A Much Better Wolverine Story Than The Original!

Rating: 8/10 (28 July 2013)

Like me, if you saw the original Wolverine movie, you probably came away very disappointed with how they unraveled a little bit about his past as well as his origins. In every possible way, the original movie was underwhelming and felt much like an exercise in futility. The story was bland, the plot gave you a little bit to care about while at the same time leaving you wondering if there was really a point to everything and it all just felt nobody was interested in giving the fans the Wolverine movie/story they wanted.
Enter the 2nd movie, The Wolverine, and many of the problems have been rectified. This time around we catch up to Logan(aka Wolverine) hiding out in the mountains and just trying to pass the time away in what's become a very meaningless and empty life. Logan's days are filled with futility and recurring nightmares of the death of Jean Grey which slowly cause him to question his own existence. Because the poor guy is basically immortal & has an incredible healing factor, the loss of his love in Jean Grey haunts him and leaves him pining for the cold embrace of death.
This is where the story's gravity comes from, which is truly wonderful considering that the character cannot die easily if at all. If you are even a little bit familiar with the Wolverine character, you'll know that he's literally lived & survived through a great many events that would have finished any other man thousands of times over. Here however, this facet is used to drive a very heartwarming & gripping story of love and loss and how one man comes to terms with it.
It all starts out in WWII with the Japanese soldiers in Hiroshima standing guard. As we all know, at this period of time Japan was at war with the US and was about to be decimated for the attack that occurred at Pearl Harbor. We enter this movie, shortly before the bombs are dropped and with Logan saving one Japanese soldier who eternally becomes grateful for this sacrificial act of bravery. The movie then continues on and shows us Logan living back in the US and laying low while experiencing recurring nightmares which drive him to the edge of insanity until one day he is tracked to a bar by a Japanese woman who has been sent to find him and bring him back to Japan.
Once back in Japan, Logan discovers that the Japanese soldier whose life he saved in WWII is still alive but barely. It is here that we find out that the old man wanted Logan because of his healing abilities and supposed immortality, which is why he was brought to Japan in the first place. To make this review as spoiler-free as possible, it then continues on with Logan finding out the truth behind all of the circumstances that brought him to Japan and he ultimately finds meaning in his life once again and comes to appreciate the mutant gift that he has been born with.
As was mentioned earlier, this movie elegantly handles the story of Logan/Wolverine coming to grips with his immortality and ability to outlive practically everyone in his life. The story unfolds very well and at a pace that seems appropriate, not being too slow or too quick at any point. Although the movie is just over 2 hours in length, it feels like the pace is just right and enough time is spent giving us an opportunity to relate & emote with Logan/Wolverine. The action isn't as spectacular as Marvel's other summer 2013 blockbuster, Iron Man 3, however it's still pretty intense and punctuates the story very well.
All in all, this is definitively the best Wolverine/X-Men story that has been told to date aside from X-Men: First Class. It also does a good job of quasi-rebooting the X-Men franchise which builds up to the 2014 X-Men sequel - Days Of Future Past. I'm glad that they got this movie & story right with this, otherwise I would've said it's time to put the franchises on hiatus and focus on other Marvel franchises instead. This movie however proves that like Wolverine, the character and the X-Men franchise has a lot of life left in it!