10 (Probably Failed) Attempts At A Measured Response To The Wolverine

8. Yukio Keeps Picking Up Interference From A Psychic Weather Balloon

yukio the wolverine Well-written and smartly cast, Yukio is an excellent counterpart to Logan. She largely serves the same purpose as Rogue did in the first X-Men movie - to show that Logan's just a big softie. The only difference is Yukio can hold her own and rocks a cool sword. So what's not to like? Well... maybe her mutant ability, which is to foresee someone's death when it's close to their time. Not a bad power as they go... though not a terribly good one to add to a story that largely revolves around someone faking their death. The movie largely plays fair with the audience regarding her powers, but it's still a problematic idea. True, as a writer I may be thinking of plot construction too much: once Yukio fails to sense Yashida's death, we know that either the story isn't playing fair or Yashida is faking his own death, making him the bad guy. Also, her vision of Logan holding his heart in his hand is only mostly right, like she's only getting one bar of reception to the afterlife or something. Like the rest of movie, it works well enough to get by. And Yukio's character arc is my personal favorite in the film. As an orphan and a mutant, she serves a family which she never really feels completely part of. The closure she gets from Mariko at the end is quite sweet, and nicely ties into X-Men's themes of finding a place where you belong while still being yourself.
Contributor
Contributor

Jeremy Wickett was raised from an early age in one of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's classier opium dens. A graduate of The University of Oklahoma, he now resides in Phoenix, Arizona - where the desert heat is oppressive enough to make him hallucinate that he's a character in Star Wars. And of course he can speak Bocce - it's like a second language to him. His so-called musings can be found here: http://geekemporium.blogspot.com/