‘The Wolverine’ Extended Cut Features Blood and Language

‘The Wolverine’ Extended Cut Features Blood and Language
Russ Fischer - /Film

The following obviously contains spoilers for The Wolverine.

The biggest addition, which accounts for many of the extra twelve minutes in this version, is an extra segment that takes place at the beginning of the ninja encounter that opens the movie’s final sequence. It features a lot of blood, in big washes, thanks to dastardly use of a snow-grinding machine. This sequence seems to have been shot with the knowledge it could end up cut from the final edit, as there are easily discernible “in” and “out” points that don’t tie it too firmly to the action that bookends the fight. I’d also wager (but am not 100% certain) there are more shots of the Silver Samurai drilling into Logan’s bone claws, in what is still the most stomach-turning sequence in any film featuring Marvel comic characters.

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While the unrated The Wolverine is more superficially “adult” (it wouldn’t score a PG-13) it is not more adult in a true sense. It does not explore the theme of death in more significant fashion than the theatrical cut. The romance between Logan and Mariko still feels like an opportunistic makeout session, and Mariko’s counterpart, Yukio, remains the film’s only fully-formed female character.

It does not seem to be that this is necesarily a better version of the film to me even though I did complain about the lack of blood. Given everything that went on the film did feel quite a bit sterile. So maybe this cut does help a little. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I did like the film a lot…