The Wolverine

  It's my first post of 2014, and I couldn't think of any better movie to do a post on other than The Wolverine. It's also the newest movie I've seen recently. I'll do my best to give any warning of spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie yet.

  The Wolverine movie is based on a limited series named Wolverine by Chris Claremont, and Frank Miller. It follows Wolverine when he travels to Japan to see a dieing friend he saved during World War II, Yashida. It starts with Yashida sending Yukio, a trusted warrior, and friend of Yashida's daughter, Mariko, to tell Logan that Yashida's going to die soon, and he'd like to pay him back for saving his life all those years ago. On Yashida's deathbed he tells Logan/Wolverine that Mariko's life is in danger, and from there starts the adventure.

   The story they followed was a great choice. It gave us that battle he goes through inside his mind, the battle between man and beast. It also pushes the idea of Logan being a Ronin, which enforces the idea of him being alone in this battle both in his mind, and in the main story. It's actually caused me to want to pickup the comic to read the original story.

  The effects, and camera angles used in the film helped to enforce the storytelling. (Spoiler) In the scenes where Logan was shot after he started to loose his healing abilities, the camera takes this tunnel vision effect which gives the viewer the same feeling that Logan is going through, and going back to the story, it give the feeling of that battle between man and beast. They also didn't stick on these effect for too long, and even avoided using it too much, making it old to the viewer. The best editors in the film industry have said that your edits shouldn't be noticeable, otherwise you loose the viewer, and you take them out of this world you've created. Basically they were used enough to help enhance the story, and not take you out of it. The other thing about the effects used in the film was the use of them for the Silver Samurai. You could tell that they used both digital, and practical effects to keep it from looking fake.

  Overall I really enjoyed The Wolverine. It's definitely one of my top 10 films I've seen this year. I have to give it a 5 out of 5. As an added note, if you pick up the Blu-Ray, check out the special features, they're pretty cool.