PCP in Theaters - The Wolverine

You can tell I've been busy when I saw a movie in theaters awhile ago and it took until now to get the review up onto the blog.  Normally I try and get reviews done for in-theater films up within a couple days of watching the movie, but after I saw The Wolverine on August 2, I was then on vacation for the next week, so I am just now getting around to writing my review of the film.  Sorry for the delay, but at least this is going up while you can still catch the film in theaters!

The Wolverine – 2013, rated PG-13.  My rating:  8.5 out of 10.

The Wolverine picks up some time after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand (thankfully ignoring X-Men Origins: Wolverine), with Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) weary, scruffy, and still dealing with lingering trauma for having had to kill Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) in that previous film. An old, dying friend of Logan’s from Japan is wanting to see him before he dies, so the film shifts to Japan after the first couple minutes and remains there for the duration of the film. This gives Wolverine the chance to fight against those ever present enemies in Japanese films: Yakuza thugs & stealthy ninjas. However, something has happened to Wolverine’s healing factor, and he doesn't bounce back from injuries as rapidly as he had in the past, slowing him down and making him more vulnerable.

The plot is far more simple than previous films in the X-Men franchise, with significantly fewer mutants in the film than normal – you can count the number of mutants in this one on one hand. This actually helps out the film a lot, because it allows the focus to remain on Logan without having to do too many standalone scenes for any other characters that show up. And while some comics purists might be rather upset with how they changed the portrayal of the Silver Samurai, among other changes to the comics characters, it didn't bother me that much at all. Really, I was just watching this movie to see Wolverine mix it up with Yakuza and ninjas, and the film did not disappoint here on my end.

The action and fight sequences were outstanding, especially the one on top of a bullet train. Normally fights on top of a train are clichéd, but by doing it atop a super high speed bullet train, and actually paying attention to most of the laws of physics, the sequence was probably the best part of the film. Too bad the weak ending doesn't live up to this great example of awesome from the middle of the film.

Overall though, the film was fun, if you've enjoyed Hugh Jackman’s take on Wolverine through all of the X-Men films so far, you’ll enjoy this one. Make sure you stay after the credits too for a scene that sets up the next X-movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past quite well, especially if you know what the name Trask Industries means. That scene alone was worth the price of admission to this movie for me.