Good action scenes with mishandled concepts

Rating: 6/10 (28 July 2013)

The Wolverine: Film Review
***** SPOILERS BELOW********
As the film opens the audience is presented with a flash into Logan's past. He is solider of fortune looking for meaning rather than wealth. This meaning is manifested through the saving of a Japanese soldiers life. A man, with whom he did not know but had one identifying characteristic that they were both given the opportunity to die. This scene set the tone for the film. Yashida the solider had to choose his fate, he decided to live. Would Logan do the same when presented with the same ultimatum?
The story continues with Logan shown in his present depressed state. He is a man who is in an identity crisis. Stuck in a reverie between his ideal dream life with Jean and his currant life. He pursues fleeting memories of Jean and she consumes his life giving him an artificial purpose. She becomes all he thinks about. But Logan has a nagging part of himself, which recognizes that pursuing the dead is a false purpose. In turn causing him to travel back to Japan to face the most scared of all human kinds ultimatums –the choice of life or death.
I felt like the scenes following the flashback lacked meaning. The relationship presented between Jean and Logan was unconvincing and in need of conviction. Logan was willing to put his life hold for Jean. She should have been a haunting and all consuming presence. When given the opportunity to leave his environment he seemed all too willing. Theses scenes should have conveyed the two conflicting sides Logan: The part of himself that was willing to let his life be consumed by jean, and the other half which recognized that in pursuing Jean he would give his life no meaning. When he left for Japan he appeared unscathed, and continued the trend for the majority of the film. I would have preferred Logan to have an ultimatum presented to him at some point in the film.
Logan is pursued by another telepath Yukio who is hired by Yashida to track Logan down; she has the ability to predict the death of people. This character adds a fantastic layer to the story underlying the central theme of life and death. When Logan arrives he is greeted with the wealth of the solider he saved. Yashida has become the wealthiest man in Japan. Logan pays his respect to the dying soldier but is then given a proposition -the ability to pass on his power of mortal life onto another.
When Logan refuses, the following day Yashida dies and Logan attends his funeral. Just as Mariko the granddaughter, beloved prize and heir to Yashida's fortune says her final wishes a Japanese organized crime group attacks the funeral to capture Mariko.
The next scenes feature well choreographed fights between Logan and the crime members. Mariko's childhood friend Yukio is also present and well used in the fight scenes. The train sequence was especially thrilling with well-done stunt work and CGI.
The plot continues with Logan and Mariko escaping to a safe house on the south side of Japan. Logan, a usually indestructible fighter is now injured although he cannot recall the cause. (Which was an infection given to him by a mutant attendant by Yashida). Logan's feelings on the loss of his mortality are not expanded upon. I would have liked this to become a catalyst for Logan, which he would have to meditate on. Logan, for the first time in his life, was not an indestructible solider. Logan's lack of internal conflict made his overall character arc stagnant rather than the dynamic and conflicting.
Logan and Mariko's relationship is explored during their first dinner at the safe house. Mariko reveals that her earlier suicide attempt was because of her inheritance. She was unwilling to face her cruel father and fiancé. This sparks a romantic relationship between Mariko and Logan.
The theme of suicide and honour felt overlooked in this film. Logan, Mariko and her grandfather have the option to commit suicide at a turning point in their lives. I feel if this common theme was explored it would have created a uniting thread. Also the character discourses of suicide would offer the opportunity to explore the perceptive, generational, and cross-cultural differences of the honour present in life and in death.
Mariko is taken from the safe house and Logan pursues her captors, and interrogates Mariko's fiancé for information. He arrives back at her grandfather's estate with Yukio. Logan must preform his own surgery to remove his the virus in his heart, which prevents him from healing. A scene, which Yukio predicted, would kill him. As Logan is preforming surgery Mario's father arrives in an attempt to kill him, leaving Yukio to defend Logan.
This scene shows the human side of Logan. He is a person who in the moment must rely on someone else to save his life. He must also preform his own surgery creating a physical image of "to find salvation within". Logan realizes a samurai can find a sensei within himself.
Logan is able to cheat death and continue his pursuit to Mariko. When he arrives Logan is faced with a masked machine and enemy of equal caliber. Logan fights for his life as he is drained of his mortality. On the brink of death Yashida is revealed to be the one taking his life. Once again Logan finds himself reliant of those around him, Mariko kills her grandfather saving Logan's life.
Logan, having been faced with death decides to make peace with Jean. Leaving her in the past and once again embarks on the path of finding meaning to life.
Overall I think The Wolverine had some great concepts and themes. However, the executions of those themes were not always appropriate. J