In light of the events that have currently overtaken our media coverage, one would consider it hard to review a film like Fruitvale Station without mentioning them and turning this entry into a political commentary. Lucky for you, I don’t fancy myself a journalist nor do I maintain an educated political opinion. I steer clear of the news and the feeding frenzy it makes of people’s lives. Given my personal choice to remain ignorant, I am going to leave politics out and will stick to what I know. I know what a good film looks like, and Fruitvale Station lives up to the Sundance award-winning hype. I went into the theatre only having read a brief synopsis about the movie, and I came out broken hearted.

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Hugh Jackman is RIPPED y’all!  Okay, now that I’ve stated the obvious, is this second foray into Wolverine’s story worth the trip to the multiplex when there’s so many other superhero flicks out/slated for this year?  Sure, you could just look at IMDb and say “James Mangold directed?  He did Walk The Line!”  You could go with that, but remember; he also did Kate & Leopold.  *shudder*  I’m here with more intel; The Wolverine is definitely worth skipping Pacific Rim for another week…for.  In other words, it’s an artfully shot bit of cinematic beauty that manages to tell an epic story (epic in the Hollywood sense; this is definitely a Hero’s Journey flick) where the action comes fast and frequent, and the title character is crafted well enough that you want to know more about him, and root for his success.  Of course Jackman’s biceps don’t hurt that cause any.

The Wolverine starts us out with poor Logan’s nightmares, and as this story begins shortly after the occurrences in X-Men: The Last Stand, he’s got a lot of scary rattling around in his brain.  Still reeling from killing the love of his life, Jean Grey, he’s also replaying other dark times in his past.  Like the time he was in Nagasaki during WWII, when the Allied Forces dropped THE bomb.  Logan manages to survive, and saves Yashida, a young Japanese Army soldier (Ken Yamamura) that was too scared to commit seppuku with the rest of his bretheren.  Flash forward to the present day and Yashida (now played by Hal Yamanouchi) is dying, and wants to see Logan to say goodbye.  As Logan is very busy beating himself up emotionally, it takes quite a bit of persuading (and a good deal of emotional blackmail) by Yashida’s emmisary Yukio (Rila Fukushima, a funny and badass scene stealer whenever she’s onscreen).

But at last Logan heads to Japan.  However, we all know it’s not gonna be a simple goodbye, right?  Right.  Logan gets himself into trouble with the Yakuza, who want to kidnap Yashida’s granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto), as well as a mutant with some truly killer powers.  That’d be Viper, played by Svetlana Khodchenckova (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), and she’s a nasty piece of work, though she works a latex bodysuit like nobody’s business.  Yeah, there’s a ton of stuff going on in The Wolverine, and it all fits together by the time the credits roll.  But this ain’t the kind of superhero movie where you can just let the action wash over you; in order to reap the maximum benefit, you’ve gotta pay attention.  The stories are twisty, turny affairs that make you work for your ah-ha moments.  Are most of those moments ones you can spot easily if you’re paying attention?  Absolutely.  But dang if Mangold doesn’t make it a fun trip.

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