+ Best Superhero Movie of the Year
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| Hugh Jackman is a pumped, mad macho mutant man on this dark poster for James Mangold's The Wolverine |
During WWII our hero Logan rescues a young Japanese from the nuclear bomb impact at Nagasaki. In our time, the man has become an old scientist, who summons Logan back to Japan ...
The Wolverine is the surprisingly good 6th film in the X-Men franchise and the second Wolverine movie, following X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). It is written by Mark Bomback (War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)) and Scott Frank (Logan (2017)), based on the 1982 Wolverine comics by Frank Miller (Weird Tales (1978)) and Chris Claremont (Big Hero 6 (2008)), and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker James Mangold (Cop Land (1997)).
The film makes effective use of its Japanese setting, from which the storytellers have drawn exotic elements such as the samurai culture, a Japanese garden, a so-called bullet train, a love hotel, ninjas and more. Some of the set pieces, (especially the one in the Japanese garden and the one on the train), are outstanding action.
The Wolverine is a well-produced action adventure with an adequately exciting story about a mutant blond, who has stolen Wolverine's abilities, SPOILER which he regains only by performing heart surgery on himself!
The film is ripe with sexual overtones from both Logan and other characters, and Hugh Jackman (Prisoners (2013)) is good, particularly in the scenes in which he invokes brutal, Dirty Harry-style justice.
Marco Beltrami (Scream 4 (2011)) has made an effective, orchestral score, and Wolverine has very fine visual effects and stunt performances. Unfortunately the climax of the film is too long, which is especially a shame since The Wolverine is such an otherwise good piece of entertainment.
Related posts:
James Mangold: 2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
Knight and Day (2010) - Diaz and Cruise invigorate Mangold's action romance
Cop Land (1997) - Stallone faces corruption and turns in some good acting in fine crime drama
Cost: 120 mil. $
Box office: 414.8 mil. $
= Box office success
[The Wolverine premiered 16 July (London) and runs 126 minutes. Development was ongoing for years, with Christopher McQuarrie and Darren Aronofsky involved at various points as directors. Filming took place in Australia and in Japan, including Tokyo, from July - November 2012. The film was converted into 3D in post production. It opened #1 to a 53.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent its second week at #2 and then left the top 5, grossing 132.5 mil. $ (31.9 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 40.5 mil. $ (9.8 %) and Russia with 22.2 mil. $ (5.4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this review. The film was followed by Logan (2017), also by Mangold and starring Jackman. The Wolverine is fresh at 69 % with a 6.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Wolverine?
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