It takes a special kind of talent to make Logan, aka Wolverine, aka the prime player from the "X-Men" movies, as played by Hugh Jackman, a bore.
The character with the metal skeleton made of Adamantium, the foot-long claws that emerge from his hands and healing powers that still prove a neat trick on film is a compelling and frequently comic element of the "X-Men" mythology.
He can't be killed, so he's immortal - stab him, shoot him (as happens dozens of times here), drop an atomic bomb (as happens in the start of this film), it doesn't matter.
His response to this "mutation" of his genetics has often been to gnaw on a cigar, toss back a drink, save the day and brood about his lasting existence. He's a regular-guy kind of mutant.
Jackman pulls off this character so winningly that it's a pain to watch him go the furrowed-brow route for an entire film. I had something of a bitter-beer-face too by the end of "The Wolverine," which has three really fun action pieces and a lot of story filler that doesn't add up to much.
Fans by now know that Logan has seen his share of war from multiple centuries, so it's no surprise at the start to see him as a captured soldier during World War II, held in a deep well in Nagasaki when an A-bomb is dropped. Pulling in a Japanese soldier and saving his life when the "big one" falls earns him a lifelong friend.
Logan doesn't do friends well, and his present-day life is one of roaming the planet as if homeless. The events are meant to follow those of the last "X-Men" movie, in which he killed the love of his life and fellow mutant, Jean Grey, when she went bad, so he's more mopey than ever, with Jean having a role in his every-evening nightmares.
His solitude is broken up when he's summoned to Tokyo by the man he saved nearly 70 years ago. He arrives to find the man, a Japanese billionaire, dying of cancer and offering a deal: Logan, I don't want to die and you have always wanted to be mortal; I've found a way for your powers to be passed on to another person, namely me; what do you say?
It sounds simple enough, in a comic-book world, but of course it can't be that simple.
This is where the billionaire's money and power are being targeted by the Japanese mob (the Yakuza) and political forces, so bring on the ninja warriors.
They are looking to eliminate (1) the old man's granddaughter, Mariko, his heir; (2) Logan and his Adamantium claws that break their samurai steel while protecting Mariko; and (3) Yukio, a female ninja and Mariko's lifelong pal, with newcomer Rila Fukushima physically impressive and amusing in this role based on a popular "X-Men" storyline from the comics' past.
The movie works beautifully in those moments when mutants are dealing with mutants. Logan and Yukio, who can see the future and bills herself as Wolverine's bodyguard, work excellent chemistry between Jackman and Fukishima. Statuesque Svetlana Khodchenkova chews up scenery as Viper, the lizard-like creature who knows how to drain the immortal life from Logan (and spit toxic waste into the faces of her foes; yuck, but effective).
The trouble is that these are the movie's three mutants, among dozens of Japanese characters, and none beyond Yukio's portrayer make an impression.
They are remarkable in their blandness, and apparently every man in Tokyo is a ninja or a gang member.
Tao Okamoto has all the personality of a wet rag as Mariko, which hamstrings the movie throughout. There's just so little at stake here: Logan doesn't lose his powers, so he can't be killed, and I didn't care about any of the Japanese characters beyond Yukio, so I didn't care about the dozens of them who are killed.
A real disappointment comes in the fact that the action set-pieces are brilliantly executed and that there are so few of them. When the old man's funeral turns into a kidnapping/massacre scene, the choreography of Wolverine's slashing claws, ninjas flying through the air and arrows from a mysterious archer above make for a savage ballet of brutality.
When Logan and a particularly pesky ninja do battle on top of one of those 300 mph Japanese "bullet trains," their gymnastics to avoid death and each other make recent train-top fights like those in "Skyfall" and "The Lone Ranger" look amateurish.
It's never as simple as "do less of the stuff that's not working and more of the stuff that is working" to make a movie better, but that's how obvious the differences are in "The Wolverine," the hero's second stand-alone movie, which will prove no more memorable than "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" in 2009.
‘THE WOLVERINE’
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Will Yun Lee
Theaters: (3-D) Cinemark Tulsa, AMC Southroads 20, Cinemark Broken Arrow, Starworld 20, Owasso, Sand Springs; (2-D) RiverWalk, Eton Square, Admiral Twin Drive-in
Running time: 2 hours, 6 minutes Rated: PG-13 (sequences of in- tense sci-fi action and violence, some sexuality and language)
Quality:
(on a scale of zero to four stars)
Michael Smith 918-581-8479
michael.smith@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Dull Addition. Movie Review: 'The Wolverine'
‘THE WOLVERINE’
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Will Yun Lee
Theaters: (3-D) Cinemark Tulsa, AMC Southroads 20, Cinemark Broken Arrow, Starworld 20, Owasso, Sand Springs; (2-D) RiverWalk, Eton Square, Admiral Twin Drive-in
Running time: 2 hours, 6 minutes Rated: PG-13 (sequences of in- tense sci-fi action and violence, some sexuality and language)
Quality:
(on a scale of zero to four stars)
Movie Reviews
When done right, a gangster comedy with some brains and some blood can become a black comedy favorite, along the lines of “The Freshman” or “Prizzi’s Honor” or “Get Shorty.”
What is every woman's fantasy? "Austenland" blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction in a romantic comedy that is at times literate, clunky and amusingly kooky.
