(Image from Forbes)
Should you watch this at weekend movie prices? No.
Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? Yes.
Secret ending? YES!!!
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours)
“The Wolverine” is a super hero movie about the eponymous Wolverine, who has unbreakable metal claws and skeleton, as well as being able to heal very fast from almost any injury. He also has an enhanced sense of smell (that’s kind of forgotten in this movie) and the standard Olympic athlete level strength and agility. It stars Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Famke Janssen as Jean Grey.
It is a weird movie. It’s worth watching if you like any semblance of pop culture, but something doesn’t quite jive about it. Doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining though. But the highlight of the movie is really the SUPER SECRET ENDING. I mean really, if there’s any part of the movie you must not miss, it’s the secret ending. You’ll know it when you see it.
(Image from The Wolverine Official Movie Site)
So what’s so good about “The Wolverine” that makes it worth your money?
The action sequences
It’s a movie about a guy with claws who heals very fast. If there’s no action, there’s really no point watching it. It’s done well, especially the swordfighting scenes – at no point does the action drag like say, “Pirates of the Caribbean 3”.
However, Wolverine is probably the clumsiest mutant on the planet, getting injured at every possible opportunity. This is to showcase his healing powers, of course. But still.
(Image from The Wolverine Official Movie Site)
The Asians are not token Asians
Which means they don’t die pointlessly, and they aren’t there for the sake of fulfilling the racial quota – they are there because the plot demands it, and they function as fully fledged characters. They have well rounded personalities, believable motivations, and most importantly – you can identify with them. Perhaps not the villain of the story, but everyone else.
Then again, the whole movie is set in Japan, and besides Wolverine, Viper, and Jean Grey, everyone else is Japanese. So by necessity, most of the characters are going to be Asian anyway. In fact, Viper feels like the token Caucasian in the movie.
Viper
It’s nice to see another B-lister mutant. Well, she’s not really a mutant. Read the Wikipedia entry on her. I know who her other identity is (Madame Hydra), but really, I appreciate the effort at fan service. Because that what she is, really.
But as a writer, I try my best to give as much fan service as possible. So cheers, Christopher Macquarrie, Mark Bomback, and Scott Frank!
(Image from The Wolverine Official Movie Site)
Remember that I said that “The Wolverine” felt weird, but entertaining? So here are the less fantastic aspects of the movie.
Too many unexplained plot points
Why does Wolverine have to leave at the end of the movie? What happened to the immortality-is-a-curse subplot? What about Mariko? How about his greatest weapons? There are too many loose ends left dangling. Maybe it’ll make for a good sequel, but it doesn’t make for a good movie, which is what we’re paying good money to wattch.
(Image from The Wolverine Official Movie Site)
Hugh Jackman’s performance
His performance isn’t bad – it’s just one note. He’s frowny all the time, and doesn’t really get to stretch his acting chops much. Then again, the story doesn’t call for much range in acting, so he can’t be blamed.
But he’s a real actor. I really expected to see more than a wrinkled forehead all the time.
The logic of his healing factor
This is in the trailer so it is not a spoiler. He loses his healing factor. The problem is, it is established in earlier movies that he is part of an experiment that coats his skeleton with adamantium (the hardest fictional metal on Earth), and he is the only successful test subject because of his healing factor. All the other test subjects die of metal poisoning. Therefore, if he loses his healing factor, he will die from metal poisoning really fast.
This is really a geek point more than anything else.
(Image from The Wolverine Official Movie Site)
Go watch “The Wolverine.” Without the secret ending, I might say it’s only worth watching if it’s free, but with the secret ending, it’s really worth your time to watch. Yes, you could YouTube the secret ending, but what’s the fun in that?
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