Logan

• Directed by James Mangold
• February 17, 2017 (Berlinale) / March 3, 2017 (US)
• Based on Wolverine created by Roy Thomas, Len Wein, and John Romita Sr.

An aged and weakened Logan along with an extremely ill Professor X must protect a young mutant being hunted.

I know people rave about Logan but I’m not one of them. I like it but I don’t think it’s as great as others have said. I’m not a fan of seeing once strong and powerful heroes in shitty situations. I’m not talking life advancing and things maybe aren’t as good as they once were. I’m talking about their lives being in a toilet next to a giant floating turd brought to you by Taco Bell. Especially in a future world that has gone into the wastebasket with no hope of fixing things. Kinda makes all their sacrifices pointless.

That’s how we find Logan (Hugh Jackman) and Professor X (Patrick Stewart) now simply going by ‘Charles’. The world has completely gone to shit has have their lives. They are in hiding and eking out the most meager of existences. Charles is having seizures that are dangerous for him but more so for those in his vicinity due to his abilities. Logan is being slowly poisoned by the adamantium leeching into the rest of his body from his skeleton. They are living in an abandoned smelting plant south of the border with mutant tracker Caliban (Stephan Merchant) who described himself as a glorified truffle pig when it comes to his powers. Great line there by the way. In the world of Logan no new mutants have been born for 25 years. It’s the end of the road for his kind-or so he thinks.

This is much more of a character study than it is a superhero movie. With the discovery of Laura (Dafne Keene) who completes the trio at the heart of the storynthey travel to a place called Eden that Logan from the start. Laura was liberated from a facility with other mutant children who are part of an illegal experiment. Laura brings with her some comics and based on what he finds withing comes to think their destination of Eden is based on fantasy.

If anything, Logan is about confronting the mistakes of the past and maybe even confronting yourself. They hit you over the head with that a bit with Logan facing off against a clone dubbed X-24. Created by the villainous company Transigen and Dr. Rice (Richard E. Grant) X-24 is devoid of any morality or independence that may be inherent in something created through more traditional means.

Given what we have seen of the character, Logan’s death felt anticlimactic to me. They were going for a Shane vibe in this (a film referenced in several ways here) had a more ambiguous ending with the character going off into the distance would have worked better. You know he dies but you do not see when/exactly how. Logan gets shot and stabbed before being impaled on a fallen tree. Before the stump it was clear he was not making it. Stumpy was not needed to be sure.

I can appreciate this film more as a violent drama. It’s brutal and more grounded but with a smidge of superhero in it to make it a little more than just a hyper violent movie. Powers feature much less in this travelogue where our three characters cross the landscape of a decaying US and bring death to just about everybody they encounter. The body count is massive though the moments to get those bodies are brief with the focus of Logan being largely on the characters. Pierce (Boyd Holbrook) is creepy and dangerous and while Rice is evil, he is not evil for the sake of being evil. Logan being a killing machine most of his long life must be a caregiver and protector.

And despite my dislike for how Logan meets his end it mostly worked for me. There is some emotion in it. I think where the movie gets truly weakest is when Dafne Keene starts talking as well as when she snarls her face to look feral/tough. My issue with child actors I think it is well documented on this blog. Not against them, but very few can hold much time screen effectively. When Keen is silent and not making faces she is at her best. On the one hand, I hate how Logan died.

On the other I did enjoy Logan. It’s worth watching but it’s not the great revelation people would like it to be. I recommend it but I can’t say it’ll blow your socks off.