If you’re an X-Men fan then you’re bound to find plenty to like in The Wolverine DVD as it provides a cool side story to the movie series development in the run up to X-Men: Days Of Future Past, as well as a lot of action and sharp Japanese style. However, there’s also a lot that could have, and maybe should have, been done to make it a little more faultless to live up to the standard of the comics that inspired it.
The overall story is genuinely brilliant, continuing on as a sequel to both X-Men: The Last Stand and 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It sees Logan hiding from life in Mountain Hicksville, USA in his desolation and solitude after killing his beloved Gene in The Last Stand to stop The Phoenix from destroying Earth.
His retreat is derailed by the appearance of Yukio (Rila Fukushima), the adopted grand-daughter of Japanese businessman, Yashida, who wants to repay Logan for saving his life during the atomic bomb drop in the Second World War. However, his parting deathbed “gift” strips Wolverine of his regenerative powers and leaves him in the midst of a family feud and a battle with with Japanese Yakuza.
The negatives come in the way of storyline snippets that haven’t quite been crafted with the right level of flare to make them work as well as they could have done. The bear in the woods character development of Logan’s hurt and wounded great warrior for the opening few sequences of the movie are pretty woeful and they really didn’t need to be. Using a weird mechanical bear made the scenes look daft, when it could have been a lot more convincing.
It’s not the only scene that director James Mangold misses the opportunity for sincerity or poignancy, but that doesn’t mean that he gets it all wrong. The flash backs to the past work well to set the story up and Wolverine’s burgeoning love interest with Yashida’s direct grand-daughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), has a feeling of new beginnings for the emotionally scarred X-Man.
On another positive note, the fight sequences and action scenes are pretty impressive to watch with great use of martial arts mixed with impressive special effects that go some way to make up for the talking bear. It’s got a great build as an action film and while we’re definitely not going to throw out any spoilers, but the story has got a strong finish that goes on to set things up well for the impending X-Men: Days Of Future Past release.
Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables (2013)) has definitely taken Wolverine to heart thanks to nearly 14 years of playing the character and his performance in The Wolverine is a slick continuation of his embodiment of the everlasting mutant. There are a couple of lines that aren’t quite as well delivered as others, but on the whole it’s another good effort from the Aussie actor.
The supporting cast is equally full force in their portrayal of the roles, which will already be well known by comic book fans. Fukushima is as witty as she is brutal, and Okamoto pulls off the distraught Mariko with the perfection needed to give the film real purpose in the closing half.
While The Wolverine DVD is one that could be watched a few times thanks to its place in the X-Men movie story development, awesome fight scenes and . It’s worth a watch for action adventure/sci-fi movie fans, but if you’re looking for dedicated movie credibility you’ll probably find too much to disappoint in the film.
The Wolverine DVD review: 3.2/5
