dvd of the week
James Mangold’s The Wolverine is a great leap forward for the franchise, which has yet to reach its potential. Loosely based on a famed 1982 limited series written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Frank Miller, The Wolverine opens with our hero (muscle bear icon Hugh Jackman) living alone and depressed in the mountains, where a spunky red-haired Japanese woman named Yukio (a delightful Rila Fukushima) finds him and convinces him to fly to Japan to say good-bye to a man Wolverine saved during the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki. The man, Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi), is now the richest man in Japan and he has spent billions trying to beat cancer; he wants Wolverine to give him his healing power. Wolverine refuses, Yashida dies, and then all sorts of Japanese mob-based violence erupts. Wolverine had promised to protect Yashida’s granddaughter Mariko (the supermodel Tao Okamoto), which he does, ferociously but mysteriously without his healing power. Romance, swordfights, and chases ensue. As with most superhero movies, the action is copious, and Mangold films it well. Some of the images that Mangold and his cinematographer Ross Emery create are perfect replicas of Frank Miller’s iconic drawings from 1982; some of the movie is simply gorgeous. As are Okamoto and Jackman, who is a muscle bear icon. The movie is far from perfect – several characters are underwritten and the third act is messy – but it’s good comic book fun.
