Movie Review #5 - The Wolverine

Introduction

Welcome to another awesome review from Review Republic here, and this time I will be reviewing The Wolverine. There has been an origin movie for Wolverine, and a few other movies that included him as well, like the X-Men series, but I won't mention too much about them, since this story takes place after the events in X-Men : The Last Stand, if I'm not mistaken. This time, I'm trying something new to rate the movie, make sure to comment if you guys prefer this method. Spoiler alert, if you didn't already know.

The Wolverine

The plot isn't very complicated, in fact I will describe the whole movie in one word. Bodyguard. That's right, the majority of the film is about Logan protecting this chick who is supposedly very important, and if he doesn't rescue her from the Yakuza, Yashida Industries will fall into the wrong hands. I'm sure Logan wouldn't want that to happen, would he? Now to be fair, the true purpose of the movie was to show the human side of the Wolverine, which is Logan, the vulnerable part which we never get to see. Additionally, the movie is also trying to give him a renewed purpose to live since he was emo because he had to kill his psycho mutant lover. But that still doesn't change the fact that it's still a bodyguard movie.
Instead of dividing the movie to 5 sections like I always do, I am trying something fun which is to briefly introduce each of the main characters and I will try to justify their roles in the movie, and maybe flame some of them as well. It's more informal this way, but I think it's gonna be a lot more entertaining. Enjoy.

Name : Yashida

Real Name : Scumbag Old Man.

Description : This Japanese dude is a straight up classic scumbag. Wolverine saved Yashida's life and endangering Wolverine's own life in the process back in the war, and Yashida decides to repay Wolverine by deceptively trying to steal his regenerative powers. He put his grand-daughter in danger by faking his death, which leads to the Yakuza chasing her, and also ordering his operatives to kill his son. He also spent all his fortune building a purely adamantium-powered armor just so he can fight with Wolverine and take his powers, and almost drive his hugely successful company to bankruptcy. You stay classy, Yashida. 

Name : Shingen

Real Name : Misunderstood Son.

Description : Shingen is also a scumbag since he plotted to have his daughter killed, but he did that because he was misunderstood, and also bitter by the fact the company belongs to Mariko instead of him once Yashida dies. Harada was able to take Mariko away before Shingen can finish the job, and later on he was poisoned by Viper, which made him mentally unstable. He then tried to kill Wolverine, and knowing the fact that Wolverine regained back his regenerative powers, he died for nothing. Sad day for him.

Name : Mariko

Real Name : The Princess

Description : In the movie, it was mentioned that she was one of the top combatant of karate and knife-throwing, having the same skill level as Harada. Then why in the world is she running away and getting kidnapped in almost every enemy encounter?!? Granted, she did fight a bit at Yashida's funeral, but come on. She should be completely wasting everyone that tries to fight her. Instead, she keeps running away with her bodyguard Wolverine. And she fell in love with someone that is potentially more than 70 years older than her. Well, if that person never ages, has killed dozens of people and has social issues, I guess it's alright.

Name : Yukio

Real Name : Most Underrated Ability Mutant.

Description : So she has this ability that can see people's death in the near future. Seems fine to me, but it's  inconsistent and has been proven wrong at least once. She saw Wolverine die when he was trying to take the parasite out from his heart, Wolverine did just that and he survived, albeit barely. She can't see everyone's death as well apparently, because if she can see Yashida and Shingen's death, she would have protected Mariko sooner, or maybe warned Wolverine of her visions. Now hold on a moment, let's try to find a rational explanation for that. What if her visions would change if she tell someone about it? That might be the reason why she deliberately tell her vision to Wolverine about him dying, knowing that her vision would not come true because of that. What if she actually saw Yashida and Shingen's death, and she did not tell anyone about it, even Wolverine, because their deaths WILL happen essentially letting their fate play it out? Mind = Blown.

Name : Harada

Real Name : Useless Bodyguard.

Description : I don't know what to make of this guy. He was the head of the so-called Black Ninja Clan, and he was sworn to protect the Yashida Family, yet did a horrible job at it. When the fight broke out at Yashida's funeral, he was on the roof surveying the crowd. There's like a few dozen Yakuzas in hiding, he can't spot any of them, but Wolverine, the outsider that has only been in Japan for two days, manages to spot them? Come on. When Wolverine and Princess was fighting and running away from Yakuzas, all Harada can do is running around providing air support to them. He should be the one guarding and shielding Princess instead of this outsider that to him was of unknown allegiance. Later on, it seems like he couldn't track where the two went on the train, then Princess got caught by the Yakuza eventually and possibly executed, carried out by Shingen. I don't how the Japanese ninjas carry out their operations, but I think that is a very clear Mission Failure.

Name : Dr.Green

Real Name : Viper

Description : Now this is an interesting character. I heard a lot of people complained that she isn't much of a use in the movie, and her abilities are sub-par or useless compared to other mutants. I think that isn't completely true. What I can gather about her abilities is that she can generate new poison and also the anti-dote at the same time depending on the situation of which type of poison is needed. For example, she managed to implant the parasite on Wolverine, partly I imagined because of one of her neuro-toxins, making him think that it was just a nightmare, but in reality it's not. She killed people using her toxic breath as well, but also able to cure them back using her breath. She also has a regenerative ability, much like Wolverine's one, but at a weaker extent. If you recall back at the facility where Wolverine was fighting with the Silver Samurai, she was shot with an arrow by Harada. She was incapacitated for a while, but she was able to pull the arrow out, heal back the wound, and continue to fight with Mariko. Although she is not the most physically-skilled mutant, I think she accomplished what she was assigned to do, which was to slow down or inhibit the regenerative abilities of Wolverine, therefore giving Yashida the opportunity to take the powers for himself. When the movie shows the scene where Viper was fighting with Mariko, I felt that they did not respect what Viper's ability was, leaving her with a bad reputation. It's like showing a combat scene between a doctor and an assassin, get what I mean? 

Verdict ( 8.5/10)

Ultimately, this is an entertaining movie to watch. The movie not only shows the human side of Wolverine that has compassion and love, but also the bad-ass side of him where he can slice people apart without hesitation. There are a lot of super-hero movies currently that resemble the same trend of exploring the other side of the subject, like Superman, Iron Man 3, and Dark Knight Rises to name a few, but I think this movie does it right perfectly the most. Just enough of dice and slice action, emo moment, sexy scene (Although cinema version is censored, but I'm sure it isn't bad, how could it be right?), suspense and adrenaline-fuelled fast-paced action. It may not be a must-watch movie for movie-goers, but it does gain considerable respect from the Wolverine fans, at least for me, and also add a great addition to the Wolverine arc in the movie franchises. I would go further to say this is one of the best movies in this super-hero packed year.