(Download The Wolverine) When we last saw the Wolverine, he was losing part of his memory because someone shot him in the head with an adamantium bullet at the end of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009). Well,(The Wolverine Download) no, actually, the LAST time we saw him was when he had a cameo in “X-Men: First Class” (2011), just long enough to say “Go [expletive] yourself.” But it doesn’t matter, because “The Wolverine” doesn’t have anything to do with either of those movies, picking up instead sometime after “X-Men: The Last Stand”, which came out seven years ago. I miss the days when sequels started with recaps.
(Download The Wolverine) A deeply sullen Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) now lives in the forests of the Yukon, drinking full-time, feeling sad that he had to kill his girlfriend Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) – who visits him in his dreams – (Download The Wolverine Movie) and wishing he weren’t invincible so he could die. But he hasn’t completely lost his sense of justice, because he avenges a bear’s death.
(Download The Wolverine) Wolverine, or “Logan” as his friends call him, is brought out of his funk when a Japanese woman named Yukio (Rila Fukushima) finds him and says he must come to Japan to say goodbye to a man whose life he saved many years ago, who is now dying. The man, Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi), a fabulously wealthy industrialist and inventor, leaves behind a granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto),(Watch The Wolverine Online) whose life is in danger from the yakuza; Logan needs to protect her; and so forth.
(Download The Wolverine) Of all the X-Men, Wolverine is the only one who gets his own films, a fact that probably makes sense to those who know the grand X-Men mythology and understand his place in it, but that leaves me, a non-initiate, out in the cold. I just don’t find the character compelling by himself, without the other mutants to provide counterbalance to his grumpy, lone-wolf attitude. “The Wolverine,” directed by James Mangold (“Walk the Line,” “3:10 to Yuma”), has an eye toward respectability, offering a more thoughtful and less bombastic superhero movie – a welcome change after the glut of films that all end with various cities’ buildings being knocked down like dominos. (This one finds different comic-book-movie chestnuts to drag out for the final act.) Introspective is one thing, but this tormented, brooding Wolverine is dangerously close to being boring.
(Download The Wolverine) Fairly early in the film, there’s an action sequence set aboard a moving bullet train that’s exhilarating, breezy, well-choreographed, and fun. It’s one of the highlights of the summer. Unfortunately, it’s THE highlight of this particular film, which soon gets mired in Logan’s lugubriousness. It’s further marred by the awkward shoehorning of an enemy mutant named Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova) into the story – or into the movie, anyway. She never really does have a place in the story.
(Download The Wolverine) Look, I know “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was lame, what with the amnesia bullets and Taylor Kitsch and everything. By all objective measures, “The Wolverine” is a better film, and I appreciate that it tries something different from the mindless destruction and jokey one-liners we’ve been getting lately. Someone who’s invested in the Wolverine character and his personal journey may find more to latch onto here than I did. After that train sequence, I didn’t really perk up till the closing credits, when a hint of what’s to come in the next “X-Men” movie made me wish I could have watched that instead.
(Download The Wolverine) The sixth instalment in the X-Men franchise, and the second to focus squarely on the eponymous clawed mutant hero, The Wolverine sees director James Mangold assume the reigns and deliver a decidedly more muted and classically-styled film. It’s a brave move that results in a more relatable story, yet one that’s ultimately let down by the unconvincing amalgamation of styles, questionable performances and an all-too stretched run time.
(Download The Wolverine) With the death of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) still haunting him, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) has found solace as a hermit living in the mountains of Canada. Real life catches up on him, however, when he’s tracked down by red-haired assassin (Rila Fukushima) and brought to Japan to settle an old debt with a former acquaintance. Here, he finds himself embroiled in a long-running feud and is once more forced on the run.
(Download The Wolverine) Based in part on Frank Miller and Chris Claremont’s 1982 comic book arc, The Wolverine adopts an intimate narrative that sees our hero forced to look into himself and find a sense of peace after the nightmarish events of X-Men: The Last Stand have left him internally scarred and in doubt of his self and his powers. This creates an almost retrained, character-driven feel that’s refreshing in the world of big-scale, explosive comic book adaptations.
(Download The Wolverine) This soon becomes comprised, however, after the first act when the action takes over and other plot threads cause the narrative to expand and veer off into less interesting territory (Svetlana Khodchenkova’s Viper is perhaps the most uninteresting villain ever).(Download The Wolverine) What starts out as a piece about a man’s inner struggles, descends quickly into the very thing it seems to what to avoid becoming: a standard, run-of-the-mill Hollywood blockbuster with a clunky script and silly, unnecessary action.
(Download The Wolverine) It’s a film that struggles to know what it wants to be, and ultimately ruins itself trying to determine its place. Mangold, a director whose achieved both successes and disappointments in his varied career,(Download The Wolverine) blends several styles and tones together – from contemplative samurai film to full-on suspense thriller and everything in between – to dizzying effect, and creates something disorientating and distracting, rather than something that’s unique.
(Download The Wolverine) Luckily, all is not completely lost, and The Wolverine is saved by some inspired early scenes and a compelling performance from Jackman, who has never been so strong, able and in the zone as Wolverine as he is here. It’s a role he’s matured with, and the narrative seems a good fit in bringing out Jackman and the characters strength, which only makes the fact that it’s so inconsistent and,(Watch The Wolverine Online) after all has been said and done, stale.