Right OK its nearly the end of 2013 so I thought I would do one last post (if I don't do another quick one tomorrow!) so this one is on a film and it is the latest X-Men spin off film, The Wolverine, starring Hugh Jackman as hot tempered mutant with a long and painful past who faces one of his toughest challenges so far. So with that let's sharpen the claws and give this one a look....
So film starts back in 1945 where Logan, the Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is prisoner of war in a Japanese POW camp where he saves a Japenese soldier, Yashida just as the camp is about to hit by the atomic bomb (based from the real life events of atomic bombing of Nagasaki). In the present day, Logan lives as a recluse in the woods of Yukon and he is tormented by nightmares of Jean Grey (Famke Jansen) whom he was forced to kill in the events of X-Men the last stand. Logan is soon approached by a mutant named Yukio (Rila Fukushima) who has the ability to foresee people's deaths, who has been sent by Yashida, now an old man who is dying, who has requested to see Logan. Logan travels with Yukio to Japan where he meets Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi) who offers Logan the chance to become mortal in an effort to end the pain of his immortality (as Logan's body tissue has endless regenerative capability which has kept him alive for hundreds of years) by transferring his healing abilities into Yashida's body. Logan however refuses and decides to pack and leave the next morning. During the night however Yashida's physician, Dr Green, who is a mutant known as Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova) produces something into Logan's body, but Logan wakes dismissing the sensation as a dream.
The next morning Logan is informed by Yukio that Yashida has died, however at the funeral, Yakuza attempt to capture Yashida's daughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto) but she manages to escape with Logan's help. Logan during the ensuing fight however, having sustained gunshot wounds, finds that he is not healing as quickly as he has in the past (which is an effect of the poison substance introduced by Viper). Regardless of this, Logan and Mariko manage to travel to Yashida's house in Nagasaki (where the POW camp was based at the start of the film) and they soon become romantically attached to one another (or start shagging if you want to be crude about it! ;-)). But it turns out they are not safe as the Yazkua locate them and capture Mariko, also Yukio soon meets up with Logan and tells him that she had a dream where she saw how Logan dies. Logan dismisses Yukio's vision and he goes with her to interrogate Mariko's fiance to be, the corrupt politician, Noburo Mori (Brian Tee) who confesses he was involved in conspiring against Mariko, with her father Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada) as he discovered that his daughter would be set to take control of Yashida's company. And with Logan having discovered the truth he goes after Mariko to rescue her from Shingen's clutches but on the way he encounters one or two surprises....
After the decidedly average Wolverine Origins, The Wolverine sees the character get back on track and here the story's setting in Japan helps lend an effective dramatic weight to the film that was missing from Origins. The film also deals with Logan's personal pain and anguish as every night he has nightmares and visions of seeing Jean, whom he killed at the end of The Last Stand, as her power had grown beyond anyone's control which threatened to destroy the world. Logan also has the curse of immortality in that everyone he has known or cared about over the years has died, which has left him very much a loner and an outsider, as we see him at the start of the film. But despite all that The Wolverine still manages prove to be a very entertaining film and there are still moments of humour to be found as well amongst the intense drama and action.
Performance wise Hugh Jackman leads a fine cast, and he is once again excellent in his role as the gruff mutant, Logan, with the adamantium claws that can do some serious damage and he plays so well with a mixture of heroism, cynicism, reluctance, humour and sorrow. Jackman has quite a few highlights in the film that are not just in the action sequences, such as the dream scenes he has with Famke, as Logan dreams that he is in bed with Jean and she tells him to join her. Jackman also has some fun moments such as the scene where he interrogates Mariko's fiance, Noburo Mori in a high up hotel room and he says to him "Start talking! And if I don't like what I hear you're going through that window!". And after the interrogations Logan throws Noburo out the window, and Yukio reacts saying "You killed him!" and Logan says "I didn't like it!". But Yukio looks down to see that Mori has landed in a swimming pool below, and she says "How did you know there was a pool down there?!" and Logan says "I didn't!". There is also another scene where Logan is bathed and washed by Yashida's maidens and they cut his long hair and beard, and he tries to tell them "I can manage this bit myself!". And later Hugh delivers a cool line to Will Yun Lee's character, Kenuichio Harada (a former lover of Mariko and protector of the Yashida family), when Logan confronts him near the end and Logan says to him "Go fuck yourself, pretty boy!".
The other performances are also fine which include Rila Fukushima as the mutant precog, Yukio, the plucky youngster who recruits and helps Logan in his attempts to rescue Mariko. Tao Okomato is also good in her role as Yashida's grandaughter who is to be left in full control of the company, much to the resentment of her father Shangin. Svetlana Khodchenkova is also good in her role as the creepy villain Viper, a mutant who can create poisonous toxins which she can use to kill or incapacitate (although I couldn't tell if that mole she has on the left side of her mouth was real or not! Although it turns out it is). And lastly I will mention Famke Janssen who makes a good impression in her scenes with Hugh Jackman, where Logan dreams that she is still alive with him and they are a couple, although he still has visions of stabbing her with his adamantium claws, as he did in The Last Stand and its also a neat way to keep her character in the film to have her in the dream sequences.
Direction wise James Mangold (who directed Cop Land) does an excellent job here and through his own skills, he helps bring real dramatic weight to Logan's plight and how he tries to cope with his pain and loss. Mangold was not the initial choice of director as Darren Aronofsky (who directed The Wrestler and Black Swan) was originally attached to the film, but due to the long shoot away from home Aronofsky turned it down. The film also looks terrific visually as well and Mangold makes great use of the stunning locations in Japan including Tokyo, and other scenes where shot in New South Wales in Australia (such as the opening sequence at the Japanese POW camp). Mangold also stages the action scenes really well in the film and the Japanese setting allows for some very well choreographed fight sequences, especially in the scenes where the Yakuza try to capture Mariko and where Logan fights Shingen. The film's score is also worthy of note as Marco Beltrami provides a very good and dramatic score which lends to the film's tone very well.
So The Wolverine does it have any glaring flaws???? Not as such, although perhaps just maybe the film does feel a little too weighted down by its dramatic tone at times, but in a way it is a good thing which helped bring an edge back to the character. But apart from that it is a pretty good film all in all, even if it doesn't scale the heights of greatness but for what it does for the character, The Wolverine is still a pretty solid effort, which paves the way for more promising films involving the big hairy mutant in the future.
And so well that's it for my look at The Wolverine and that's most likely my last review of the year so it only remains for me to say a happy new year to you all when it comes and if I don't do a last minute review tomorrow I will see you next year.
Bye!!
No comments:
Post a Comment