THE WOLVERINE – His Claws Are His Master!
The Wolverine is back. Probably one of my favourite X-Men and so glad Marvel have given him a second outing!
The film starts in 1945 amidst a backdrop of World War Two. Wolverine is being kept down a well in a prison camp near Nagasaki, Japan. From a tower above the camp a young Japanese Officer Yashida (Ken Yamamura) watches a pair of B-52 bombers appear over their peaceful village. He breaks open prison cells to release dozens of captured American Soldiers and lastly to a tank turret welded over a well where chained securely to the ground in a hyper secure prison cell is Logan (Hugh Jackman).
Yashida frees Logan and tells him to escape however Logan knows what fate lies ahead and convinces Yashida to climb down into the pit as he will stand a better change of surviving the nuclear blast. Logan grabs a metal door and covers Yashida with it. After the wall of fire sweeps over them and Logan is consumed by it: burnt to a crisp he heels before Yashida’s eyes who watches this in horror.
Logan then awakes and he is in bed with Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), and she asks him what dream he had this time. Nagasaki was his response. Logan professes his undying love for her and then gasps as his claws are sticking out of her chest. When he awakens from his dream-within-a-dream he is in a Cave in the Yukon.
It’s now the present day and since the end of ‘X-Men: The Last Stand‘, Logan has lived a nomadic, homeless lifestyle. When walking through the forest by where he lives he comes across a Grizzly bear and they become friendly. At the local general store he buys some batteries and watches a small group of drunk hunters preparing to go into the mountains. Logan is annoyed at them.
Whilst sleeping he awakes to cries of agony ringing out and during his investigation he finds the hunter’s campsite which looks destroyed, and there’s evidence of a bear attack. He follows the bear prints in the fresh mud and comes upon the same bear as before, with an arrow in it. Alive and still in pain, Logan with tear-filled eyes is forced to pull out the arrow and put the bear out of his misery. Finding the arrow was laced with poison he stakes the town and finds the survivor from the group of hunters recounting the attack. As he pins the hunter to the table using the arrow he pulled out of the bear, he tells the hunter if it is not poisoned he will have nothing to worry about.
A young, red-haired Japanese woman carrying a samurai sword enters and teases the hunters, calling the sword ‘the separator’. Logan leaves with her and she tells him she has been sent by Yashida, who is dying from cancer and would like to speak with Logan before he dies. Logan reluctant to go can’t ignore his personal obligation.
It is in Tokyo where all things start to go wrong. Logan’s appearance is shabby chic to say the least he needs a good scrubbing and a shave and this is what is bestowed to him. He meets Yashida who tells Logan that he summoned him as he believes his cutting-edge company has the technology to present whim with a unique opportunity.
In is in Tokyo that Logan finds himself defending the females in Yashida’s family. There are some amazing scenes here especially the fight sequence on top of a Bullet Train – its breathtaking and makes you hide behind your fingers at times.
There are some dream sequences with Jean Grey, and some action and fight scenes where Logan who is normally able to re-hea,l finds himself unable too. Something has happened but when and where? Will our hero ever find out?
Jackman is awesome once again as Wolverine. It is great that Marvel have allowed us to have one of the best X-Men characters in a spin-off. This has depth and substance to it, and like most films isn’t full of fight scenes. You find out more about Wolverine and you can see why he would like to give up immortality because of deep regrets and guilt. I think what sets Wolverine from other superheroes is his inner fight.
One piece of advice for you all is don’t leave as the credits role, as you will miss something special. Don’t worry you don’t have to wait till the end of the credits it happens within a few moments.
Get your claws out and get to your local cinema!
Until next time…
Mark LEGOBear MacKenzie
