Jabir Bashir Wada

The Wolverine (2013) seems to be the least talked-about comic book superhero movie of this superhero renaissance. IMO, I thought the movie was pretty alright on a rewatch. It's not bad, but it's not great either. What's interesting is that years later, people don't seem to talk about it in a positive or negative way. It's almost as if the movie doesn't exist. It's loosely based on Volume 1 of the Wolverine comic book by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller. James Mangold directed both this film and Logan, and it's interesting how much Logan has overshadowed this movie. My favorite parts are the beginning, where Wolverine saves Yashida and survives the bombing of Nagasaki; the bullet train fight; and the funeral fight, where Logan realizes that he's actually hurting more and finally gets to say a proper goodbye to Yashida. I also think the idea of Wolverine losing his healing ability was an interesting plot point. Despite that, the question is: Why isn't this movie talked about much anymore? Here's what I think. 1. The villains aren't as interesting. I think the Yakuza and Yashida's ninjas were actually competent henchmen because they were effectively able to hurt and pin down Wolverine. I also thought the idea of the person Wolverine saved in the past turning out to be the main mastermind was clever. It certainly surprised me the first time I watched it. However, making the Silver Samurai just a giant robot suit was a questionable decision. I understand the reasoning behind taking the character out of the suit, but they could have approached the Silver Samurai differently and made him more memorable. Then we have Viper, who IMO is a really cartoonish and generic villain. She's a woman with viper-like powers who is evil, and that's pretty much all there is to her character. 2. It was overshadowed by other X-Men and superhero films. After this movie, we got Days of Future Past, which was critically acclaimed and effectively rebooted the series by ignoring much of the original timeline. Then came Deadpool, which was also a huge success, and, of course, Logan, which received widespread acclaim. On the MCU side, 2014 gave us The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, both of which elevated the MCU's reputation even further. Meanwhile, DC fans were occupied with the DCEU getting started. With so many major superhero films coming out around the same time, I think The Wolverine was simply overshadowed. 3. It wasn't particularly significant to Wolverine's story in later films. I keep hearing that the scene where Yukio sees Logan dying with his heart in his hand symbolizes Laura watching Logan die in front of her. I think that might be one of the few meaningful connections between this movie and Logan. I know the samurai sword Yashida gave Wolverine also appears in Logan, but that's more of a nod than anything particularly important. Logan's relationship with Mariko is never mentioned again, nor is his supposed partnership with Yukio. Of course, the fact that he still has the samurai sword in Logan shows that he remembers those events. I'm just not sure how much he thinks about them or what they mean to him by that point. Another interesting connection is Logan's struggle with wanting to die. In The Wolverine, Jean Grey's death haunts him, and she constantly taunts him about his desire to die. By the end of the movie, he seems to have moved on from her death and found a reason to keep living.🤺