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movie review - The Wolverine

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is yet another super-hero movie. This one features an old favorite of mine from my comics-reading days in the '80s; Wolverine. A lot of time has gone by since then, and as it happens I've lived in Japan where this is set. One of the things that can put me off about a movie set in Japan is mishandling the cultural aspects and I have to say for the most part this movie manages to do a surprisingly OK job with that. In fact the first two thirds are actually quite good. Our hero, a Canadian, is actually living in Canada. His ties to Japan date to decades prior and we learn that he risked his life (from the Nagasaki a-bomb, of course) to save a Japanese fellow who went on to great success. Our man is soon whisked off to Japan where has to relearn the starkly different culture (I empathize).

Things develop with some intelligence but then it descends into comic book abandon and that's where it loses me. It gets so dumb in fact that it starts to feel like the lazy me-too cash grab I've been fearing all along.

Not recommended.