Wolverine: The James Mangold Restoration, The

I watched this movie in the original version many moons ago, so this was a nice reminder of how cool it actually was. It is a bit of an odd mix to have Wolverine mixed with the Japanese culture, however I always was drawn a bit to comics where the heroes were out of their elements and the story took place in a "non typical" environment for them. It always felt like a "special edition" to me.
This edit took out the best of this mix and of this "special edition story". It is funny, because even back then when I watched the theatrical cut of this movie I hated the original ending. This one feels kind of abrupt to me in one way since subliminary the movie seems to move to a specific climax that kind of never comes, but maybe that's just because I saw the original ending, hard to say.
Anyway this edit is fantastic and really makes me want to read an X-man / Wolverine comic now :)
Thanks for the hard work!

White out shot transitioning end of fight before tower into the plane goodbye scene was a bit jarring but other than that everything it aimed to get across worked well and I very much enjoyed it.

Decided to go in fresh for this edit since I haven't seen the film before so this may act more as a film review than a fanedit review.

Overall, it's not that bad. Definitely more of the "uber grounded" type of films that I'm just tired of at this point, but it worked more here than in other films.

Yeah, the original mini-series this is loosely based on ain't done............at all here honestly. But it's not painfully butchered as in other films either.

As for the edit, the ending was a bit confusing but after reading some of the editor's notes it made more sense. Though I do think it could have been executed a bit better. The removal of Viper was expertly done though, barely noticed her being missing at all.

I will start by saying that I really liked the original, despite not enjoying much the third act. The tone was almost completely out of place compared to the previous two acts, but still, I enjoyed a lot the "Ronin" take on the Wolverine.

Now, when it comes to the edit, up until the moment where Logan kills Shingen, I loved it! I was thinking, no way, these guys actually did it and have restored the original vision of the director! Granted, the first two acts were the "easy part", but still, it gave me the impression that the third act will fall in line. The editing was superb, audio the same and the changes that were made were most welcome. Particularly I was pleasantly surprised with the seamless removal of the action sequence in the love hotel and how it went from Logan passing out at the balcony, straight to the part where the son of the hotel owner is removing Logan's bullets. Also, no more Viper ;)

But then, we went to the third act where I was really really surprised, and not in a good way, about what was done. First of all, the edit from Logan removing the sword from his chest to the pagoda where his next destination was, was abrupt. Then, we have an awkward sequence of Harada saying something to Mariko and trying to kiss her and then we go straight to the fight with him, the ninjas and Wolverine. As it turns out, it was the final battle, where yet again there is another abrupt cut of Wolverine and Jean, which leads as to the scene of the plane where Logan is leaving and saying goodbye to Mariko. The end.

I never saw this coming. In my mind, the way this edit was going, I was sure of one of two things would happen, either the final battle would be with Shingen, which I would had loooved if that was the case, or they would have heavily trimmed the Silver Samurai sequence. Well, I was wrong on both accounts. I don't know about you guys, but if the final battle was Shingen vs Wolverine, it would have been perfect. Obviously, you would need to remove the "come and get her" scene and find some in-between scenes to connect the end of the battle with the scene at the airport, but I think it's possible, even if we get a couple of abrupt cuts to achieve that.

The only reason I recommend this edit is for people who absolutely cannot stand the third act of the movie and for the excellent work that was done with the first two. For me, I think I will stick with the original version..

Thank you guys for reading my review and a big thank you to Silver Screen Samurai and Wakeupkeo for all their hard work!

A fantastic edit all around. From a technical standpoint, there are no hiccups with the audio and visual edits, as they come together seamlessly. Even the original sequences added in, I had to check the cut list to make sure they were unique to the edit instead of being from the original, they were that good! The story has been heavily refined into what Manigold would have wanted, a neo noir, Japanese flavored adventure focusing on Wolverine, bringing out the best in this movie in the process. I don't even mind some complains others had about the edit: 1) I like that we don't actually know who poisoned Logan initially, in a film like this its nice that there's a mysterious element you'd have to think about after it ends, and there's room for interpretation. Based on the previous scenes, I assumed it was Shingen's doing. 2) The ending may be a bit abrupt, but it's well executed in its concept and I like the symbolism: Logan leaves behind his past to focus on the woman right in front of him, high up in the tower.

That being said, I feel Harada is the weakest link in the edit. His turn as the antagonist feels rather sudden, as unlike Shingen, we don't have any scenes with him to set up his eventual return. That's understandable, given the only scenes he has are shared with Viper, who has wisely been cut from the narrative, but it still leaves a jarring turn as he suddenly takes over. I feel even a few scenes earlier on with Harada that have been cut, like him helping Logan escape with Mariko, would help his character stand out better, but I'll admit that might not be an option. It still a worthwhile, gorgeous edit to watch.