The Wolverine (2013)
Directed by James Mangold
Wolverine faces his ultimate nemesis - and tests of his physical, emotional, and mortal limits - in a life-changing voyage to modern-day Japan.
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There are some exhilarating workouts for the hero (on a superfast train, in a battle with ninjas that recalls Kurosawa's Throne of Blood), one or two unexpected turns of events, and formidable femmes fatales in acrobatic samurai Rila Yukushima and slinky Svetlana Khodchenkova, who plays a venomous chemist with her own set of deadly claws.
In one scene, a couple dozen ninjas pinion Logan with arrows of steel strings, until he is as perforated as Toshiro Mifune at the end of Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood.
That said, there are kicks to be had from a dizzying fight atop a bullet train, and, for Kurosawa fans, the sight of the Wolverine, on a snowy night, impaled by a forest of arrows pays stylish—and wholly appropriate—homage to “Throne of Blood.”
I don’t recall seeing one of those in Powell and Pressburger‘s nunnery drama Black Narcissus (also namechecked).
Svetlana Khodchenkova, as Viper, is supposed to be villainous but comes across as only vampy; she recalls Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy in ‘‘Batman & Robin,’’ only less interesting.
Estúpido também em seu terceiro ato, que apela para revelações ridículas e que praticamente se limita a mostrar uma batalha que traz Wolverine e seu adversário despencando várias vezes em um túnel vertical aparentemente tão extenso quanto a pista de decolagem de Velozes e Furiosos 6 , Wolverine – Imortal é prejudicado por uma vilã que, do figurino à composição da atriz, remete perigosamente à ridícula Hera Venenosa que Uma Thurman viveu em Batman & Robin (batam três vezes na madeira e se benzam).
And while it’s a vast improvement on that creative misfire, there’s nothing in “The Wolverine” that matches the spark of Jackman’s three-word, profanity-laced cameo in 2011’s “X-Men: First Class.”
However, extended romantic interludes with clan princess Tao Okamoto and the need to include standard blockbuster action scenes hinder Mangold's valiant attempt to deliver a film to match the game-changing quality of X-Men: First Class and Avengers Assemble.
The last two films featuring Marvel Comics' mutant heroes, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and "X-Men: First Class," were both set in the past, pushing the chronology of all the X-films close to "Planet of the Apes"-level convolution.
Hugh Jackman's sixth outing as Marvel's clawed antihero is a fair improvement on its direct predecessor X-Men Origins: Wolverine , but don't take that as any kind of emphatic endorsement of James Mangold's movie - this doesn't get anywhere near the series highs of Bryan Singer's X2 or Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class (in which Jackman brought down the house with his single-scene cameo).
Those movies, and to some extent 2011’s reboot X-Men: First Class, grew outward from the question of what it means to be different, or, more to the point, a mutant.
[The outlier is 2011’s X-Men: First Class in which the early lives of Xavier/Professor X (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender) are explored.]
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It reminds you too much of Iron Man and once you make that connection The Wolverine seems to have way more in common with Iron Man than it should.
It’s true that Wolverine, or Logan as he’s also called, isn’t in the same power league as Superman or even Iron Man .
I think Jackman gets less critical recognition for what he brings to this series than Robert Downey Jr. does for what he brings to Iron Man, if only because Jackman has so often been underserved by the material, but I absolutely would put Jackman and Downey on par in terms of actors who have completely owned and defined a superhero character as uniquely their own.
And while it's definitely a more entertaining and far deeper film than the last Wolverine outing, it still falls short of the top tier of Marvel tentpoles like the fizzy Iron Man and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man.
It’s the same experience as watching Robert Downey Jr. in the Iron Man series; it’s impossible to not enjoy watching him play this role.
Thankfully, his references are relatively upscale, ranging from an elegant “Yojimbo”-like scene in which lone ronin Wolverine is outnumbered by ninjas to a “Diamonds Are Forever” nod involving an unforeseen swimming pool, and he even convinced Jackman to channel some classic Clint Eastwood attitude in his wonderfully surly performance.
It helps that Wolfie loses his powers and shows a human side, that he makes like James Bond in You Only Live Twice, and that he makes out with the lovely Mariko (Tao Okamoto).
Imagine that Sean Connery’s James Bond, in his 1967 Japanese jaunt You Only Live Twice, had to confront mutants and ninjas (no turtles) and you have a hint of director James Mangold’s mostly sober travelogue with a few zippy action scenes.
He nearly succeeds, at least insofar as replanting the character in a plot that falls closely into the tradition of such endangered gaijin thrillers as House of Bamboo, The Yakuza and even the Bond-in-Japan You Only Live Twice.
It’s You Only Live Twice without the Nancy Sinatra song—Hugh could have killed that.
Whether hoofing it in a Broadway musical or crooning as Jean Valjean in ‘‘Les Miserables,’’ that charisma makes him always worth watching.
He proved that last year, beyond a doubt, with his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Jean Valjean in "Les Misérables".
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(In the August American Cinematographer, director of photography Ross Emery ticks off a list that includes Clint Eastwood’s “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” William Friedkin’s “The French Connection” and Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai trilogy (1954-56), “Musashi Miyamoto,” “Duel at Ichijoji Temple” and “Duel at Ganryu Island.”
The film's intimate psychological explorations of what it means to be invincible are probably its strongest aspects, as Logan, much like Kal-El in 1980's Superman II, loses his most important powers — the mutation, technically, that allows him to heal immediately from even the most gruesome injuries — and is thereby rendered something closer to human.