The Wolverine

The Wolverine - Dir. James Mangold (2013)

He's the best there is at what he does and what he does isn't very nice.

Wolverine first appeared in the final panel of Incredible Hulk #180 and matched his claws up against the Hulk's gamma powered fists in the very next issue. But, it was his appearance in Giant Size X-Men #1, when he became a full-fledged member of Marvel's premiere mutant team, that truly launched him into the pop culture stratosphere. Since then, he has stood as one of Marvel's most popular and enduring characters. His past was shrouded in mystery and his no-nonsense attitude clashed with the squeaky clean morals of his more colorfully attired peers. It's no surprise that the big screen version has gained equal popularity. A huge part of that is owed to his portrayal of Hugh Jackman, who was virtually unknown before he was cast by Bryan Singer in the first X-Men movie. To think, he almost didn't get the part. Russell Crowe's name was originally bandied about before Dougray Scott was chosen. However, Scott had to drop out due to filming Mission: Impossible II, Jackman popped the claws, and the rest is history. Now, Jackman sports the epic mutton chops of everyone's favorite Canadian superhero for the sixth time in The Wolverine.

The Wolverine is a title meant to signify the filmmakers' desire to capture THE definitive version of the character on screen. This latest installment serves as an apologia to the critically derided X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which suffered from too many characters, shoddy special effects, and a poor attempt to shoehorn Wolverine's origin into the movie continuity. Rather than a prequel, The Wolverine is a direct sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand, another mess of an X-film that also met with a poor response from fans.

The Wolverine opens during WWII with Logan as a POW outside of Nagasaki. Thanks to his healing factor, he manages to survive the atomic explosion and saves the life of a guard named Yashida. In the present, Logan lives a solitary life in the Canadian wilderness, haunted by memories of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), who he was forced to kill during Last Stand. Wolverine's hermit existence is interrupted by Yukio (Rila Fukushima), a former orphan and current employee of Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi), who has since become a captain of industry and now lies on his deathbed. Upon arriving in Japan, Logan is shocked by Yashida's proposal to take his healing factor and allow our hero to grow old and live a normal life. Logan also stumbles onto a whole mess of political and corporate intrigue involving Yashida's granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), who stands to inherit the entire company. The Yakuza are after Mariko and it seems her father, Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada), and fiancé (Brian Tee) want a piece of the pie too. Then, there's the Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova), a mad scientist with her own agenda for stripping Wolverine of his mutant powers.

The Wolverine is a refreshing change of pace from the usual comic book movies where entire cities are reduced to rubble. The movie is surprisingly light in action and heavy on introspection. The script credited to Scott Frank and Mark Bomback (who rewrote an initial draft by Christopher McQuarrie) used the 1982 mini-series by Chris Clairemont and Frank Miller as a springboard to explore the title character's existential crisis. While superheroes bemoaning the burden of their powers have become cliché, it fits Wolverine perfectly. Director James Mangold (who replaced Darren Aronofsky) draws on a variety of inspirations including film noir, spaghetti westerns, and Japanese masters like Kurosawa and Mizoguchi. The tender romance between Logan and Mariko blossoms when they seek sanctuary in a seaside town will immediately bring forth thoughts of Ozu.

Jackman makes the noir and western comparisons apt by giving a performance that evokes Clint Eastwood and Robert Mitchum. He's the gruff tough guy smoldering with rage and ready to explode in a violent fury. Practically stealing the show is newcomer Rila Fukushima as Wolvie's pixie punk sidekick. With her large and expressive eyes, Fukushima looks like a Japanese Christina Ricci or a girl who just stepped off the page of a well-worn manga. Forget about more X-Men movies; give us the adventures of Wolverine & Yukio. Perhaps, take them to the isle of Madripoor?

The Wolverine isn't entirely about soul searching and belly gazing. Mangold, who gave us the excellent remake of 3:10 to Yuma, puts together several solid action sequences. The highlight sees Wolverine doing battle against Yakuza thugs on top of a speeding bullet train. We also witness the amazing visual of Wolverine being turned into a human porcupine when he takes on a clan of ninja archers. Yukio gets in on the fun with a swordfight against Hiroyuki Sanada, who is terrific for the limited part he plays.

Where Wolverine goes off the rails is during the third act when all the character work is tossed away in favor of mind numbing spectacle. It's as if someone forgot they were supposed to make a comic book movie and threw in a giant robot samurai. Meanwhile, the Viper is thrown into the mix without much thought with Khodchenkova (who was quite good in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) sounding like she should have gone after moose and squirrel instead of Wolverine. The story only requires a cursory knowledge of the franchise. In fact, being steeped in X-Men lore may be a curse and not a blessing as it reveals numerous hiccups in continuity. For one thing, how does Logan suddenly have all his memories?

Third act aside, The Wolverine differentiates itself from the majority of recent comic book films by not relying heavily on tired tropes or expensive effects.  Just be sure to stay through the first half of the credits to see a teaser for X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Rating: *** (*****)

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters - Dir. Tommy Wirkola (2013)

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is the latest in a string of revisionist fairytale films following Snow White and the Huntsman and Red Riding Hood. You might even throw in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which delved into the secret history of the famed president and his battles against the undead. In Witch Hunters, writer/director Tommy Wirkola reveals what happened to the sibling duo after their childhood run-in with an evil witch and her gingerbread house.

As children (played by Cedric Eich and Alea Sophia Boudodimos), they were left alone in the woods by their father and barely survived their first encounter with a witch. As adults (played by Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton), they earn a living by traveling the countryside, killing witches, and saving abducted children. Hansel and Gretel are called to the town of Augsburg where many kids have been taken by a coven of witches led by the powerful Muriel (Famke Janssen). Muriel intends to use the children for a ritual sacrifice that will grant her wicked sisters immunity against fire.

Wirkola is no stranger to these oddball mash-ups. His previous picture was the horror/comedy, Dead Snow, featuring a group of vacationing teens battling a cadre of zombie Nazis. Here, Wirkola has some fun re-imaging Hansel and Gretel as a leather-clad two-some armed with a variety of steampunk inspired weapons such as machine guns, mechanized crossbows, and an early 19^th century version of a stun gun. Witch Hunters pays absolutely no attention to historical accuracy, which leads to dialogue riddled with anachronistic inanities. “Will you shut up?” and “That was awesome,” for example.

Considering the thin story, it’s not surprising that Wirkola originally envisioned the concept as a short film. The majority of the plot consists of the characters wandering the forest and fighting a witch ad nauseum. There’s not much in between other than a half-baked romance for Hansel and a convoluted origin for him and his sister. You’d think the movie would be cleverer with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay listed as producers. Unfortunately, Witch Hunters feels like a Funny or Die short stretched beyond its capabilities. Wirkola does manage to sprinkle in a scant few sparkling ideas including a gag where portraits of missing kids are tied to milk bottles. Hansel also happens to have diabetes as a result of the witch force feeding him sugary treats to fatten him up. He requires regular insulin shots, but that plot point is forgotten for much of the movie until the climax.

The original Grimm fairytales were gruesome cautionary tales. While Witch Hunters never gets that gory, it does earn its R-rating with plenty of cartoonish violence. Witches are regularly beheaded, burned, and sliced to ribbons. The score by Icelandic composer Alti Orvarsson is energetic and reminiscent of the Sherlock Holmes soundtrack by Hans Zimmer, who served as music supervisor.

Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton make the most of their roles, but both actors deserve better. It’s doubly disappointing to see Gretel transforming from kick-ass chick to damsel in distress requiring her brother to rescue her. Famke Janssen doesn’t get much either as the villain since she spends most of the film hidden behind Evil Dead-esque make-up. Peter Stormare appears in a small role as an obstinate sheriff very similar to his part in Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm.

Just like The Brothers Grimm and Van Helsing, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is an oddball concept that is never fully realized. At least, Wirkola tackles his film with a tongue-in-cheek attitude and a brisk runtime.

Rating: ** (*****)

Taken 2

Taken 2 - Dir. Olivier Megaton (2012)

The original Taken was the surprise hit of 2008, pulling in over $226 million off a meager budget of $25 million. The film reeled in mainstream audiences through their primal anxieties of xenophobia and white girl peril, then unleashed righteous fury in the form of Liam Neeson. As former CIA agent, Bryan Mills, the Irish-born thespian cut a path of brutal vengeance on the ring of human traffickers that took his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace).

It's understandable that Bryan would have a hard time letting go, especially when Kim blows off driving lessons to be with her boyfriend (Luke Grimes). These aren't evasive driving maneuvers, just plain old driving lessons because Kim doesn't have a license yet. Never mind that Maggie Grace is almost 30 and too old to be playing naïve high schooler. In any event, Bryan gets a security gig in Istanbul for a wealthy potentate when ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen), and Kim pay him a surprise visit. Unbeknownst to them, Albanian gangsters, led by Murad (Rade Serbedzija) are en route to seek revenge for the deaths of their brothers and sons from the first film.

The screenplay by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen is either brilliantly stripped down or lazily slapped together. There's a slight twist on the basic concept with the parents being taken and Bryan making the ominous call to Kim, who must locate the bad guys' hideout. In the silliest sequence of Taken 2, Kim runs around the rooftops of Istanbul lobbing live grenades so her dad can use the sound of explosions to triangulate his position. You'd think an American blowing shit up would raise a few red flags. At one point, Bryan casually guns down a crooked police officer. Sure, he may have been dirty, but murdering a cop still has dire consequences. However, Taken 2 isn't concerned with logic. There's no time for that nonsense when there are unwashed scumbags with funny accents to kill.

From there, the sequel descends into a non-stop stream of indiscernible action. Besson protégé Olivier Megaton turns every fight scene and shootout into a series of abstract images thanks to an overuse of shaky cam and choppy editing. Megaton also directed Transporter 3, the worst of the series, and Colombiana, which is just as ridiculous, yet far more entertaining. Car chases (those driving lessons from the opening are going to come up again, right?) are unremarkably rendered with Bryan shouting such encouragements as, "Move it, Kim" and "You can do it." Speaking of driving, someone in the Besson camp must have just seen Drive because Taken 2 lifts almost directly from the Nicolas Winding Refn film. Kim listens to College's "Real Hero" on her iPhone while Chromatics' "Tick of the Clock" is used for a tense scene in which Kim waits for her father in a getaway car.

Taken 2 fits the bill of easily digestible popcorn entertainment. Perfect for anyone who wants to watch Qui-Gon Jinn fight Boris the Blade.

Rating: ** (*****)

Taken

Taken - Dir. Pierre Morel (2008)


” I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”

If Liam Neeson says he’ll find you and kill you, you’d best believe it. Here, he plays Bryan Mills an ex-government operative though it’s never revealed exactly what he did. Mills is now divorced, his ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen), has since remarried a much wealthier man. Lenore and daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), convince overprotective dad to allow her to take a summer trip to Paris with a friend. Mills reluctantly agrees with the caveat that she calls him everyday and keeps him constantly updated. Mom blasts her former hubby about smothering their precious little girl. Of course, dad’s worries are proven correct when Kim is abducted by human traffickers. As you can tell from the above quote, dad doesn’t take this lying down.

Taken comes from Luc Besson, director of La Femme Nikita, The Professional, and The Fifth Element. Besson has spent the last several years as a writer/producer on action flicks like the Transporter series. With Taken, he re-teams with Transporter co-writer, Robert Mark Kamen and director Pierre Morel who helmed another Besson project, District B-13. If you’ve seen any of those pictures, then you’ve got a good idea of what to expect from Taken with a light influence from the Bourne franchise. In fact, you could easily see Neeson’s Bryan Mills as what might have happened to an older Jason Bourne. Mills gets into plenty of shootouts, fist fights, and car chases throughout Europe while using a little ingenuity to get out of tough scrapes. He’s a stone cold, hardass too. When interrogating one bad guy, Mills doesn’t shoot him to get answers; he shoots the guy’s wife.

Taken is a rather predictable and clichéd affair, but it’s a fun action film. If the idea of Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn dispatching criminals right and left appeals to you, then you’ll probably be taken by Taken.

Rating: ***