There Once Was a Boy with Claws in His Hands...in Japan

Wolverine’s fawesome again, kids.

Fawsome-ish, at the very least.

See, the task of The Wolverine – a prequel sequel that feels more like a reboot than a prequel sequel (I shall call it a side story follow-up to a previous threequel) – is a mighty tall one. It has to successfully restore the badassery of the Marvel mutant in the wake of the fun, yet lackluster X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

I won’t go as far as to call this one a runaway hit, but, man, when I compare this one to its predecessor I can see why folks dogged on the 2009 entry the way they did. That movie had man candy galore (Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Kitsch were part of it), but its convoluted story didn’t do James Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine, any favors.

In fact, it kinda made us not care about the character that much, huh.

This new Wolverine outing is based on an arc from the character’s comic books from the early ’80s (Frank Miller had a hand on it), which allows director James Mangold (Knight & Day) and his star, the indelible-in-this role Hugh Jackman, to dig deep into the mythology of the man with the adamantium skeleton.

The movie has a focus. It is set almost entirely in Japan, which, even during its quieter moments, gives it a fresh vibrancy. The story begings with us zeroing in on Logan as a prisoner of war during World War II. He is being held near Nagasaki, so...uh...you know what’s coming: the atomic bomb.

It is then that he saves a soldier named Yashida (played in youth by Ken Yamamura and later by Haruhiko Yamanouchi), leaving the man impressed for life. Afterward, decades later, we see that the soldier has invested his new lease on life quite wisely, becoming Japan’s most prominent industrialist. Yashida has conquered everything he ever set out to, made something of the life Logan gave him, but, y’ know...there’s still one thing he can’t beat and that’s the clock on his mortal soul.

So he calls on Logan and welcomes him to his deathbed (a brief detour to the Yukon shows us that Logan, still mourning the death of Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey, is living detached from his civilization and from his X brethren), to thank him, and to repay the favor by offering the immortal mutant something he’s eluded many a time: an honorable death and the peace that comes with it.

Before Logan can even say no, thanks, Yash, or – gulp! – yes (’cause the poor guy’s all haunted and torn up about Jean’s death and the role he played in her demise), the Wolverine is, much to his steeliest chagrin, drawn into some bulls--- drama (that is, badass action) involving the yakuza (with whom our anti-hero tangles in and on a speeding bullet train), a slithery and toxic mutant blonde, and a formidable foe known as the Silver Samurai that he, of course, wants no part of.

Ultimately, The Wolverine makes us care again, thanks to a more fully realized arc, an always-winning Jackman, and to the supporting turns of not one but two ladies: Tao Okamoto’s Mariko, Yashida’s in-peril granddaughter, and the prescient Yukio, a magenta-haired katana-savvy warrior played by newcomer Rila Fukushima.

They help Logan redeem himself in his own eyes, and the Wolverine in ours.

A good thing because if you stay in your seat until after the first batch of end credits, you will get a very special tease of things to come in a yesterday of tomorrow that will definitely involve the revitalized Wolverine.

My Rating ***

Photo: 20th Century Fox.