Film Review | The Wolverine

Though there has been much talk of the film industry struggling in recent years, Hollywood remains a place where millions are splashed out on silly one-and-a-half-hour slices of entertainment - provided that these are lowest common denominator fodder that can ideally be 'enhanced' by digital-piracy-proof 3D projection.

In this increasingly risk-averse cinematic playground, no phenomenon makes for a more secure investment than, apparently, the superhero film. And few superheroes beyond 'the big three' (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man) are more bankable than the X-Men's own self-healing Canadian lone wolf, Wolverine.

So much so that even after the unmitigated critical disaster that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), Marvel Studios et al were allowed another shot at a solo film about Logan - the effectively immortal mutant who sports a handy set of retractable metal claws.

Originally set to be directed by Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan), 'The Wolverine', now helmed by James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma) makes the shrewd decision of focusing on Logan/Wolverine's past as a sometime samurai in feudal Japan.

Following the events of the last-in-continuity X-Men film (that would be 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand), we are re-introduced to Logan (Hugh Jackman) in exile. Guilt-ridden for having been forced to kill his former X-Men colleague Jean Grey, he has retreated to the hills, eschewing contact with other human beings and allowing his facial hair to assume alarmingly hobo-like proportions.

But another act of enforced mercy killing jolts him out of his hermit-like routine. Spotting an injured bear around his stomping grounds (the hunter in question was too cowardly to finish it off), Logan resolves to unleash some righteous justice.

Sniffing out the errant hillbilly in question at a nearby bar, Logan proceeds to teach the kid (and his friends) a lesson. But he's interrupted by an unexpected guest: a Japanese woman, Yukio (Rila Fukushima) - a mutant with the ability to foretell people's fate - appears to have a link to Logan's (chronologically generous) past.

It turns out that Yukio is an assassin in the employ of Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada) - a former soldier whose life Logan saved during the atomic bombing of Nagasaki back in 1945. Now a wealthy CEO of a technological corporation - but also, sadly, on his deathbed - Shingen has sent Yukio to retrieve Logan so that he may make a proposition to him.

Shingen has no intention of succumbing to his cancer. Logan, on the other hand, effectively has the dubious blessing of immortality, thanks to this mutuant healing power. By dint of Japanese technological doohickery (the inner workings of which are, of course, never fully explained), Shingen, knowing full well that Logan views his blessing as more of a curse, offers to relieve Logan of his healing power and transfer it onto him.

Of course, we would have no film if Logan simply went, "Yeah, okay," at this point, and when he refuses the old man's offer, the proverbial fecal matter begins to collide with the equally proverbial fan.

And it's a heady brew indeed, involving Shingen's elder daughter and heiress Mariko (Tao Okamoto) and - crucially - Dr Green, or 'Viper' (Svetlana Khodchenkova), Shingen's mutant doctor (who happens to be immune to toxins). Long-time Wolverine fans will be glad for a more stripped-down approach to Logan's past (at least, stripped down when compared to 'X-Men Origins), but the problem is that Mangold doesn't manage the successful blend of the gritty and the preposterous that the story requires.

Roughly one-half of the film is set in a moody, richly textured world (be it the American backwoods or Japan), which, though pretty enough to look at, serves as little more than exposition. This results in something of a pacing problem, because at any given moment, Logan's brooding journey of self-(re-)discovery is privy to violent eruptions from ninjas, poison-breathing femmes fatales and, ultimately, giant samurai-shaped robot warriors. 

But most incongruous of all is Viper herself. Though Khodchenkova devours the vampish role with relish, it's a jarringly camp turn, inviting unwelcome memories of Uma Thurman's take on Poison Ivy in Batman and Robin (1997) - universally reviled as the absolute nadir of superhero films.

Juxtaposed against a largely brown-textured, 'gritty' setting, she sticks out like a sore thumb when she does appear on screen. (It's also problematic that, despite being the primary antagonist, her presence is barely felt.)

Hugh Jackman and co. may have salvaged Wolverine's 'solo' reputation in cinema with this particular outing, but it remains something of an unsatisfying brew as a stand-alone film. Perhaps it's a sign of the times that the 'gritty' superhero film appears to be falling out of favour.

Personally, I can't wait for the next blockbuster out of Marvel Studios' stable - the sequel to 2011's Thor, subtitled 'The Dark World'. If its freshly released, full-length trailer is anything to go by, it will not try to suck us in with mood as The Wolverine does.

Rather, it looks as though it's opted to pummel us with fun set pieces instead, as its 'Space Viking' protagonist sets about the onerous task of rescuing the fabric of existence from ruin.