Why So Blu?

lol

resinrats

Yes, Logan has had the bone claws since he was a young kid. That's how he realized he was a mutant. He stabbed his father then ran away with Sabertooth.

Mondo Kane

Yukio

As others have mentioned, it'll be interesting if the bone claws continue into the next film(s).

moviefan2k4

Just got back from seeing it, and I was very impressed. Mangold's style fits the character so much better than Gavin Hood's did, and I'm honestly wondering if "Future Past" will be able to top it. A solid 4.5 / 5 from me.

B5Erik

I took the family to see The Wolverine today, and we ALL loved it. I was very impressed with just how well they took the 1980's comic mini-series and adapted it for the movies. Sure, they changed a lot of the details, but Mangold and the writers really got the feel of the story right.

This was one hell of an entertaining movie - the best Comic Book Superhero movie of the summer, burying Man Of Steel and Iron Man 3. Actually, The Wolverine is my favorite movie of the summer up to this point.

I can't wait for Days Of Future Past, that should be fun.

Why So Blu?

To this day I do not blame Gavin Hood for Origins being the POS it was. I blame Lauren Schuler-Donner and Richard Donner. She brought her husband onboard and he basically directed/re-shot 90% of the film that Hood started on. It really sucks, because Hood is more than a capable director. Tsotsi and Rendition are great films. I don't think Hood has done anything since.

Supermallet

I loved it. The most consistent X-film to date.

RocShemp

I knew the Donners co-produced it but this is the first I've heard of Richard Donner ghost directing X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Why So Blu?

Really? I thought it was common knowledge.

It really pisses me off in retrospect, because I told people that it would rock based on Hood's past works on Tsotsi and Rendition.

Hey, at least he's made a big comeback with the upcoming Ender's Game. He wrote and directed that, so here's hoping that will bring him back up to speed.

Supermallet

I never heard that, either.

DJariya

Donner denied that rumor. He said he was there to help Produce on set. He said he would never step in on someone else's work.

Why So Blu?

Hood and Fox were in dispute on the film's direction. One of the disputes involved the depiction of Wolverine as an Army veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, with the executives arguing that audiences would not be interested in such heavy themes.The studio had two replacements lined up before Richard Donner, husband of producer Lauren Shuler Donner, flew to Australia to ease on-set tensions. Hood remarked, "Out of healthy and sometimes very rigorous debate, things get better. I hope the film's better because of the debates. If nobody were talking about us, we'd be in trouble!"

That's just from the wikipedia article, but in Hollywood, you don't just "fly" someone out to talk things over. You fly someone to a location to take over shit. It usually happens with writers more often, but will happen with various other crew members including directors.

RocShemp

That can simply mean that Donner was directly involved in mediations, which is part of the nitty-gritty a producer has to do. Producers are not as hands off as people seem to think. Heck, a producer typically works on a film longer than the director (assuming the director isn't also the producer). And to hear Gavin Hood talk in the audio commentary, he was very much involved in the movie and was quite proud of the finished product.

I actually enjoyed the XO:W (cartoon claws and crappy green screen notwithstanding) despite some serious script issues. But then, I never held any of the X-Men movies in high esteem so I'm more willing to cut them some slack.

Why So Blu?

I reckon this scenario to what Lexi Alexander went through with Punisher War Zone. The exception with that was that no one ghost directed her, but she was contractually obliged to not say shit and go with the flow when the shit hit the fan from producers. I'm sure Hood was given the same sort of guidelines. There's plenty of reading material with regards to the Origins fiasco out there, though.

I never did listen to the Origins commentary, because one viewing at the theater was enough for me. I'm sure Hood was contractually obliged to record one. Most directors that do a commentary for the home video release have it in their contracts to do so nowadays. They also can't say what a piece of crap the film was otherwise they would get sued into oblivion.

Mondo Kane

Didn't know about that. There are commentaries that blast the movie (Listed here) but it seems like the commentators are mostly the writers (House of the Dead,Speed) so that does make some sense.

But back to topic:

Seriously, I'm buying the movie just for her.

Solid Snake

First I've heard of that. I can't imagine Donner doing that. Cuz that shit happened to him.

Patman

"The Wolverine" is a mishmash of plot elements, having Logan deal with the psychological aftermath of "X-Men 3", and not quite able to move forward in his long life. Then Yuriko comes looking for him, and he gets whisked away to Japan to see a man (Yashida) he saved when the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Yashida lived to create a business empire, is dying, his son was a disappointment in business acumen, but his grand-daughter Mariko was the apple of his eye.

Logan gets drawn into a long segment on being on the run with Mariko, chased by organized crime elements. He also finds his healing factor de-powered, but manages to press on with protecting Mariko. There are some decent scenes of character interplay in a genre film like "The Wolverine".

The rest of the film is hastily put together to get from one action scene to another, even if the plot doesn't really gel well enough to be an engrossing tale. The conclusion is pretty lackluster and uninteresting given the minimal efforts to forge the antagonistic forces that Logan ends up contending with in the end.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.

oblio

Pretty good movie but my only negative is how is Yukio, who eventually becomes Lady Deathstrike, in this movie if her character was killed off in X-Men 2. They are obviously the same universe and takes place after since Wolverine had killed Jean.

Obi-Wanma

Yukio and Lady Deathstrike are different characters

Lady Deathstrike/Yuriko Oyama - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Deathstrike
Yukio - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_(comics)

RichC2

I haven't seen the movie yet, but is it safe to assume Rila Fukushima just kind of jump started her odd-but-not-exactly-unattractive looking movie career?

Boba Fett

Yes. She held her own against Jackman who is always great as Wolverine, even when the material is crap.

oblio

Ahh, my mistake...Yuriko vs Yukio. thanks for clearing that up for me!

edytwinky

Big fan of the movie. Very pleased with the non-campiness of it.

DJariya

Pretty sweet poster from The Wolverine Facebook page. I believe IGN posted these originally.

RocShemp

I finally saw The Wolverine (in 2D since my local theater chose not to offer it in 3D) just now and enjoyed it a great deal. Basically, it took 6 movies (the 3 X-Men flicks he headlined, the previous solo outing, and now this movie) to finally do the character justice.

The story was well paced and the action was engaging with just the right dash of "just under over-the-top". Yeah, fans of Silver Samurai (does he have any?) might feel as betrayed as fans of the Mandarin were with Iron Man 3 but it's a small complaint in the grand scheme of things.

Speaking of small complaints, I don't get the hatred for Viper. I certainly didn't like her but she wasn't unbearably awful, as I expected she would be given all the complaints regarding the character and the actress. She was just bland and that's about it. More so when placed against Yukio.

Yukio was fantastic. I've never seen or heard of Rila Fukushima before but it'll be a crime if she doesn't end up with a long and fruitful career. I actually found myself wishing Yukio had more screen time, despite the character being well used. Heck, I found Yukio to be a better pairing for Logan than Mariko.

Tao Okamoto is lovely and made sure to imbue her character with a quiet strength. However, I still felt the role of Mariko was a rather thankless "love interest/damsel in distress" type. Well-acted, surely, and they tried to present her as a fighter but the character still felt unfortunately weak.

I also really enjoyed the score by Marco Beltrami. Nothing show off-y but it really fit the mood of the movie.

I found it interesting that there is a "sneeze and you miss it" audio reference to X-Men Origins: Wolverine that's heard just before the start of the final action sequence. So I guess this movie is not intended to retcon the former solo feature after all.

All in all, a great time at the movies and I already pre-ordered the BD.