It's been 13 years since Hugh Jackman first strapped on retractable steel claws to play Wolverine, the immortal and invulnerable anti-hero from "X-Men." His portrayal has become so ingrained in popular culture that it seems odd that, at 44, Jackman may soon have to give up the role to someone who will have big shoes, or rather claws, to fill. "The Wolverine" (2013), Jackman's latest reprisal of the character, suggests that his sixth time should be his last.
The movie begins sometime after the events of "X-Men: The Last Stand" (2006). When we meet Logan (also Wolverine), he is alone in the Canadian wilderness, mourning the death of his beloved Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), whom he was forced to kill in the previous film. He looks more like a dangerous drifter than a mutant killing machine until his mourning is interrupted by the arrival of Yukio (Rila Fukushima), an employee of Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi), a Japanese tech mogul who Logan saved from the bombing of Nagasaki during World War II.
Journeying to Tokyo on Yashida's bequest, Logan finds that Yashida wishes to repay his debt by offering to make Logan mortal again. Before Logan can take up the offer, Yashida dies, setting off a chain of events that draw Logan into a conspiracy involving Yashida's granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), the men who want her dead and Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova), a beautiful and deadly mutant.
Was that exhausting enough for you? The experience of watching it unfold on the screen is about the same.
I am weary of films like "The Wolverine" because they are a necessary evil. Marvel's box office success with "The Avengers" (2012) means other studios will try endlessly to replicate those results. Due to complex legal reasons I won't get into here, Marvel doesn't actually own the film rights to "X-Men" (ergo Jackman will not make an appearance in "The Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015) anytime soon). The film rights belong to 20th Century Fox, which retains them only as long as the studio continues to produce X-Men films. As such, "The Wolverine" is constructed as a bridge to next year's "X-Men: Days of Future Past" (2014), a film that will unite the plot lines of the original trilogy with "X-Men: First Class" (2011).
This bridge is about as rickety as the bridge at the end of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (1984). I'm still trying to discern "the point" of "The Wolverine." As far as I can tell, many of the choices for the movie's setting and plot are rather arbitrary. Why, for example, is it set in Japan? The cynic's answer may be to gross higher revenues from international audiences. If the ending of "Lost in Translation" (2003), set in Tokyo, had veered into the action genre, the quality would probably have been on par with "The Wolverine."
Another problem with "The Wolverine" is its handling of violence. "X-Men" is a lucrative property for 20th Century Fox, and to pander to the largest audience, it's almost inevitable that directors for such movies will be careful to maintain a PG-13 rating. But for a stand-alone film like "The Wolverine," does this necessarily have to apply? When your main character's super human trait is the ability to rip people to shreds with claws of steel, I would say not. There are plenty of shots of stabbing and slashing, but "The Wolverine" takes an anti-Tarantino approach to blood. Nameless henchman fly off screen after dying what should be gruesome deaths, but the bodies neatly spin out of the camera's view, just like I wish I could have while watching this shameless money-grab.
