7.28.2013

Movie Review: 'Wolverine'

I was pretty satisfied with this one. I'd heard it was seriouser but it's like reasonably well-done comic book seriousness (not the absurdly misplaced angst they keep trying to stick into Iron Man, or the pointlessly superficial crap of...like, Thor's relationship with an astrophysicist how does that work her IQ has got to be at least 100 higher than his). Also, there are some major kick-ass fight scenes, and since the setting is Japan this means they're fight scenes with swords and ninja tricks, and who doesn't love some ninja tricks?

Oh, right, it's set mostly in Japan. The producers probably could've run a thirty-second reel of Logan trying to figure his way around the love hotel (ps. Japan is amaziridiculous) and made a bank off all the self-proclaimed otaku watching it over and over and over again because, at last, they can enjoy American comics (fine, comic-book movies) without feeling as if they have betrayed Glorious Nippon-sama or whatever the kids are calling it now.

Anyway, they do a good job with the setting—there's no raving case of white people making nice with their 'little brown yellow brothers', especially when you take into account the whole mutant thing (he's technically French-Canadian, so that counts for double points. And explains why the kilometer measurement didn't confuse him, obviously). Plus, trains and planes and automobiles, oh my! I can't think of anyone who wouldn't want to live in that future, even without the mutants.

There were some totally swank cars, and the drivers had samurai swords and exciting Japanese fashion, so yeah. (This is a country with green tea flavored Kit-Kats. They have everything.)

Also, fanservice. Ohoho there is some major fanservice in this one, including a pretty entertaining bath scene, and I swear they find an excuse to have him not have a shirt on (or, max, a wife-beater) in every other scene. I'm not complaining, but at this point I think the hardcore fans need to give up on him losing the pants. This is the closest you'll get, guys.

The main source of drama isn't so much the 'oooo mortality' as it is the 'oooo you killed Jean' thing that's been going since, what, X-Men 3? (My friends won't let me rewatch that because they suck.) Which ties together and shit, but yeah, I think that helps keep it away from the angsty cliff that Wolverine is always teetering on the brink of because, well, you can't have a superhero who's happy about his powers. That would require digging for a better source of conflict, and who has time for that when there's kick-ass action scenes to set up?! But seriously, they're good about cutting off potential long-winded crying with shit going down. As much as I like seeing RDJ rock the form-fitting suit and totally-not-alcoholism, the sadness dragged.

Humor-wise, they thankfully didn't try to out-Whedon Whedon the way Iron Man 3 did. There's some good quips, but not that many, which is fine because <see ninja fight scenes> here. Also, redhead girl whose name I never actually learned makes a great bodyguard.


Rating: fuck it, go to the evening show. Student discount if you can (AMC sucks now), of course.

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