Bring back Bryan Singer

Rating: Null/10 (23 August 2013)

James Mangold's "The Wolverine" opens with its best sequence. Here the Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), an adamantium clawed superhero with remarkable healing powers, finds himself in a Japanese prison cell during the Allied atomic bombings of Nagasaki. When the bomb falls, most of Nagasaki is incinerated, with the exception of our hero, who valiantly shields a Japanese soldier with his body.
After this sequence, the film slides into more generic territory. Jumping ahead several decades, it finds the Wolverine alone and exploring the wilderness of North America. Here he encounters a woman who informs him that the Japanese soldier he once protected is dying. Wolverine thus returns to Japan, at which point he finds himself embroiled in a gang war.
Once upon a time, action scenes in action movies were exciting. Now they're largely overlong, dull and it's the quieter moments of action films which audiences seem hungry for. In "The Wolverine", these quieter moments largely involve Jackman rummaging about Japan or exploring the wilderness all on his lonesome. These are all cool sequences, and lend the film the tone of a slow, brooding, albeit superficial character study. Less cool are the film's intended cool sequences, in which Jackman battles Japanese gangsters during a funeral, on top of a train (De Palma's "Mission Impossible" climax on cocaine), and finally a giant robot in a mountain castle. These supposedly cool action sequences are all overlong, goofy and horribly directed, but they're what we've come to expect from films burdened by the demands of the mass market, blockbuster.
This is all in stark contrast to how director Bryan Singer, and most of the better "X-Men" comics, handled Wolverine. Wolverine is best when he's kept at a distance and when his violence is hinted at, brief or never shown directly. With the Wolverine character, less in more. In contrast, Mangold mistakes excess for entertainment.
Incidentally, the film reads like a checklist of what Westerners think Japan is like. WW2 soldier? Check. Kimonos? Check. Seppuku? Check. Rich elderly businessman? Check. Workaholic father who neglects his family? Check. Goth Asian girl with wacky fashion sense? Check. Traditional girl? Check. Duty-bound warrior? Check. Sleazy Japanese businessman? Check. Yakuza? Check. Cutting edge technology companies? Check. Shinto monk? Check. Atomic bomb? Check. The film's climax is equally perfunctory, Wolverine battling a giant CGI robot because, hey, that's how all modern blockbusters are supposed to end.
7/10 – Worth one viewing.