The Wolverine: A Good Action Flick

The Wolverine, directed by James Mangold

The Wolverine is a spin-off of the X-Men series, which features the character Wolverine. The Wolverine is the sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which showed us how Wolverine got his powers. The Wolverine takes place after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand.

The beginning of the film is a flashback of Logan/ Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in Japan. Logan is in a Japanese POW internment camp. Logan shields a Japanese man named Yashida from the Nagasaki atomic bomb. Yashida never forgets about what Logan did for him in 1945.

Logan and Yukio in The Wolverine

In current time, Logan is living the life of a hermit. He is haunted by visions of Jean Gray, the woman he loved who he was forced to kill. A Japanese woman named Yukio tracks down Logan. Yukio works for Yashida, who wants Logan to come to Japan to save his life again. Yashida is dying of cancer. He wants Logan to transfer his powers to him. Logan refuses to help him, even though he thinks of his abilities as a curse.

Logan is told that Yashida died. At Yashida’s funeral, Yakusa gangsters attempt to kidnap Mariko, Yashida’s granddaughter. Logan and Mariko escape and make their way to Yashida’s place in Nagasaki. Mariko is captured by Yakusa gangsters. She is then rescued by Harada’s ninjas and is taken to safety.

Dr. Green and Logan in The Wolverine

Logan and Yukio discover a robotic parasite attached to Logan’s heart, which is suppressing his abilities. Logan cuts himself open and takes out the device. Shingen attacks Yukio, but after Logan heals, he kills Shingen. (Shingen is Yashida’s son and Mariko’s father.) Logan tracks down Mariko, but is captured by Harada’s ninjas. Dr. Green places Logan in a machine and introduces him to the Silver Samurai. The Silver Samurai is an electromechanical suit of Japanese armor with adamantium swords. Mariko manages to free Logan from the machine. Harada realizes he did not have Mariko’s best interests in mind, and is killed by the Silver Samurai.

Yukio shows up and kills Dr. Green. This occurs while Logan is fighting with the Silver Samurai. The Silver Samurai severs Logan’s adamantium claws and attempts to take Logan’s healing abilities. The Silver Samurai turns out to be Yashida, who had faked his own death. Mariko stabs her grandfather in the back with Logan’s severed claws while Logan regenerates and finishes off Yashida. Mariko becomes the CEO of the Yashida Corporation and says goodbye to Logan. Yukio becomes Logan’s bodyguard.

Hugh Jackman as The Wolverine in The Wolverine

I liked The Wolverine. Hugh Jackman was great as the Wolverine. I thought this film was a little more confusing than the other X-Men films. I knew that Yashida was not dead and that he would return to try to take away Logan’s powers. I also knew that Logan would not die because he’s the star of the movie.

I would recommend The Wolverine to fans of the X-Men films, fans of the X-Men comic books,  fans of Wolverine, fans of comic book adaptations, and fans of action/ adventure films. I would give The Wolverine a B+ because it was a good movie, but it wasn’t a great one.

The Giving Tree; A Boy Named Shel

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

 Shel Silverstein describes his book The Giving Tree, as a story about a boy who is friends with a tree. The tree is a female, which is significant of something (but I don’t know what that is). When he is little, the boy and the tree are very close to each other. They play together, but then, the boy grows older. There are many times throughout the story, where the tree is sad because the boy does not visit her. The boy occasionally comes back to the tree, which makes her happy, but he cannot do what he used to do (climb her branches, etc).   Because of this, the tree continually gives parts of herself to the boy. For example, she tells him to cut down her branches to make a house for himself.  Shel Silverstein has described this book as being about one who takes and one who gives.  In the end of the story, though, the tree does not give the boy anything to take. Instead, she lets him sit on her stump because he is old and needs to rest. The Giving Tree is a sad story because the boy and the tree are away from each other for long periods of time, but the boy always comes back to the tree.

A Boy Named Shel by Lisa Rogak

Shel Silverstein had a really interesting life.  His father was unsupportive of him because he wanted his son to join the family business. According to Lisa Rogak’s biography on Shel Silverstein, A Boy Named Shel, Shel’s father felt that Shel was wasting his life drawing cartoons, reading books, etc.  Shel and his father fought with each other constantly. Later in the biography, Shel is quoted as saying (after his father has died) that he thinks about him every day, misses him, and loves him.   Throughout the book, Lisa Rogak says “he said” or “Shel said” or she said.”  It gets really repetitive when she does this. In addition, she never met Shel Silverstein; she uses the things he said from interviews she did with people who knew him.  She explains in the introduction to the biography that some of Shel’s friends refused to be interviewed by her. It seems to me, though, that she was able to interview many of his friends.  In addition, she repeats herself a lot. For example, she states many times that Shel Silverstein was not attractive, but was able to attract a lot of women, which was something he could never understand.  In Lisa Rogak’s biography, she would mention someone, tell the reader who they are, and then not mention them again for a long time. She would then reintroduce them, but the reader had already forgotten about who they were. In other words, she uses too many quotes. Lisa Rogak seemed to focus too much on the negative aspects of Shel Silverstein’s life: his relationship with his father, the deaths of his parents, friends, and daughter, the trouble he had with his teenage son, the way he would treat people, etc.  In my opinion, her biography is interesting and readable, but it is not a biography that praises him all the time.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Very Tense Prequel to The Planet of the Apes franchise

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the story of how the planet of the apes came to be.  James Franco stars as Will Rodman, a scientist who is working on a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.  His dad (John Lithgow) has the disease.  Will and his team are experimenting on apes.

Caesar and Will

When it is discovered that Bright Eyes had a baby and died trying to protect him, Will brings the baby home and raises it like a father would raise his son.  Will steals his experimental drug  so that he can use it on his father. At first, this works, but then his father’s disease spreads rapidly and kills him.

Because of an altercation with a neighbor, Caesar (Andy Serkis) is sent to a sanctuary for apes. At first, Caesar is picked on for being different (he wears clothes and is smarter than everyone else).  At the sanctuary, the apes are abused by one of the sanctuary’s caretakers (Tom Felton of the Harry Potter films).  Eventually, the apes escape and save the apes from the lab where Will works, as well as the apes from the zoo.

Apes on the Golden Gate Bridge

There is a big battle on the Golden Gate Bridge in which apes and humans die.  Will knows where the apes are going—when he gets there, he tells Caesar he’s taking him home. Caesar says he is home. Caesar has bonded with the other apes.

Caesar

This movie was pretty good. It starts out as a love story between a man and an ape and then progresses into a story about apes being mistreated, which leads us to an ape revolt. The love story is not well developed. Will doesn’t shed one tear when he has to give Caesar up. The love story between Will and the vet (Freida Pinto) is also not well developed because we do not know if they are married or boyfriend and girlfriend; all we know is that they are living together.

This movie is very tense.  There is a lot of action in it.  Some scenes are scary. The acting is okay.  The special effects were good.

I would recommend this movie to fans of action movies, and fans of The Planet of the Apes films.  I would give this film a B because it is good, not great.