The Wolverine Was Almost Good

Well, at least it ain’t Origins again.

The Wolverine is a weird one. I’d be willing to bet you don’t even remember that this movie existed. Understandable; it’s sandwiched right between First Class and Days of Future Past, both of which are really solid and enjoyable movies. Whereas this one is…

…wait. This one is actually pretty good. Right up until it shits the bed at the last minute.

After the events of X3, Logan leaves the X-Men to live a peaceful life in the mountains. But it doesn’t last for long, as he’s soon picked up and taken to Japan to meet an old acquaintance from Logan’s days in WW2. This familiar face has an offer: to take the Wolverine’s healing factor, allowing our hero to live as a mortal man. Unfortunately, Logan’s power is not coveted for good reasons.

The plot here is actually pretty good. Making Logan’s healing factor the center of the story is a surprisingly interesting idea, and seeing a weakened Wolverine fighting modern samurai and ninjas is awesome! The first half is shockingly engaging!

But then you get to the end of the movie and everything falls to pieces. Logan gets his powers back, fights a CGI robot man, and all the interesting ideas of the movie are thrown away for a dumb final battle. It left a sour taste in my mouth.

Also, hallucination Jean just did not need to be here. Whoever thought reminding us of X3 was a good idea clearly wasn’t paying attention.

Visually speaking, this movie is pretty good. The special effects are surprisingly impressive, even by today’s standards. The nuke scene at the beginning is downright jaw-dropping!

But again: then we reach the end of the movie. The CGI Silver Samurai looks terrible, and the final fight looks just as bad. It legitimately feels like the movie’s budget ran out!

I was pretty disappointed by this one. It was pretty good for a while, but it fails to stick the landing. It’s not downright offensive like Origins was, but it still isn’t a particularly incredible film.

It does, however, set the stage for our next entry. Which is one of my personal favorites.