I saw the movie this weekend, and I really enjoyed it.
To start this out, let me say that I’m a big X-Men fan. Well, as far as the television series are concerned, since I’m not quite as into comic books. But the previous movies have been… okay at best. Not super impressed with them compared to the Avengers and such.
But honestly, I don’t like Wolverine. In general, his character is just too gruff or whatever; he’s always angry and violent and doesn’t seem like the most likeable protagonist. I don’t dislike him per say, but he’s not my favorite X-Men. (It’s kinda like how I don’t like the hothead Tahu compared to any of the other Toa Mata.) This is just personal preferences, of course.
But, if I limit myself to Logan-based stories, I have to say that my favorite arcs with him are the ones set in Japan. (And not to mention that the Wolverine Anime, canon or not, was REALLY good.) So when I heard there was a new Wolverine movie coming out and that it was set in Japan, it caught my interest. (And then I just randomly happened to notice that it was opening this weekend, so I was like kay let’s try for a matinee.)
So, um, spoilers??
I’d probably say this is my favorite of the X-Men movies so far. Logan has some nice characterization, and it felt that the character did change by the end of the movie, so props there? I read somewhere that the director was trying to take it in a new direction by making him mortal… which was interesting, but that part didn’t seem too important. Sure, he freaked out a bit more from the pain and wounds and stuff... but he got shot like a dozen times in that state and just kept walking through it. I mean, he was shot, then he just went through fight scene after fight scene (the train bit was good, I always appreciate battles on trains, and the bullet train aspect really added to it.) And okay, he does eventually pass out, but that was like a day and 8 gunshot wounds later. If he was really being “mortal” then he would’ve been knocked down after two or three, tops. Also, the grandfather was referred to as the better person, but then he totally ended up being the big baddie. Yeah, I was expecting that to happen, but it seems kind of like a take-back in the end. “Oh, you thought he was a good person and you keep going on about it, but really he was fooling you all and just wanted to be immortal.” I guess it could be explained away, but I still felt that it was stretching credibility.
Still, that bit aside, the movie had a nice flow to it. The baddies got a little confusing for a while, with just “who’s on who’s side, and who just betrayed who else?” It was nice that a majority of the characters were actually Japanese, with only like two white folks (Logan and snake-girl) in the limelight. (Granted, they were the main protagonist and antagonist, really.) (Also, it probably helps that I’ve been watching a lot of anime recently.) They could’ve used a few more mutants… there were only three, right? But the martial arts and sword fights were great.
(And I didn’t bother to remember all their names because A: Japanese and B: I don’t have a good memory for names except for the ones I already know, like Logan.)
And in the end, Logan and the two gals survived. Everybody else important died (well, almost.) That does beat the anime, where literally every character but Logan chokes it. (Um, spoiler?) Honestly, I wasn’t expecting both of the female leads to survive...
Oh, and I guess it fits into the continuity of the movies, with his bone-like claws from his origin story and the whole bit with Jean that apparently happened in the last X-Men movie. (Oh, and something about bald guys in the final scene; I wonder if that has any relevance? )
Um... so that was a bit of rambling. Overall, I liked this movie for the action and characters (and appreciated the Japanese themes that were included with both) and the story was good enough for a comic-book movie. So now I’m rooting for Wolverine? Eh, guess so.
3 Comments
Recommended Comments