The Wolverine (2013)

The Japan Saga is supposed to be the quintessential Wolverine solo story. Written by Chris Claremont with assists and pencils by Frank Miller, the story is Wolverine at his best both as a mutant hero and as an honorable rogue. So, when it was announced that the next Wolverine film will be set in Japan, I was immediately thrilled to the possibilities.

The opening sequence in which Logan is a POW outside of Nagasaki at the end of WWII was awesome. I thought to myself that I am in for a treat. Instead, I feel like I was sorely tricked. The film, while made years after X-Men 3, takes place just a few months after the events in which Wolverine kills Jean Grey. Haunted by her ghost, he’s a shell of his former self and unwillingly goes to Japan to honor an old debt.

Right off the bat, things just don’t seem right- Logan loses his mutant healing factor and can be killed. Hmmm…. This sounds oddly familiar to the Death of Wolverine story arc getting set up for a September climax in which the clawed one supposedly dies. My theory is that by having Wolverine die, it reboots his healing factor and he emerges bigger and badder than before. That’s what happens at some point in this film and I would not be surprised if that happens next month.

Along with some anemic fight scenes and a convoluted family battle over a pharmaceutical company, I wasn’t very happy with The Wolverine. The only real saving grace is the addition of Wolverine’s true love Mariko. Played by first time actress Tao Okamoto, Mariko’s character as well as her childhood friend Yukio, steals every scene that they are in.

Usually, a love story is box office poison to a superhero film (See Superman II.) But since Wolverine’s Japan saga is a love story underneath the layers of honor, Yakuza, and gore, it makes sense that those scenes are the best scenes in the entire film.

There’s a very confusing character named Viper. She’s a mutant geneticist, who has the ability to produce toxins that can damage even Wolverine. But she’s supposedly based on Madame Hydra in the comics. With the whole “Hail Hydra” storyline in both Winter Solider and Agents of SHIELD, I’m not sure if this Viper person has anything to do with that or not. Since Fox owns the rights to X-Men, I doubt it, but it makes for some confusing settlement of tangled plotlines and in-house box office politics.

Speaking of Fox, the secret scene at the end of the film is awesome. I won’t spoil what happens but it sets up this year’s X-Men Days of Future Past feature. Despite my dislike of this film, the extra scene had me pumped ready to see the next film as soon as I can find a copy of it for rent or cheap!

Not Worth Consuming.

Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.