Culture

Rating: 4/5

It takes a movie like The Wolverine to make you realise why all of the superhero films (particularly Marvel’s) are beginning to feel stale, and it is because they all feel exactly the same. Although they all have different heroes facing different situations, they share virtually everything else. The Wolverine is the first in a long time to break free from these chains. Tonally it is different from every other X-Men movie, and yet it is informed enough by them to bypass all the backstory and jump right into its own epic tale.

The Wolverine is set after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand, but aside from Logan being haunted by the memory/ghost of Jean Grey, the X-Men do not factor into this film. Hugh Jackman once again reprises the role of Wolverine as he ventures to Japan to say goodbye to a man he saved from the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki during WWII. The story interweaves deep psychological issues with a filmic mash-up of Western action and Eastern kung fu, and the result is a unique adventure.

The film has some really breath-taking action sequences that are approached in a way that challenges many of our expectations. A good example is the fight scene on the bullet train, in which the laws of physics are used to exhilarating and hilarious effect. At the same time, however, the film isn’t scared to drop the action so as to truly develop characters and relationships.

This film is so refreshing because it utilises all the things that make us love superhero films while at the same time daring to try something new. Watching the film, I got the overwhelming feeling that it wasn’t made to trick us out of our money (as seems to be the case with many of the films in this genre), but rather that it was a real labour of love in which all involved had a reverent respect for both the Marvel source material and the eastern influences to which they were paying homage.