Review of The Wolverine

I know, I know, I know. A "super-hero" movie? What about all those great film's from Cinema History? What about all of that high "fullutin'" language about Cinematic Art? To be completely honest I was not blown away by the visual style of this film. There were some great shots of Japan and the skyline of Tokyo, but then there was the use of what appeared to be handheld DV shots of Hugh Jackman running in the street which was also used in Man of Steel. I suppose the "shaky" look has become standard in movies. Having seen it in such pop culture productions as The Wolverine and The Man of Steel, I think, is evidence that the "shaky" look is a mainstream fad in cinematographic technique.

Let's face it, it's popcorn season so a story like Wolverine is not going to be heavy in theme or character. And there was certainly both lacking. But, there was some clever revelations in the movie. If you haven't seen the movie yet, stop reading, because the grandfather is the metallic samurai which I knew from when the grandfather and Hugh Jackman met for the first time. Its a superhero flick, no big surprises. Also when the weird Japanese girl breaks into the lab, I thought it was "chinsy." A fortified place with tens of ninja guards around is that easy to penetrate. To me that is indicative of non-creative screenwriting on the part of the writers. On the contrary, when Wolverine loses his claws was definitely a shocking sequence. I didn't expect him to lose his claws.

Yet back to the visual style of the film. I thought there was an over-emphasis on revealing Japan to viewers. Perhaps I'm an over exposed Westerner to Asian culture, but I thought some of the scenes stayed a little too long on the natural beauty of Japan. I thought the editing could have been sharper with some scenes shorter. Less emphasis on the beauty of Japan, although Japan is a beautiful country, it just seemed to me that the intro to Japan could have been done away with. It also struck me as a very "Western" way of viewing Japan.

I found the scene with Hugh Jackman fighting the son backlit by a blue color with the raining coming down as very good shooting on the part of the DP and Director. Also the shots where the audience looks down the stairs in the lab were pretty good even though they were digitally manipulated. I saw this movie because I saw the trailer and it had a metalic samurai. That's what sold me and it didn't disappoint.