Thoughts on: The Wolverine


I went into this movie with hardly any expectations, which is pretty rare for me. I was rewarded by a surprisingly good plot, a great main theme, perfect pacing, and some pretty cool fight scenes (special mention to the bullet train fight).

Unfortunately, about halfway through, things started going downhill. A random love story was thrown in, and the great pacing was shot in the foot and never recovered. Not only does the romance contribute nothing to the plot whatsoever, it actually actively hurts it: five minutes after Wolverine commits adultery, he chastises the husband for doing the exact same thing and doesn't even blink an eye. Then the main theme gets quickly tidied up with some ridiculous self-surgery and is never addressed again. Then a couple of gimmicky “twists” are mixed in and all sense of a cohesive plot is thrown out the window. Even the fight scenes started getting more bland and uninspired, with the final showdown being nothing short of boring. To top it all off, the main villain has a freaky “power-up” scene, and then is exactly 0% stronger. What the hell??

Again, “The Wolverine” has an intelligent, excellently made first half. The second half certainly isn't horrible, but it’s a huge step down from its potential. In the end, I was just disappointed that what could have been a great movie ended up being simply “fine”.

6/10


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