Mini Review - Logan

Wolverine has been regarded as one of the most popular X-men, he’s shown up in almost every X-men movie in one way or another, and has been the main character in the vast majority of them. That’s a testament to Hugh Jackman who elevated this character beyond his comic book popularity, to the fact that whilst Fantastic 4’s future in comics went into doubt after Secret Wars, the X-men survived and recently Wolverine was brought back into the fray in the Marvel Legacy title.

Logan, Jackman’s final performance as Wolverine is based on a comic book Old Man Logan, I have not read the comic book but I know it has a following, with him replacing Wolverine in certain X-men titles and having a steady performing solo book.

With the success of Deadpool, Fox knew that an R-rated comic book movie could be successful and given Wolverine’s powers and history, an R-rated movie was ripe for him. Of course, they want to mitigate the risk, the budget for this movie was $96m, about half what the budget of your average superhero blockbuster. It was very successful, earning $616.8m at the box office and having a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

I’ll start off by saying this is an incredibly violent movie, there’s killing by the bucket-load and some of it by children. If you have a problem with anything I just said, this is probably not the movie for you.

Logan is dour, depressing, gut-wrenching, violent and at some points sociopathic and I love every minute of it. If you’re going to do a story about Wolverine, shying away from the violence is only doing a disservice to his character. Origins particularly had this problem.

But you may be wondering why I love this movie, and loathe Batman v Superman, a story I highly criticised for being depressing. First off, it does matter who the title character is, Superman should be a naturally hopeful character, something they decided to emphasise more in Justice League, so having these dour moments wasn’t as fitting. Wolverine has always about the internal battle between Man and Monster, which plays out multiple times during the movie. And they make it a tough choice through actual plot, not through bullsh*t pseudo philosophy and government cr*p.

The characters are what makes this movie special. Wolverine has a lead in several movies backing up his character, even if Days of Future Past changed a few things. In this movie, it’s clear from the outset he’s sick, we find out later on that the adamantium in his body is poisoning him and his healing factor is healing him slower and leaving scars all over his body. This helps keep the suspense up during the action scenes which get pretty nasty this time around. 

Whilst he’s very closed off pretty much throughout the movie, and with good reason, it’s clear from the outset he cares deeply about Charles Xavier and is going through a lot for him.

Then we have Charles Xavier, the world’s most brilliant mind is caught with Alzheimers, and combined with his abilities that becomes a very dangerous concoction. Patrick Stewart does a fantastic job here, it really feels like he is suffering from brain degeneration, his mood swings from time to time, he doesn’t know why he’s here and only near the end does he remember in one of the most tragic scenes in the movie. But beyond that he’s still Charles Xavier and he is spending most of the movie trying to help a young mutant and Logan to an extent as well.

Speaking of the young mutant, it’s clear X-men II’s introduction of X-23 is no longer canon, as she has a very different origin in this movie. Dafnee Keen is one of the best young actors I have seen in a long time. She has very little dialogue for the first 2/3 of the movie but her every action, her mannerism, grunts and groans showcase the kind of character she is. When she finally does talk, she’s still strong and conveys emotions well in her tone, her juxtaposition of Spanish and English could’ve gone differently but that’s very much a nitpick.

Oh, and there’s Caliban, you remember him? He had a 2-minute cameo in X-men Apocalypse, barely worth talking about. But given the character he was then, you’d be surprised to know I legitimately felt for him. He’s also out to help Charles but isn’t invulnerable like Logan and time has taken his toll. He is the victim but even at the point of torture, he refuses to give them up, despite mutant tracking being his speciality and he goes out in a fine fashion.

And Logan himself, the guy who’s always on the line between man and monster, the man who sacrificed everything to take care of Charles because he’s the only person who can and the man who despite every bone in his body telling him to stay far away, especially given some of the revelations in this movie, brought X-23 to the agreed meeting point sacrifices his life to protect the future. The last of the old dies so a new generation can be free. A fitting end for The Wolverine and for Hugh Jackman.

The only less good thing about this movie is the villains. Donald Pierce was mildly irritating, Zander Rice was boring and X-24 is without any defined personality whatsoever.

Rating 83/100