The Wolverine (2013)

Confession time: The boyfriend and I have watched a movie a week in the last four weeks of July with my work barkada. That's a lot of movies, not that I'm complaining. It's been fun going to the movies with friends, you're more emboldened to be noisy - to laugh at the funny scenes or to comment out loud about those you can relate to. Haha. 

Last week, we saw The Wolverine on its opening day.  We were quite the entourage entering the cinema that day, almost all eight of us were dressed in formal wear - lakas maka-premier night effect pero tanghaling-tapat naman.

The boyfriend and I didn't really know what to expect. There was at least one Wolverine movie already in the XMen movie franchise right? We missed that so we weren't sure if we'll feel lost in this one. We also haven't been paying attention to the trailers. Gladly, we didn't get too confused in the story. So this one happens after XMen: The Last Stand where Phoenix dies and Magneto seems to lose his power. 

Here, we see Logan live like a caveman. He lives away from people, and has become friends with a big bear. The bear dies. Logan is summoned by a Japanese soldier whose life he saved when Nagasaki was bombed in WWII. The young girl Yukio who comes to get him is also a mutant, but that's not what makes her amazing to my eyes - she's kick ass with or without a samurai. 

I won't spoil the story for those who have yet to see the film but here we see a Logan who seemed to have lost his reason to live after he kills the woman he loved deeply. Will he grab the chance to lose his ability to self-heal very quickly? Will he give it all up to become normal?

It wasn't an all-out action-packed film but there was enough to keep me glued to the screen. Though my seatmate did (it wasn't the boyfriend), the rest of us stayed up. The fighting scene above the bullet train was something. I know there's been fight scenes atop trains before (there was one for The Lone Ranger too), but this is the first time where they were almost flying because of how fast it was going. 

I don't know what to make of Viper - she was a mutant doctor employed by Yashida - the Japanese soldier mentioned earlier who lived a long life and built an empire. She either did not have enough time to annoy me, or her character was really wasted on this film. I mean, that was all from her? Hah. 

As in other XMen movies, there was a preview of what's next after the closing credits started rolling. We stayed for that and I wasn't really surprised about the second person who unexpectedly appeared. It's enough to whet our appetite for the next installment in this franchise.  

If you ask me, I'd say go see the film. But if you're still not sure if you want to, here's the official trailer:



About the cinema - AliMall Cineplex. This was the first time I saw a movie in the new AliMall Cineplex. The theater probably sits 150 or more and looks quite cozy. Reminds me of the newer cinemas in Greenhills, and Resorts World. Each ticket set us back 200 pesos for a non-3D offering. The only downside was that we got confused about which cinema to enter (and it wasn't a big deal, really). Our tickets said Cinema 12 but there was no 12 there. Turns out it was Cinema 2. Even the personnel at the entrance wasn't sure. Bah. But we enjoyed the experience, so we'll probably watch there again.