio Harada, Mariko's former lover and the leader of a ninja clan aiding the Yashida family regardless of their good or bad nature, Noburo Mori, Mariko's fiancee who is a corrupt minister of justice who is conspiring with Shingen to kidnap Mariko so that her father can step in as CEO, and a deceased Jean Grey who appears in Logan's dreams and hallucinations as she torments him about her death and his nature. Although Jean works fine in the narrative, all of these side characters I mentioned are very underdeveloped and have the most complicated alliances to each other that it feels cartoonish. And then, there's Ichiro Yashida who is also known as the Silver Samurai, played by both Ken Yamamura and Haruhiko Yamanouchi young and old. Although I understand his motivation to sought after Logan's healing abilities, the fact that the film replaces the armour and fighting abilities of him from the comics for an adamantium robot mech suit is just plan stupid. Not only does it come up out of nowhere with no real foreshadow, but it makes the climatic battle feel much more generic when you have the hero battle a CGI character at the end of the movie. The choice feels very forced by the studio and it does harm the villain's credibility as a result. Regardless, the cast is very good with Jackson and Okamota being the highlights and it's a big bonus that the majority of this Hollywood superhero film consists with a majority of Asian actors, which I find impressive given the film's release and eclipsing "Black Panther" five years earlier.
James Mangold, who would later pen "Logan" four years later, proves his filmmaking talents and passion for the Wolverine character and comics by mostly sticking the landing for transitioning to a superhero production. The first thing that really grabs my attention is the Japanese backdrop. Not only is it unique for the genre to go beyond the U.S for the majority of the film, but they really take advantage of both the cityscapes and landscapes of the country. Tokyo and Nagasaki are both beautiful to look at for different reasons, but it's helped by the great-looking day and night shots from cinematography by Ross Emery. The daytime shots might feel a bit too saturated filter-wise, but it does give out that Asian martial-arts aesthetic to the film. What I really love the most about the Japanese setting is the use of the culture. From bullet trains, pachinko machines, love hotels, and superstitious beliefs, the film really embraces the Japanese culture and also helps making both Logan and the audience feel like outsiders in a brand-new environment. The score by Marco Beltrami is very good with the use of a more Asian oriental mix throughout the film. It does get into the generic superhero music during the third act battle with the Silver Samurai, but Beltrami's composing is fairly unique for the most part. The visual effects are average as there's plenty of characters or elements that feel fake from the bear in the beginning, the Silver Samurai armour, the corrosive effect of Viper's victims and the various uses of green screen. To the film's credit though, they do try to reduce CGI for the most part, only using it in big set-pieces such as the atomic bomb opening, the train bullet sequence and the final battle. Speaking of which, the action scenes are pretty good and offer some great Wolverine highlights in the franchise. The bullet train fight is pretty fun with the use of speed and physics, the funeral battle is intense with a weakened Logan battling members of the Yakuza, Shingen vs Yukio is close quarters intensity, and the final battle does have some cool moments despite its forced nature from the studio. It really helps that the majority of these characters are only good at hand-to-hand or weaponry combat, so it has a more grounded take on the superhero action motifs compared to having lasers or explosions every second. There is one issue though and that's the ninja battle before Logan gets captured. The theatrical version is very short and practically wastes an awesome set-piece with Logan fighting for a few seconds and makes his failed dash to save Mariko. In the extended version though, not only is the fight way longer and bloodier, but it's just more epic with the use of a snow remover thrown in and Logan exploding said snow remover as the big stop to the fight before he tries to make his way to Mariko. The extended version not only feels more satisfying to watch, but it just makes more sense why Logan just gave up on fighting the ninjas, which is due to how many there were. Overall, Mangold proves his worth as an uprising filmmaker and shows real talent, even if the studio was trying to suppress it with their own silly conditions.
"The Wolverine" is perhaps the most underrated entry of the X-Men franchise and one that deserves more attention and respect. It's not perfect as the story is only happening because of a family's power struggle, the side characters are very underdeveloped and feel somewhat inhuman moral-wise, some characters also don't get as much screentime as they should, the change to make the Silver Samurai a giant mech is one of the worst studio changes I've seen in the genre, there are some awkward effects, and the ninja battle is completely ruined in the theatrical cut. However, there's a lot to enjoy in this one. The story itself does give plenty of depth for Logan as he does go through plenty of personal trauma from his past and his present, the tone is well-handled with a lot of seriousness yet nice uses of humour that applies to the characters and settings, Hugh Jackman is once again perfect as Logan, Mariko is a cute love interest for Logan, the cast all do a good job and the majority of them being of Asian decent is very nice to see in a superhero production, the location of Japan offers both nice looking environments shot by Emery and the abundance of culture that helps give a unique identity to the film, Beltami's score is very good both for its use of oriental themes and how it stacks up to the franchise, the action sequences are very nice to see with a lot of close-combat and calculating movements, and Mangold ties it all together with his usual bow of quality directing. While I don't think it remains one of the best films in the "X-Men" franchise, it's far from the worse and it deserves to not be seen as a forgettable entry as it offers one of the most refreshing and unique takes on the superhero genre as well as a great Wolverine-centric journey.
Verdict: 7.5/10. A pretty solid film in the impressive "X-Men" franchise and the prototype to what Mangold will do with the character in "Logan". Watch whenever you can, especially the extended cut for the awesome ninja battle!
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