Upon witnessing Hugh Jackman’s Logan casually toss a crooked minister of justice over a balcony, the Wolverine’s bodyguard Yukio asks “How did you know he’d land in the pool?” Logan responds coolly, “I didn’t.”
Safely throwing one of the film’s many heavies into the swimming pool below isn’t a disservice to the title character’s badassery. Logan’s reckless answer to Yukio is more of a nod to The Wolverine’s obsession with mortality. It’s also where James Mangold’s new comic book movie, among a summer of weightless blockbusters, gets it right.
Taking place sometime after Brett Ratner’s lamentable X-Men: The Last Stand, The Wolverine finds Logan returning to his outsider status, prowling around Yukon territory with giant grizzlies, empty whiskey bottles and a chip on his shoulder over the death of Jean Grey. It isn’t long before he’s discovered by Yukio (Rila Fukushima), a precognitive mutant and swordsman sent to find Logan and bring him to Japan. Awaiting him is the dying Yashida, a man whom Logan once saved from certain death. As a final act of gratitude, the terminally ill mogul wishes to repay his lifelong debt to the Wolverine by removing his mutant healing ability and granting him a mortal life.
Yashida’s offer is certainly a strange one, and Logan is first taken aback by the chance to finally die with honor. At the same time, the (perhaps stereotypically) Eastern notion that a warrior is only as great as his passing is paranthetical to The Wolverine’s story and in hindsight, an essential idea behind a character with Logan’s invulnerability. 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine tried to explore such an extended lifespan by portraying Logan and half-brother Sabretooth as historical agents of death, but director Gavin Hood never maintains the cool retcon of Origins’ opening sequence. The Wolverine of 2013 treats Logan’s agelessness more like a curse, aided in part by Jackman’s burdened performance. Along with his wholly expected snarls and “bubs,” Logan seems tired and rundown even before he loses his power, so by the time he fights without his rapid healing, the Yakuza’s gunfire actually seems threatening.
More interesting than the film’s rote romance between Logan and Yashida’s granddaugther Mariko is the personal conflict inside of the character. Logan doesn’t just bleed out, though he does plenty of that, too. For the first time in a long while, he’s a superhero facing physical stakes. Though it does feature a ridiculous robotic samurai, The Wolverine is refreshingly devoid of tumbling skyscrapers, weightless fist fights and fleets of autonomous armored suits.
By no means is The Wolverine a perfect story. With one too many antagonists, its preoccupation with telling a love story clouds an otherwise solid meditation on honor, and the final half hour is woefully generic. The Wolverine does have stakes however, as Logan’s ultimate quest never strays into world-saving territory. Without spoiling much, the final battle ends with Logan sprawled on the ground, seemingly dying as the scene whites out to another of our hero’s tormented dream sequences. As I sat in the theater, a single thought occurred to me: Might he actually kick the bucket? It was a thought that, however brief, was shocking, intriguing, and most importantly in this summer of giant robots and suped up beefcakes, a pleasant surprise.