Tuesday, July 30, 2013

The Wolverine and a Bowl of Pop Culture

Does everyone have a bowl? Yes, you have to bring your own; I just don't have enough. And a spoon, too. No chopsticks, because we don't want to leave them standing upright in our pop culture, right? It's bad luck. Evidently. Anyway, get your bowls and your spoons, and pour yourself a heaping bowl of pop culture. But no milk; Wolvie doesn't like it.

I wanted very badly to not want to go see The Wolverine in the theater. Why pay for another movie I was just going to be disappointed in, right? I mean, this year has been particularly good for disappointing movies. And that doesn't even take into account the other Wolverine movie, one of the worst super hero movies made so far (and all because of the ending). [It's amazing how a botched ending can ruin an otherwise decent movie.] But Wolverine has been in my top three favorite heroes since... oh, well, a long time, and Hugh Jackman just nails that role, so I couldn't convince myself to wait. I'm actually glad that I didn't; some times, it's good to go into something with, basically, no expectations.

As it turned out, The Wolverine was much better than I expected it to be, and I actually enjoyed most of it. It has its issues, but, at least, they weren't really bad story-telling issues. The story, amazingly enough, was pretty solid and managed to not go off the cliff that the origin movie did. Of course, the story is only "pretty solid" if you look at it within the context of the X-Men movies. This movie has nothing to do with the comics other than that they pull some familiar characters from the Wolverine mythos to use in the movie. If you were hoping for anything resembling an adaptation of the Frank Miller/Chris Claremont Wolverine mini-series from the early '80s, you're not going to find that here. Okay, you'll get something vaguely resembling it. Very vaguely. He does fight some Hand ninjas. Except their not called that. So we're back to that "vaguely" again.

The thing to know about The Wolverine is that it's not about what it's about it. Within the context of the X-Men movies, the story is here to bridge the gap between X-Men: The Last Stand and the forthcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past and deal with the ramifications of how Last Stand ended. Basically, it's to get Logan to let go of the death of Jean and his part in it. With that goal in mind, The Wolverine actually accomplished its purpose and in a way that made sense. The micro-plot of just this one movie wasn't too bad either, even if it did have more than its share of "what the heck?" moments.

Spoiler alert:
The biggest issue with the movie is the sleight-of-hand they play with Logan's healing power. The dying old guy wants Logan's ability, and the best the writers could come up with is that the old dude is going to "steal" it. Not duplicate it, steal it. Which sounds like they're going to do some kind of thing like when Rogue absorbs other mutants' powers, but, no, the old guy is just going to drill into Logan's bone marrow and transfer the power to himself, which doesn't make any sense, but I'll give it a pass on the handwavium principle. Except that they also "suppress" his healing power using a little "Matrix" bug that gets on Wolvie's heart, and they don't explain that, either, especially after making it seem as if this is some other mutant thing before we find out it's a device. Really, you can only get a pass on one of these things in the movie. The deal with the tiny robot is that they want Wolverine to rip his own heart out to get rid of the thing, so I can see that they're going for the "cool factor" with that, but, then, they don't show it, so they lose out on that, anyway. And it leaves all kinds of questions: does the little robot bug suppress all mutant abilities or just Logan's? Or just Logan's healing factor? It's hard to tell, because he really doesn't use any of his heightened senses in the movie at all, so we don't know if he still has those or not. Of course, there's also the argument that Logan's healing power should have just expelled the little robot bug to begin with, but the movie Wolverine isn't quite as powerful as the comic book Wolverine.

And neither is adamantium, evidently, because we again have a "bullet piercing adamantium" situation in that the old guy cuts off Wolverine's claws to get at his bone marrow. It's slightly more believable than the bullet being fired into Logan's head but not by much.

At any rate, those things are just issues with story points not the story itself, and we have to deal with those all the time. Like people surviving explosions by jumping into water or standing behind a wall or whatever. So, whereas there are some... stupid? silly? okay, stupid... things within the story, the plot of The Wolverine holds up both on the level of there being a villain intent upon stealing Logan's healing powers and as a vehicle for Logan to get over have killed Jean.

Having said all of that, The Wolverine is not a movie you have to see in the theater. It's not like Pacific Rim or Man of Steel (although I think it's a better movie than both of those) that really need to be seen on the big screen to get the full effect of the scope of the action. You can just as easily wait for the DVD for this one, and, honestly, I doubt there's anything necessary in this movie for the overall X-Men story line. If you like Wolverine, it's probably worth seeing it, but you're not going to feel like you missed anything if you give this one a pass on the way to Days of Future Past.

28 comments:

  1. You may have just saved me a trip to the movies! Fiance does want to see it, but on the fence about whether it would be a let down or not.

    Ok, the bone marrow thing does not make sense. Lazy writing. Good review

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  2. I skipped the spoiler alert because I like Wolverine and I like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Just take me away to fantasy land (if you can do that successfully) and I'll follow blindly giving a pass to whatever unless it is totally outrageous.

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  3. Yes, just how did the bug get into his body? And why? Why did they need to kidnap the girl when they wanted Logan?
    Sorry, way too many questions for me and not enough of Wolverine kicking ass. A whole village of ninjas and he only fights a couple before being restrained. Lost opportunity.

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  4. I enjoyed it too - despite the issues. The whole thing with the family's power struggle was a convoluted mess though. Didn't care. Still enjoyed it.

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  5. I had to skip through your spoiler bit there, but I'm glad hit Red 2 instead. Now there was a movie worth seeing. Whew!

    We'll still see The Wolverine, just without spending the cash. Thanks for the heads up.

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  6. I was wondering how he is going to get the adamantium claws back but maybe he'll just go with bone claws. I suppose they are just as good, right? I'm not an expert on Wolverine.

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  7. So now I'm confused. I don't know that much about Wolverine, admittedly -- never that big a fan -- but I thought his mutant ability was healing, which was why he was chosen as "Weapon X," and had adamantium grafted onto his bones (because he could heal from that procedure.) The claws, I thought, were part of that. But if he's got heightened senses, is that also another mutant ability?

    Anyway, the movie looks like it is aimed directly at Wolverine fans without making any effort to attract a larger audience, which is fine, as it probably keeps those fans happier. It's interesting to me to see movies made to bridge gaps in other movies, the way Iron Man 3 is used to follow up on Avengers, etc. That kind of thing happens with webcasts of popular shows, but the idea of it being done on this massive scale is impressive.

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  8. Jean: Well, like I said, it's not so spectacular that it needs a theater to be appreciated.

    David: Except for the height, Jackman just is Wolvie.

    Alex: In the comic, he berserkers out on a whole slew of Hand ninjas, so I'm not sure why they just had him get captured. Unless it was because they would have gotten an R rating. There's a limit to the number of people you can kill and not cross that line, so, maybe, that was it.

    I think they kidnapped the girl because it was the best way to get Logan there. It wouldn't have worked if they'd tried to just taken Logan himself. It would be a long string of escapes.

    Rusty: I thought the family/political issues were interesting. It added a layer of complexity to what was going on that made it more enjoyable.

    Crystal: I'm scared to go see Red 2. It's getting such bad reviews. But I loved the first one so much!

    Michael: No, the bone claws aren't as good. I'm not current on Wolverine, but I know back when he first had the adamantium stripped, he was constantly breaking them off and having to re-grow them. I hope they don't do that in Days.

    Briane: Healing is only one of his abilities, although it is the one that is significant. He also has heightened senses, almost to the level of Daredevil, and his sense of smell may be better than Daredevil's. There are also variable levels of strength. Originally, the idea was that he would have Spider-Man levels of strength, but I'm pretty sure they scaled that down. I'm not sure, at this point, how strong he's supposed to be. But, you know, stronger than a normal person considering how much metal he has in his body.

    If the movie is aimed at Wolverine fans, I don't think they did a very good job. If I'd gone into with the frame of mind of being a Wolverine fan and wanting to see the comic book character on screen, I would have been beyond disappointed to the level of pissed. I can only approach it as "movie Wolverine" in my mind to be able to enjoy it.

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    1. I enjoyed the family stuff - the drama was emotional, understandable, enjoyable to watch. But the logic behind all those mechanizations bugged me.

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  9. I have yet to see a Wolverine movie. Which I hear is a shame, given all the time Hugh Jackman spends in the gym getting ready for the role. :P

    But glad to hear the story holds up. It has been a sort of disappointing summer "blockbuster" season by all accounts.

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  10. L.G.: Have you not seen any of the X-Men movies or just not the other Wolverine movie?

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  11. Wolverine has been one of my favorites and I love the Claremont/Miller story. I was excited when I heard this would be an adaptation - disappointed that it's not really.

    I'm way behind on the movies. X-Men 1-3 sit in the cabinet, just waiting for me - perhaps before summer is through.

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  12. An X-Men movie without story issues? I'm in shock. Although it does sound like they didn't worry too much about things making sense, which sounds EXACTLY like an X-Men movie. I'll still probably see it, though. They are fun.

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  13. TAS: Well, it's about as close as an adaptation as the origins movie was, which is to say not much of one. Actually, Origins was probably closer to the source material than this one.

    You haven't seen any of the X-Men movies, yet? >blink< >blink<

    Jeanne: It has no plot issues. The first couple didn't have plot issues, either. At least it doesn't conflict with any of the other movies.

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  14. I still have the marvel comics presents wolverine mini-series. Was hoping the story would follow close, so there would be a massive spike in their prices. Then I would have sold them.

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  17. Stephen: Unfortunately, due to all of the changes they've made in Wolverine in the last few years, those issues are completely devalued.

    Rusty: I think Mariko summed it up during the whole chopsticks thing: You're not Japanese; you can't understand.

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    1. Ha! That's the best response I've heard in some time.

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  18. Rusty: heh heh
    That conversation also made me glad I don't use chopsticks.

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  19. I like what I have seen of Wolverine on TV, but don't think I will be going to the movie.

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  20. Jo: On TV? Do you mean in the animated shows or is there something I don't know about?

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  21. I guess I am talking about the films shown on TV. With Patrick Stewart in too. I rarely get to a cinema. Don't see it often as hubby isn't into sci fi and I consider the TV principally as his toy, the computers being mine.

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  22. Jo: Yeah, those are the movies. They really did get a good cast overall.

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  23. Yeah, I kind of thought it bit. And there were some strange plot holes and unnecessary "surprises" that really didn't need to happen. Didn't hold up for me.

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  24. S.L.: I am not remembering any surprises at the moment. I think I liked it more because I went expecting more of the awful of the first one and it was so much better than that one.

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  25. Thanks for sharing, Andrew. I haven't seen it yet, and part of the problem is neither one of my teenagers seems interested in seeing it. That's not a good sign, let me tell you. On the other hand, I'm the one who grew up with that character, not them - and you're right about Jackman nailing that part. That's what makes these Wolverine failures so tragic, isn't it? By the time they get his stories right, it'll be another actor. *sigh* Hopefully I'll see it this weekend.

    -Jimmy
    http://jamesgarciajr.blogspot.com/

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  26. James: I know. That particular aspect really sucks. It's been more than 10 years since the first X-Men movie, and the time is starting to tell.

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