After X3 there was the idea floated around of a standalone movie showing Wolverine’s whereabouts afterwards, but it was decided to show his origin story first.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine was the least critically acclaimed X-Men movie prior to Dark Phoenix and also had one of the more underwhelming box office performances while The Wolverine was relatively a huge success. As far as my personal thoughts, yes I did prefer it.
I did have a couple of issues with the film. Again, Wolverine’s acting like the grieving lover over the death of someone who was basically just his crush doesn’t move me. Yes, he did kill her, but in that case I would have liked to see more emphasis on the guilt and less on the heartache. Instead of trying to move on with the new love while battling with feelings for the supposed old one, Logan should have been trying to accept the new love from Mariko while feeling unworthy after having killed Jean.
Despite my preference for WASP girls, I think Mariko is gorgeous.
He does hear Kayla’s voice at one point, and that makes more sense and lends further credence to the statement, “Everyone you love seems to die”, but I wouldn’t have even known it was Kayla’s voice if the subtitles hadn’t told me.
Also, early on I was having trouble following the story, as having that many East Asian characters made it hard for me to figure out who was who. I don’t mean to sound racist, but I couldn’t help that. When watching The Killer I also had trouble keeping track of which one was Jeffrey and which one Mr. Lee (which made the movie VERY confusing 2/3 of the way through so I restarted the DVD from the beginning), and Parasite also lost me for about the first half, although I eventually figured out who was who. Obviously I can’t blame a movie set in Japan for being filled with Asian actors, but perhaps sharper writing might have helped with my confusion.
Still, I was following for about the last 2/3 of the film, and I did like it. I loved the Japanese locations; brought back memories of my first visit to Japan with my best friend two years ago.
The right director could make this location plenty creepy!
The film is also beautifully lit and photographed, with a good amount of well-choreographed fight scenes. While I found the villains kind of dull, the romance between Logan and Mariko was amazing, and Jackman does a great job conveying Wolverine’s inner struggle between his conflicting desires to live a normal happy life, to fight for justice like the warrior he is, and to slink away into nothingness.
Of course the best part of the movie is the stinger, which sets up the next film perfectly!
Bottom Line: Props.
Up Next: Let’s get to it!
Questions? Comments? Feel free to write below.
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