The first two posts I made on this blog was my in-depth look back and review of the X-Men movie franchise as it stood and my thoughts on the existing properties and the future of the series. I said I'd make a new post when I saw The Wolverine, and eventually one for Days of Future Past. Well, this past Saturday I saw The Wolverine and then several hours later I saw Days of Future Past. I took a couple days to think about what I'd seen and now I think I know what I want to say about both. Without further ado...
The Wolverine (2013)
Before having seen The Wolverine, I was pretty excited about it. I had heard they did a good job with it, and since the franchise had put out First Class I had faith they could do at the very least a competent film again. I was disappointed when it was announced Darren Aronofsky wasn't going to be directly the film anymore, as I had been really excited to see how that kind of movie would be, but when it was announced James Mangold was taking over I was pretty satisfied, as he made one of my favorite movies of the last decade, the remake of 3:10 to Yuma.
I enjoyed The Wolverine, for the most part. It has it's problems, but it's a fun and easily watchable movie that remembers who it's main character is. I grew up with the animated 90's X-Men cartoon as my introduction to the franchise, and even though I love X-Men and X-2 a whole lot, I was still disappointed to a degree of how series they took everything. That's not to say this movie isn't serious, it actually deals with some heavy stuff about the character of Logan, and what it means to be him. What it means to be immortal, to be forced to continue living even when everything you love is dead. What purpose do you give yourself to keep living? If someone offers you the chance to die after all this time, do you say yes?
I think what makes the film work is that they tackle those questions while still bringing us the Logan we've all come to love from Hugh Jackman, but they give him more to do than just be sad and mopey about being immortal. He gets fun one-liners, he tells people to fuck off, he gets to do some fun action sequences. That being said, the story isn't anything to write home about, but the thing is, it doesn't need to be. I could have predicted all but one plot point in the film, but not every movie needs to break new ground, it just needs to be a solid entry. In the X-Men franchise at this point, we had a trilogy of films that had this grandiose scale to them, with stories involving hundreds-to-thousands of people. We then had a very bad attempt at a solo origin movie for Wolverine, where I think one of it's biggest problems was trying to preserve that grandiose scale in a solo movie, between all the mutants in it and the references to others. Then we had First Class, which was a return to form. It operated on about the same level as the first X-Men film did. Two-three main characters, a handful of supporting cast on the good and bad side and that's about it. Then we get The Wolverine, a film that has in it 3 mutants and just a handful of other characters. By focusing on just these few people, we're about to spend more time with them and just go on this ride through Japan with them.
The cinematography is lovely, the fight scenes are fought well. The story of Yashida is bland, at the end of the day, but it's a story that I think works specifically because of our main character, and his previous history. At the opening of this film we see a flashback to Nagasaki in 1945, where Logan (Who was fighting in WWII and taken as a POW and held underground, saves a young soldier named Yashida, who grows up to be the most powerful man in Japan with a very successful corporation. The story is pretty simple; it's present day and Yashida is an old, frail man who is on his deathbed. He summons Logan in order to make a proposition, he has a machine that could drain his life force, so he could continue living and Logan could finally die. Logan, knowing the pain that immortality has caused him denies Yashida the request, and he dies. It turns out that instead of leaving his business to his son, he's left everything to his 20-something incredibly beautiful granddaughter, who is now being hunted by all sorts of evil people because of this fact. Logan decides to help her and off her goes on an adventure to protect this girl and save the day.
Like I said, kinda bland, but it works. Because we have the trilogy before it, we've seen what Logan has had to go through to be at this point. In this film he's constantly dealing with seeing Jean Grey in his dreams and he's living as a hermit in the Alaskan wilderness. Between the cameo he had in First Class and the opening sequence of this film, we know Logan is old, with no signs of slowing down. This movie's underlying subject matter is dealing with the theme that you have to live with the decisions you make, but for Logan, living with a decision means potentially being reminded of what you've done for eternity. His new-found partner mutant Yukio and Yashida's granddaughter Mariko both try to further the point that no matter what has happened in the past, people need Logan's help.
Overall, I really enjoyed this film and I hope the next one they're planning on doing in a couple years will be just as good if not better than this one, and another solid entry into an ever-expanding franchise. If you were holding out on seeing it, just see it, you'll probably have a good time with it, and that mid-credits sequence is the necessary story-tying piece that connects the old trilogy with the new X-Men movie franchise. Below this point I will post what I don't like about the movie, and it will involve spoilers.
What I didn't like about this film is a pretty short list, but pretty significant I thought. First off, the lack of blood. The movie should have been rated R, but they just took out the majority of blood. I'm not someone who demands to see large amounts of blood in my movies, but if you have someone continually stabbing people with metal claws, as well as samurai swinging swords, there should be blood. You'll get some blood on Logan's claws in between moments of him stabbing, but during the act and afterward no one has any blood on them, characters barely bleed. It reeks of a grab at PG-13. I've heard the Director's Cut fixes some of this, but I haven't gotten the chance to see that version yet, but I have hope for it. Second, Logan's lovestory with Mariko seems a little odd. She's someone that, while very beautiful, he's really only known as someone who he has to keep protecting from getting killed, and she knows Logan as this mythical being who saved her grandfather during the second world war. Mariko is somewhere in her early 20's and Logan is somewhere around 120-200 years old. I mean, I guess he can't really abide by an age code when he's immortal, but at least with Jean Grey she was not only incredibly smart and talented but also had a good relationship with Logan for years, and they never got to be together. Mariko and Logan's love storyline feels like a forced love interest plot for added dramatic weight for him to protect her. Finally, and this is a big one...the mid-credits scene setting up Days of Future Past completely devalues the end of the film. At the end of The Wolverine, Mariko becomes the owner of the Yashida corporation and her and Logan have feelings for each other. She gives Logan and Yuriko their own private jet to fly around in and it sets up the two of them having mutant adventures for future sequels. Then the mid-credits scene just timeskips to two years later and Logan is suddenly in a public airport by himself going through security when he is approached by Professor X and Magneto. So the end of the The Wolverine sets up Logan having some sort of relationship with Mariko and him and Yukio flying off to wherever they want in their own plane, and then two years later he's lost Yukio, the private jet and is on his own? What the hell, that completely undercuts the movie you just watched to set up another film in the franchise.
The mid-credits sequence, while cool in it's own right, feels incredibly forced by the studio to set up Days of Future Past. In Days of Future Past, present day Professor X and Magneto band together to send Wolverine back into the 70's to change history and save mutant (and human) kind. Since the movie is about tying the franchises together and the last movie we saw old man Professor X in he died (though that end credits sequence sets up he's alive in some form) so if they didn't put this sequence into the end of this film, they would have had to spend a good 10 minutes of Days of Future Past setting up not only why Logan was there and working with Professor X and Magneto, but also explain Professor X being alive. It's extra tie-in plot they need for the next film, but since they needed Wolverine by himself, it completely undercuts the movie we just watched. Disappointing in the end on that front, but otherwise well done.
The Wolverine (2013)
Before having seen The Wolverine, I was pretty excited about it. I had heard they did a good job with it, and since the franchise had put out First Class I had faith they could do at the very least a competent film again. I was disappointed when it was announced Darren Aronofsky wasn't going to be directly the film anymore, as I had been really excited to see how that kind of movie would be, but when it was announced James Mangold was taking over I was pretty satisfied, as he made one of my favorite movies of the last decade, the remake of 3:10 to Yuma.
I enjoyed The Wolverine, for the most part. It has it's problems, but it's a fun and easily watchable movie that remembers who it's main character is. I grew up with the animated 90's X-Men cartoon as my introduction to the franchise, and even though I love X-Men and X-2 a whole lot, I was still disappointed to a degree of how series they took everything. That's not to say this movie isn't serious, it actually deals with some heavy stuff about the character of Logan, and what it means to be him. What it means to be immortal, to be forced to continue living even when everything you love is dead. What purpose do you give yourself to keep living? If someone offers you the chance to die after all this time, do you say yes?
I think what makes the film work is that they tackle those questions while still bringing us the Logan we've all come to love from Hugh Jackman, but they give him more to do than just be sad and mopey about being immortal. He gets fun one-liners, he tells people to fuck off, he gets to do some fun action sequences. That being said, the story isn't anything to write home about, but the thing is, it doesn't need to be. I could have predicted all but one plot point in the film, but not every movie needs to break new ground, it just needs to be a solid entry. In the X-Men franchise at this point, we had a trilogy of films that had this grandiose scale to them, with stories involving hundreds-to-thousands of people. We then had a very bad attempt at a solo origin movie for Wolverine, where I think one of it's biggest problems was trying to preserve that grandiose scale in a solo movie, between all the mutants in it and the references to others. Then we had First Class, which was a return to form. It operated on about the same level as the first X-Men film did. Two-three main characters, a handful of supporting cast on the good and bad side and that's about it. Then we get The Wolverine, a film that has in it 3 mutants and just a handful of other characters. By focusing on just these few people, we're about to spend more time with them and just go on this ride through Japan with them.
The cinematography is lovely, the fight scenes are fought well. The story of Yashida is bland, at the end of the day, but it's a story that I think works specifically because of our main character, and his previous history. At the opening of this film we see a flashback to Nagasaki in 1945, where Logan (Who was fighting in WWII and taken as a POW and held underground, saves a young soldier named Yashida, who grows up to be the most powerful man in Japan with a very successful corporation. The story is pretty simple; it's present day and Yashida is an old, frail man who is on his deathbed. He summons Logan in order to make a proposition, he has a machine that could drain his life force, so he could continue living and Logan could finally die. Logan, knowing the pain that immortality has caused him denies Yashida the request, and he dies. It turns out that instead of leaving his business to his son, he's left everything to his 20-something incredibly beautiful granddaughter, who is now being hunted by all sorts of evil people because of this fact. Logan decides to help her and off her goes on an adventure to protect this girl and save the day.
Like I said, kinda bland, but it works. Because we have the trilogy before it, we've seen what Logan has had to go through to be at this point. In this film he's constantly dealing with seeing Jean Grey in his dreams and he's living as a hermit in the Alaskan wilderness. Between the cameo he had in First Class and the opening sequence of this film, we know Logan is old, with no signs of slowing down. This movie's underlying subject matter is dealing with the theme that you have to live with the decisions you make, but for Logan, living with a decision means potentially being reminded of what you've done for eternity. His new-found partner mutant Yukio and Yashida's granddaughter Mariko both try to further the point that no matter what has happened in the past, people need Logan's help.
Overall, I really enjoyed this film and I hope the next one they're planning on doing in a couple years will be just as good if not better than this one, and another solid entry into an ever-expanding franchise. If you were holding out on seeing it, just see it, you'll probably have a good time with it, and that mid-credits sequence is the necessary story-tying piece that connects the old trilogy with the new X-Men movie franchise. Below this point I will post what I don't like about the movie, and it will involve spoilers.
What I didn't like about this film is a pretty short list, but pretty significant I thought. First off, the lack of blood. The movie should have been rated R, but they just took out the majority of blood. I'm not someone who demands to see large amounts of blood in my movies, but if you have someone continually stabbing people with metal claws, as well as samurai swinging swords, there should be blood. You'll get some blood on Logan's claws in between moments of him stabbing, but during the act and afterward no one has any blood on them, characters barely bleed. It reeks of a grab at PG-13. I've heard the Director's Cut fixes some of this, but I haven't gotten the chance to see that version yet, but I have hope for it. Second, Logan's lovestory with Mariko seems a little odd. She's someone that, while very beautiful, he's really only known as someone who he has to keep protecting from getting killed, and she knows Logan as this mythical being who saved her grandfather during the second world war. Mariko is somewhere in her early 20's and Logan is somewhere around 120-200 years old. I mean, I guess he can't really abide by an age code when he's immortal, but at least with Jean Grey she was not only incredibly smart and talented but also had a good relationship with Logan for years, and they never got to be together. Mariko and Logan's love storyline feels like a forced love interest plot for added dramatic weight for him to protect her. Finally, and this is a big one...the mid-credits scene setting up Days of Future Past completely devalues the end of the film. At the end of The Wolverine, Mariko becomes the owner of the Yashida corporation and her and Logan have feelings for each other. She gives Logan and Yuriko their own private jet to fly around in and it sets up the two of them having mutant adventures for future sequels. Then the mid-credits scene just timeskips to two years later and Logan is suddenly in a public airport by himself going through security when he is approached by Professor X and Magneto. So the end of the The Wolverine sets up Logan having some sort of relationship with Mariko and him and Yukio flying off to wherever they want in their own plane, and then two years later he's lost Yukio, the private jet and is on his own? What the hell, that completely undercuts the movie you just watched to set up another film in the franchise.
The mid-credits sequence, while cool in it's own right, feels incredibly forced by the studio to set up Days of Future Past. In Days of Future Past, present day Professor X and Magneto band together to send Wolverine back into the 70's to change history and save mutant (and human) kind. Since the movie is about tying the franchises together and the last movie we saw old man Professor X in he died (though that end credits sequence sets up he's alive in some form) so if they didn't put this sequence into the end of this film, they would have had to spend a good 10 minutes of Days of Future Past setting up not only why Logan was there and working with Professor X and Magneto, but also explain Professor X being alive. It's extra tie-in plot they need for the next film, but since they needed Wolverine by himself, it completely undercuts the movie we just watched. Disappointing in the end on that front, but otherwise well done.
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