The Wolverine works as a stand-alone film. I know this because I walked into the movie theater with only the vague memory of
X-Men: First Class (the only X-Men film I'd previously seen)
and the widespread consensus on
X-Men Origins: Wolverine's mediocrity (my expectations for
The Wolverine were low) to guide me.
While I'm not particularly familiar with director James Mangold's previous works, I do realize he is not an action director in the classic sense of the term; his more renowned films (
Girl, Interrupted and
Walk the Line) are dramas, not huge Hollywood action flicks. Consequently, a basic reflection of Logan's character underlies
The Wolverine's flashy action sequences, not unlike the deconstruction of almost all our favorite comic book superheroes à la Iron Man in
Iron Man 3 and Batman in
The Dark Knight Rises.
An existential crisis is in order when immortality has come to define you, and Logan, who has outlived everyone he once loved, has long lost his reason for living. That is, until a beautiful girl predictably plops into his life and he's faced with the choice between his immortality and the opportunity to live and die as any normal person would. Fights with ninjas are fought and if you're in it for Hugh Jackman, you won't be disappointed; he spends no shortage of time shirtless, so that we may bask in all his muscular glory. I suppose you could call the Viper a villain, but I'm not entirely sure she deserves the title. Other than serving to wear a ridiculous green cartoony outfit, she's a worthless villain and a rather useless character. Don't even get me started on Harada, the supposed sworn "protector" of Logan's love interest and the most incompetent ninja ever to have existed.
Useless characters aside, there is never a boring moment in
The Wolverine, even as the film begins to fall back into the routine superhero plot with a comic book climax. If anything, you'll certainly get your $11.50's worth of the Wolverine's burly,"I don't care" attitude.
