Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Wolverine (2013) - Many good elements in Mangold's Japan-set superhero adventure actioner

9/05/2017

The Wolverine (2013) - Many good elements in Mangold's Japan-set superhero adventure actioner

♥♥♥

+ Best Superhero Movie of the Year

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

Watch a trailer for the film here

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.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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9/05/2017

The Wolverine (2013) - Many good elements in Mangold's Japan-set superhero adventure actioner

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