The Wolverine is one of the finest X-Men movies, one that adapts an iconic Logan story for a new audience. The original story by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller puts Logan’s character to the test. By putting Logan’s love for Mariko Yashida on the line, the berserker and the man are at odds. Unfortunately, with decades of sensibilities changing after the original story’s release, some things had to change. With 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise on the decline after X-Men: The Last Stand, a comeback is required. So how do the creatives make it good?
The Challenge
The original Wolverine story by Claremont and Miller revolves around Logan trying to save his girlfriend Mariko from her arranged marriage. Aside from the badly aging trope of “Love at First Sight” from her first appearance, the character of Mariko is at best two-dimensional. Most of Mariko’s contributions usually revolve around her relationship with Logan and her devotion to traditional samurai lifestyles. This lifestyle in turn presents a very cosmetic level tribute to Japanese culture, as if samurai families still run Japan. Finally there’s Yukio, whose only real role in the series is as an object of temptation for Logan. So the big challenge is getting Logan and the audience to fall in love with the characters and settings.
The Wolverine: Developments Through Love
The film series focuses on giving Wolverine a connection that brings him to Japan. In this case it’s the Yashida patriarch Ichiro. During WWII, Logan saves him by taking the brunt of an Atomic Bomb. With his healing factor, Logan is all but immortal. Inspired, Ichiro tries to replicate Wolverine’s powers through technology. All in spite of how Logan sees his healing factor as a curse.
Unlike the comics which revel in Wolverine’s invincible berserker nature, The Wolverine pays closer detail to Logan’s humanity. Logan grapples with his past as a killer weapon by an exploitive government as well as his own guilt at being unable to save people he loves. So when a hunter’s reckless use poison makes a grizzly go berserk killing a camping family; Logan’s punishing of the hunter epitomizes his desire to bring the corrupt to justice. Because Logan believes he’s guilty of murdering Jean Grey when she became the Dark Phoenix.
It’s that very humanity that allows Logan to make better connections with Yukio and Mariko. Yukio’s fascination with Logan comes from his warrior’s disposition of honor, finding him not unlike an ideal samurai. With Yukio’s ability to see people’s deaths, including Logan’s, she desires to be a warrior who can prevent death. Something she believes Logan is more than capable of doing. Mariko meanwhile doesn’t think too much of Logan at first calling him a caveman. Because come on, Love At First Sight is kind of dumb. It’s only until Logan shows his willingness to help despite the danger that Mariko sees him in a better light.
Samurai Heart
While Yukio and Mariko retain a bushido-style disposition, it’s more of a sign of respect towards their grandfather Ichiro. Unlike Mariko’s father Shingen who holds to traditional values that he feels his father corrupts with his fascination with Wolverine. So Shingen offers Mariko’s hand in marriage to a corrupt Minister of Justice just so he can get political connections. Even then it’s just to order Mariko’s assassination so Shingen can inherit the family company. Wanna know the worst part of samurai families? Stuff like this is more or less acceptable.
Authentic Japan
It’s a good thing The Wolverine does Japan a better service by portraying Tokyo as it actually exists; especially after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. The gap between the wealthy, yakuza, and ninja clans present a hidden world that willingly cuts itself off from their own country. Almost saying that civilian life is beneath them. Yet the people of Tokyo have their own culture that benefits Mariko and Logan. While the love hotel they hide at doesn’t serve it’s intended purpose for them; the privacy does provide an intimate moment of clarity for Mariko to see Logan’s nobility. Then of course there are the manners in which chopsticks aren’t meant to be stuck into food as it looks like ritualistic incense burning for funerals. As Logan’s healing factor is weakened in the movie, Mariko doesn’t want to see him courting death.
The Wolverine Filling In The Gaps
While The Wolverine mostly follows the same plot of the comic, it also tries to add more lore which is where the movie falls short. The inclusion of the supervillain Viper for example doesn’t really have much relevance to the plot save for comic fan service. She tried to kill Mariko and even married Logan on another occasion; it’s not even good fan service. The inclusion of the Silver Samurai meanwhile is a tad divisive. While it ties all the way back to the character’s service to the Yashida family, the use of the mantle varies. Kenuichio Harada (the comic Silver Samurai) for example is usually an adversary of Wolverine; but they barely interact in the movie and his role is dependent on his relationship with Mariko. They used to date.
Ichiro as the Silver Samurai however presents this rivalry in better fashion. The Silver Samurai suit is made of Adamantium and is built with a device made to extract Logan’s genetics. What is meant to protect the Yashida family ultimately is the obsession to live a power fantasy. One that Shingen reveals would’ve cost Ichiro’s company with all of the Adamantium required for the suit. But it’s that cost of family respect that ends up dooming him.
Aftermath
There’s a really great story about respect and love, and how that love can be smothering too. Between the switching of directors and screenplay rewrites, it’s hard to tell which smothers the overall production. My best guess is probably the desire to connect The Wolverine to Days of Future Past and the subsequent reboot. For a movie given so much love, everything about it becomes undone in favor of viral sensations. At the very least Logan serves as a good sequel.
So while this serves as a superior version of a classic by two legends with its greater developments, The Wolverine is far from perfect. It’s that desire to be part of something bigger that enhances and holds it back. It gets an 8/10 for using the outline to make audiences fall in love with Logan.
Thanks for coming and as always remember to look between the panels.