Wolverine finally gets the treatment he deserves!

Rating: 8/10 (31 July 2013)

Finally we have a Wolverine movie to be proud of. I'm not even exaggerating when I say the X- Men franchise hasn't been this good in ten years. The beginning of First Class with Magneto going on his revenge binge was definitely one of the highlights of the franchise, but it was let down a little by the rest of the movie. The Wolverine is that first half hour of First Class stretched out to a full-length movie. It's darker, more serious, grounded, but without losing it's X-Men charm. It very much focuses on character and plot rather than squeezing in a million different mutants and action sequences, which altogether makes it hugely more enjoyable.
One thing that will make every Wolverine fan very happy though is that it pushes the limits for it's certificate in the violence department. Wolverine's claws actually have blood on them after he stabs someone, and there's plenty of gruesome moments that happen just off screen (including slicing a man in half, and a character reaching inside their own chest). But it's not all off-screen. There's one particularly harrowing sequence at the film's climax that's sure to make you squirm, but I won't spoil it. The example I'll use instead is at the beginning when Wolverine saves Yashida from the Nagasaki bombing. We see Wolverine in all his glory burnt to a radiated crisp. It's a shocking thing to see, especially from this certificate. It seems the level of gore and violence in this movie is pitch perfect, showing just enough to push the boundaries and make a character who has metal claws in his knuckles believable, without going over the top with limbs and heads flying all over the place leaving fountains of blood.
The plot was the biggest surprise for me though. Wolverine is haunted by the events of Last Stand, having nightmares of Jean Grey almost every night. His memory of her follows him wherever he goes and goes a way to dictate his decisions throughout the movie, and it gives him a very emotional edge that makes the character all the more sympathetic. On the verge of giving up, he's given the proposition of transferring his healing powers to the soldier he saved all those decades ago. He declines and what follows is a breakneck tale of family, of betrayal, of survival. He finds himself weak without his healing abilities, and the girl he's taken upon himself to protect seems to be the target of everyone, from the mob to the corporation, from a mutant who calls herself viper to an army of ninjas. Who's pulling the strings? What is everyone's agenda? Who are really the bad guys? It's a puzzle where the pieces all finally come together in a twist during the final climax that I guarantee you won't see coming.
It's not without a couple of holes though, which is unfortunate and keeps it from rating higher. The most obvious of which is a few things are left unexplained. We learn what it is that takes Wolverine's healing powers, but we never learn how or why. We're introduced to the Silver Samurai in the closing moments, but why does it exist? To what end? Not even the twist that attempts to explain the Silver Samurai really does a particularly satisfactory job. Also Viper herself is still left a bit of an enigma by the end, which gives one the impression that she was added in just as another mutant in a distinctly mutant-less movie (Wolverine, Viper, and Yukio are the only mutants in the whole film).
Finally the action scenes were pretty great, most of which comprising of hand-to-hand fighting. Pretty much any scene where Yukio fights is guaranteed to have you awing in wonder as she effortlessly flips and slides all over the place. She's obviously a graceful fighter with tuned agility and balance and it all shows off in the simply fantastic choreography. Wolverine's fight scenes on the other hand are much more brutish and muscled. He literally walks in the face of bullets and every beat and slice from his claws his felt. His first fight after he regains his healing abilities is suitably badass as he faces off against a samurai of sorts. He just takes all the stabs and cuts and then heals back up. He hardly throws a move until the finishing one. It's a fight that rings all the more victorious after the struggles he's endured for half the movie, feeling pain and exhaustion like a normal man would.
The story is fantastic; complex enough to keep you on the edge your seat without being too in- depth and lead to confusion. The action is very well choreographed and shot well enough (it'll probably look better on a smaller screen where it's easier to take in the whole picture), and the effects and cinematography makes it a beautiful movie for the eyes. Finally the post-credits sequence. I won't spoil it but it is easily the best post-credits sequence ever, even surpassing Marvel's own post-credits scenes in their Avenger's pantheon. In fact it's worth the price of admission to see that one scene alone, and I was tempted to bump up the rating of the whole movie just for it. Alas that doesn't quite seem right, so I grant The Wolverine a very good 8/10. It's easily the best X-Men movie since X2 a decade ago.
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