‘The Wolverine’ Slashes Its Way Into Mediocrity, Say Critics

The Wolverine improves on X-Men Origins, but doesn’t impress, say critics.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was pretty much the exact opposite of what the fans wanted, as it put Logan (or James Howlett, to the big fans) in a montage of everyday life scenarios including chopping wood, having a slapstick moment in the bathroom, and getting told the story of the wolverine by a character almost nobody cared about. Gambit was in it, for about five minutes, and Deadpool was taken so far from his own character that his fans instantly hated the movie when it revealed him post-experiment.

The Wolverine was James Mangold’s attempt at making the title character closer to what the fans wanted, but the critics considered it just too much of the same old character.

The film begins by leveling a city, as an homage to the bombing that ended World War II has a B-29 Bomber drop a nuke on Nagasaki. Wolverine trades favor with favor by saving a fellow POW in a scene that prepares you for a movie full of Hugh Jackman shirtless. The bomb scene was literally the high point of the movie, says Empire Online. From there on it’s just trudging its way through scenes that wish they were on par with any of the X-Men films. The forced symbolism is almost brought to a head when Wolverine meets a wounded bear. In a moment of irony, Wolverine recalls the events of X-Men: The Last Stand where he killed Jean Grey and vows to never hurt anyone again, and less than a minute later, he’s killing people in a bar fight.

The toxins that the Wolverine is injected with at one point toward the middle of the film seem to actually be working their way into the movie itself, as the downtime is almost something you can sleep through, says Total Film. If you come into this film to play the “Hugh Jackman shirtless drinking game,” you’ll probably drink yourself into a coma by the end, but at least it picks up by then.

In general, comic book fans might enjoy it for trying to be faithful to the source, but moviegoers looking for a decent action thriller will most likely be checking Facebook toward the middle just for something interesting.

Feel free to let us know what you thought of The Wolverine when it hits theaters July 26.