If the X-Men were the Avengers before The Avengers, then Wolverine is their Iron Man: a ladies man, a bit of a lone wolf, a straight-shooter, and ultimately a character beloved by Marvel fans. And yet, unlike the wildly popular and successful Iron Man films, it seems impossible to give him a standalone movie that isn’t a bit of a dog. Case in point: The Wolverine.
That’s hard to say. Wolverine is an amazing character. Dark, conflicted, badass, noble, in possession of great hair – he’s a fantastic hero. And Hugh Jackman plays him with the kind of gusto that should make Robert Downey Jr. jealous. Yet, there’s something about Wolverine solo flicks that just don’t hit – and it might have something to do with the lack of other X-Men.
(Spoiler alert: Minor plot points for The Wolverine follow.)
In The Wolverine there are hardly any other X-Men present. Jean Grey shows up in Logan’s dreams to remind him that she’s dead by his adamantium-enabled hand, but that’s pretty much it (more on that later). There’s no Mystique. No Beast. No Rogue or Storm. The X-Men are fascinating because they’re a group of outcasts singled out for being mutants who find ways to become heroes. They work better together because, well, who doesn’t like a merry band of mutants? Guys like Tony Stark and Thor work on their own because they have lives outside of superhero-dom—billionaire-playboy-philanthropist and Asgardian god, respectively—and Logan, if Wolverine is to be believed, just sulks over Grey and drinks in the woods until he’s whisked away to Japan to accidentally be embroiled in a face-off with the Yakuza. Or whatever.
The Wolverine, directed by James Mangold and based on the Wolverine run by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, starts out well enough. While in Nagasaki during World War II, Logan saves a young man named Yashida from the atomic bombing. Fast-forward to the present day, and Logan is living in the woods and avenging hunted bears (no kidding) when he gets pulled away by a young woman named Yukio (Rila Fukushima) who tries to give him a samurai sword—the same one Yashida tried to give him after he saved his life—and tells him he has to come to Japan to say good-bye to Yashida, who is now old and ailing. He agrees to go for “one day.”
Naturally, this doesn’t happen. As soon as he arrives, Logan learns that Yashida has become the most powerful man in Japan. And he’s dying. And he wants Logan’s powers so that he can live. Oh, and his doctor is (unbeknownst to Logan) Viper/Madame Hydra. Logan, of course, tells Yashida that he doesn’t know what he’s asking for and wouldn’t want it if he did and refuses the request.
Yashida dies almost immediately thereafter, and while at the funeral Wolverine ends up taking on a slew of Yakuza gangsters who try to kidnap Yashida’s granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto). This is where it goes off the rails. Literally. Mariko escapes on a bullet train and Logan follows her, getting himself embroiled in yet another gangster face-off, and the two eventually find refuge in a Love Hotel. Logan, who now isn’t healing the way he used to, passes out, and Mariko finds a veterinarian to fix him up before they head to her family’s home in Nagasaki to hide out.
From there the plot gets messier and more convoluted—yet manages to not really go anywhere. When Mariko is finally abducted, Logan and Yukio team up to save her. Nobody is who they say they are. A black-clad clan of ninjas with bows-and-arrows attempts to thwart Wolverine’s efforts to save her by essentially harpooning him in the street. There’s an inevitable romantic subplot. A face-off with the Silver Samurai. And it all gets thrown together in a way that, while serviceable, doesn’t really amount to much.
What’s unfortunate is that there’s nothing particularly wrong with The Wolverine, Jackman is on-point, most of the action sequences are fun enough, and there are even a few genuine laughs (and a few moments of comedy that are most definitely unintentional). But yet, the thing that should ring true with a Wolverine story—Logan’s pathos, his darkness—never comes through. For all his brooding and whatnot, the version of the hero on display only scratches the emotional surface even though got the claws to go much deeper. (This becomes painfully obvious when Logan explains to Mariko what happened between him and Jean Grey and even she looks bored.) Logan’s got a an intense backstory and is consistently dealing with a lot of existential crises as the result of his mutation. But when part of a character’s thing is that he’s stoic and gruff, audiences—no matter how much they like or identify with him—don’t get left with much to watch him do besides fight, deliver one-liners, and endure painful dream sequences.
Yet while all of this is happening, it’s hard not to think, “You know what would be awesome right now? If [INSERT X-MAN HERE] showed up.” Yes, the whole Japan part of Logan’s storyline is supposed to be about a period when he’d separated from his fellow mutants because “that’s not who I am anymore.” Ok, fine. But even if he’s the strong, silent one, he works better on a team. He’s a great character that kind of needs other people like him to bring out his good side. Remember that great cameo in First Class where Logan told Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr to “Go fuck yourself”? Yeah, The Wolverine needed that, but in reverse. His conflicted nature just makes more sense when he’s surrounded by a bunch of similarly misunderstood misfits, who can reflect his interesting qualities. Basically, he’s more like the Hulk (who’s also had a rough cinematic history).
This become most true in The Wolverine‘s coda. To reveal exactly what happens would be too spoiler-y, but a word of advice: Stay in the theater through the credits. It’ll be worth it. Thanks to some great cameos, the bit provides a segue into X-Men: Days of Future Past, which ends up making it something of the movie’s saving grace if for no other reason than it serves as a reminder that Logan will be rejoining his fellow mutants soon. And, let’s face it, Wolverine is great, Jackman as Wolverine is fantastic, but Logan is better when he doesn’t have to go into the fight alone.
