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Released by: Fox
Released on: December 3rd, 2013.
Director: James Mangold
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Famke Jenssen, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada
Year: 2013
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The Movie:
Directed by James Mangold, 2013's The Wolverine finds the most popular X-Men (once again played by Hugh Jackman) in another solo feature (already forgot about X-Men Origins: Wolverine? Good!), but the ties to the continuity established in the previous X-Men movies runs deep, and a lot of what happens here seem to be there not only to tell a story about everyone's favorite Canucklehead, but to set up the upcoming Days Of Future Past movie.
The movie begins with Logan living the quiet life in rural Alaska, away from it all. He doesn't really want anything to do with his past but soon can't seem to get Jean Grey (Famke Jansse) out of his mind. Another part of his past comes back to haunt him when a Japanese girl named Yukio (a scene stealing Rila Fukushima) tracks him down. It seems an old war buddy of Logan's sent her to him as a deathbed request - he wants to pay him back for saving his life decades ago. After getting into a bar fight, Logan figures maybe exiting to Japan isn't such a bad idea after all and so he heads to the land of the rising sun to reunite with Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi), who has become fabulously wealthy since they knew one another in WWII.
Yashida tells Logan that he and a woman he employs named Doctor Green (Svetlana Khodchenkova) have figured out a way to get rid of the mutant genes that make Logan into something more than human. He's not interested, but soon realizes that his healing factor isn't working like it once did. As he starts to fall for Yashida's sexy granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), though the fact that she's engaged to a politician complicates things. Also complicating things is the presence of Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada), Mariko's father. He's not particularly keen on Logan and he seems to have no problems flaunting his ties to the Yakuza.
This take on Wolverine does a decent job of building character and throws in an interesting twist by taking Logan's healing factor away, but it is bloodless to the point where it is comedic. The violence in the story never feels real and never feels threatening and while Hugh Jackman does the brooding hero well here, he seems to have become quite comfortable in the role over the years and he has a solid screen presence. The action in the film is quite watered down, however (there is an unrated version available but it was not sent for review so we can't really comment on the differences), and it's not necessarily better for it. Part of the appeal of the character has always been his feral nature, his intensity, his bloodlust. That gets very lost in the translation here and while it's entertaining enough to see Logan's exploits in Japan brought to life on the silver screen, the film is tepid in the action department.
We do at least feel for the poor guy as he goes through all this. His life is complicated. He still cares for Jean Grey and the effects of his relationship still sting but he can't help but dig Marika. At the same time, Mariko's involved, so there's that angle to deal with. He's not sure who, if anyone, he can trust here and by the time we get to the big finale, Logan's understandably upset by all of this but forced into action out of morality and obligation. The movie is fairly well paced and if you don't mind the copious amount of CGI used throughout the picture the action scenes are good, if not as plentiful as you'd probably expect them to be. The sequence that takes place on a fast moving train, without going into spoiler territory, is exciting, creative and impressive and the location work here is also very strong. The bad guys are never fleshed out as well as they could have been and this one doesn't get as deep as it probably could and should have gotten, but it's entertaining enough even if it never reaches its full potential.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Wolverine is reissued on Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 2.40.1 widescreen and it looks excellent. Colors really light up here and the transfer really pops but at the same time, the colors don't bleed, they stay really well defined and distinct. Black levels are nice and deep, while shadow detail stays strong throughout. There were no obvious compression artifacts to note and skin tones look lifelike and natural, though sometimes the contrast is dialed up a bit for artistic effect and they look a bit hot. Detail impresses in pretty much every frame of the movie and all in all, this is an excellent transfer.
The main audio option on the disc is an English language DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio track, though Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound tracks are offered up French, Spanish and English descriptive audio. Subtitles are available in English SDH, French, Spanish and Spanish. The 7.1 mix is just as aggressive and impressive as you could hope. The action scenes have plenty of amazing directional effects and the track is consistently using all of the channels in the mix, either for bombastic chaos or subtle background noise, to really create an enveloping soundscape. The score is fast paced, well defined and when the movie calls for it full of strong bass, all of which is replicated really well here. At the same time, all of the bombastic score and effects work doesn't bury the dialogue or the more discrete sound effects used in the movie. This is an excellent lossless track, one that does not fail to impress.
The main extra on the disc is a fifty-four minute featurette entitled The Path Of A Ronin that is broken up into the following chapters:
-Inspiration: A Ronin's Journey
-Design: Mastering The Arc
-Execution: A Killer Team
-Hugh Jackman: The Man Behind The Mutant
-Reflections: The Evolution Of Wolverine
Made up of cast and crew interviews and behind the scenes footage, this piece does a good job of explaining how the Marvel comics that inspired the film worked their way into this storyline, how and why elements of Japanese samurai culture play an important part here, and Jackman's role in bringing the character to life on the silver screen.
Aside from that we also get a Second Screen app, an alternate ending and a set tour from the upcoming feature film X-Men: Days Of Future Past, heading to theaters in 2014. Animated menus and chapter selection are also included and as this is a Combo Pack release, you also get a DVD version of the movie and a digital copy as well. The Blu-ray case fits nicely inside a slipcase with identical cover art on it.
The Final Word:
You almost get the feeling that this serves less as a Wolverine solo film than it does a stepping stone towards the upcoming Days Of Future Past movie (in a sense it has to bring Wolverine back into the superhero game for that upcoming movie to work - so it does that), but with that said this is entertaining enough. It's not as action packed as you might expect but Jackman is pretty decent in the lead role and there's some nice photography here. The Blu-ray itself is a bit light on extras but it does offer up the movie with reference quality audio and video. If you've enjoyed the X-Men films thus far, you'll probably dig this.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
