The Round-Eye and the Princess, Pt. 2

47 Ronin (2013) 118 mins.

"So why do you want my help?"

47 Ronin is a beautiful movie. It's lush, lovely, crisp, stylish, well-paced; simply beautiful to look at. It's also well-acted (for the most part), and well-directed (with a caveat or two). It's a good story, well told. The story sticks to the monomythic script for a tale about an outcast and his beloved childhood friend and sweetheart, the unobtainable princess, daughter of his master. From the found-in-the-woods opening to the storming-the-castle ending, and at every point in between, it doesn't veer far from a road well-traveled.

It doesn't need to. The story has weight of its own, and if we've been here before, we can surely enjoy the ride again. This tale isn't weighed down by excess dialogue or unnecessary scenes. It moves along to its conclusion, two simultaneous fights, the dishonored warrior versus the dark lord while the now-so-important outcast battles the dark lord's evil familiar, in a way that doesn't leave the viewer bored, or exhausted, or disinterested.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The only thing that kept me from giving it five stars is the lead actor's delivery, which reminds me that at times I'm still seeing Ted, and this is just another Excellent Adventure.

Four Stars. Good.

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The Round-Eye and the Princess, Pt. 1

The Wolverine (2013) 126 mins.



"I'm the Wolverine."

Let's face it. At this point, Hugh Jackman is the Wolverine. As a kid who bought not only Hulk #180 and #181, but also Uncanny X-Men #94 and Giant-Size X-Men #1 off the spinner rack as a kid, I'm a big fan of the character. I was there for his origin, the month it happened. I was there when he joined the X-Men, as the issues came out. So it was with some trepidation that I watched this movie, hoping one of my favorite characters wouldn't be ruined by a movie which featured him as the lead.

I need not have worried. Like I said, Hugh Jackman is Wolverine. I'm sure it's because we've seen him so many times as Wolverine that we totally buy him as the character, but it's also because he really gets who Logan is, as a man, as a soldier, as a reluctant "hero". He doesn't ruin Wolverine for me. He inhabits the persona in a way we could only have wished for.

As a Wolverine movie, this is a fantastic movie: it relies on some of the best material (chiefly the Frank Miller era), it doesn't recap the origin story yet again, it plays the character the way he was meant to be played, and it's a crisp, stylish, action-filled romp, with lots of superhero fun, yet it's dark, grim and gritty enough to still remain a Wolverine movie.

Of course, every bit, from the crazed loner in the Canadian Rockies to the sinister scientist-villain to the not-so-defenseless princess to the giant robot to the storming-the-castle scene to the endless ninjas to the strange mixture of cutting-edge technology and weird metaphysical mumbo-jumbo has all been done before, but this is about serving up those familiar flavors in a way that still seems fresh, and tasty, and delicious. This film delivers.

Luckily for us, Hugh Jackman is the Wolverine. The kid that bought those comics way back in the Seventies is incredibly happy about that.

Five ninja throwing stars of mutant greatness.

Five Stars. Really Good.

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