The Wolverine Movie Review

After the failure of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a sequel was announced shortly after. And so, 4 years later, we finally have that film. Was it really worth making though? Let's see..

The Wolverine is set after the events of X-Men 3 and our hero is experiencing the roughest part of his life. He's living the nomadic lifestyle, he hasn't shaved in years (from what it looks like) and is struggling to deal with the death of his love Jean Grey. Wolverine is given the chance of a lifetime by a man he saved from a nuclear explosion in 1945, when he offers him the chance of mortality. And now we have the Wolverine movie we've been waiting for!

Wolverine is easily the most interesting character out of all the X-Men. He's an anti-hero, he's damaged and his struggle against immortality is always an interesting thing to make a movie about. One parallel which I really liked in the movie was between him and a bear we see early on in the film; the bear is shot by a poison arrow causing it a very painful death which angers Logan as he sees his situation as similar to that of the Bear's. He would like the pain of his immortality to end.

Hugh Jackman as the Wolverine will never get old. He's played the guy in 5 films over 13 years and it never ever feels boring. Jackman does very well in illustrating that the Wolverine, like in the comics, is an anti-hero, who will kill people if necessary! Jackman is great.

There are a few other characters in this movie which were interesting enough. There really is nothing special about the acting but the actors tend to do a sound job at the roles they are given.

The main villain is Viper. Or is she? She didn't feel like the main adversary I was expecting from her. Yes she was smooth and sexy but she did not have that intense and menacing quality that would have made her a great villain.

Overall, the visual effects are varied and look fantastic, as are the sound effects. Both the sound and visuals work together well to create a cool comic-book feel to the movie, as all X-Men movies should have. The claws, Viper's venom, the nuclear explosion are just a few examples of the varied special effects we see that add this dimension to the movie. Slow motion is used just the right amount as well to add drama to the action happening on screen without completely overusing it.

The humour was actually pretty good, never was it cheesy. The soundtrack was alright, as was some of the cinematography. What I loved about this film was the fact that some shots were used to help portray the dark, anti-hero like character that is the Wolverine. I rarely notice things like that but when I do, props to the movie.

The movie is well paced with the right mixture of action scenes, that a comic book movie needs, and character development scenes, which make the movie more personal and relatable. The action scenes are very good. There is just something so great about Wolverine plunging his claws into people's stomachs! The scene on top of the train was epic, best action sequence in the movie by far!

Also, if you see it stick around for the ending. Got me excited for X-Men Days of Future Past. Even if in the X-Men universe there now is a massive issue of continuity, I still can't wait for the film to come out!

The Wolverine symbolises what makes an X-Men movie great. It's got cool action and is also a very well-written personal story. I walked out of this film and thought "I enjoyed that more than Pacific Rim". That's probably a spoiler for the rating. Ah well.


Rating - B+

1 sentence summary - The most interesting character in the X-Men universe is given the movie he deserves, a great personal story mixed with some awesome action!


That's my take on the Wolverine. What did you think of it? Are you looking forward to X-Men Days of Future Past? Please leave a comment below.

As always, thanks for reading,
Matt