"The Wolverine"

   Following the events of X-Men: The Last Stand, Logan now lives as a hermit in the Yukon mountains, and is constantly tormented by the memory of Jean Grey who he was forced to kill. While there, he has flashbacks to World War II, when he was a prisoner in Nagasaki. While prisoner there he saved one Japanese soldier from the atomic bomb by shielding him. Back in present day, Yashida, the officer that he saved, is dying and wishes to see Logan one more time. While there Yashida tells him that there is a way to transfer his regenerative abilities onto himself, so that he, Yashida, could live forever, and Logan could live a normal life.

     Directed by James Mangold, this film stars Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine, Hal Yamanouchi as Yashida, Tao Okamoto as Mariko, and Rila Fukushima as Yukio. This was such a great installment to the X-Men series, and Hugh Jackman does such a good job with this character, it's like he was made for this role. I would say it was the best Wolverine stand alone film yet.

      Can we just stop and think about that amazing fight scene on top of the bullet train! It has to be one of my favorite fight scenes ever, it was so creative and ingenious. Another thing I loved about this movie, is that it stayed pretty close to the comic book series that came out in 1982. However, one of the problems I have with this film is that Viper aka Madame Hydra should have been delved into more, I mean she is a pretty big character in the Marvel comics. The reason they didn't affiliate Viper with Madame Hydra is because they didn't have the rights to her character, so Viper is a mutant in this movie rather than genetically enhanced. So I understand why they didn't, but I was still kinda disappointed with that. Hopefully she will be in a Captain America movie!

        The end credits scene gave me chill bumps. There was to much awesomeness seeing Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen back together for their roles as Professor X and Magneto respectively! It sets up the X-Men: Days of Future Past perfectly, and I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for this movie! The cast has to be one the most star studded films of 2014, with of course Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Halle Berry, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page, and Shawn Ashmore. I think with a budget of $250,000,000, most of it went to getting this cast together in one movie.

      For any of you wondering if there will be another Wolverine stand alone film, yes there will. It was announced last year that there will be another sequel, however no plot line has been given as of yet.

   I would give this film an 8.5 out 10 stars! Follow me on Twitter and come back here next Sunday for the next blog post!

Peace,
Jake