Underwhelming Results

Rating: 5/10 (26 July 2013)

Many people weren't impressed with X-Men Origins: Wolverine, mostly because comic book fans wanted Wolverine to get a grittier and less ridiculous take. The Wolverine tries to get all of that right. It builds a potential theme in the story and gives the hero a serious challenge. The problem is, it's not really compelling and instead of being actually "dark", it's once again relies on being extremely serious with little substance. The Wolverine has some bold choices of becoming a "more than just an action blockbuster" film, but it fails to justify what it should have been.
The film puts some interesting choices for its story; what is it like to be mortal after living the rest of your life being indestructible? It's an interesting idea to transcend the material. There could be an intriguing look back, showing more humanity in this mutant. This isn't the first movie to have a hero losing his powers(well, healing powers). It has become a trend in superhero movies in a while, though this is actually one of the best things that has happened in the genre, but The Wolverine misses one important thing. Although this is supposed to be about Logan fighting his demons, the film didn't develop enough about the significance of his weakness other than trying to overcome his weird obsession for Jean Grey by having interests with another girl. Seems like the whole point of him being weak is to avoid lending his special power to the wrong hands, but through it all, we rarely see the character change in his heroic test.
Apart from the thematic stuff, the film sends Wolverine in a new environment. We only see few mutants around and more ninjas and other ricier proportions. It can be gripping, otherwise less inspired. The action scenes aren't too inventive except the bullet train fight which is the only absurdity you'll see. At least the use of violence here is more than just an action fan pleasure, portraying the horrors of violence even in an interminable flesh. The performances are good enough. Hugh Jackman is still the Wolverine that we always loved.
It's good that the franchise has become conscious about itself. The last Wolverine movie was nothing more than an extreme blockbuster pleasure without anything much inside. The Wolverine would have been powerful. It has a potentially good story that may top all the crazy action. Instead, it spends most of the runtime brooding at the less interesting life problems of Logan, but that's how his last journey ends, by the way. It's just would have been better if it's centrally about obsession of power or why some men seeks for immortality, and improving the hero's view on things after the challenge he faced. That's the opposite result of the film, leading to an emptier experience. No one's blaming the dark/gritty turn since it's a good idea coming from the fans, but the execution ends up underwhelming.