Logan Review
After 17 years with the claws, Hugh Jackman’s era as Wolverine is coming to end, at least according to his repeated statements. If this is the end, Logan is a good note to go out on. While it’s not a perfect movie, and I feel some have over-praised it, there’s still a lot to enjoy with this superhero film that really isn’t much of a superhero film.
The basic story is this: it’s the future, and unlike most movies where the technology has advanced at an unbelievable rate, the cars look a little neater but cell phones are still the same size and the mutants are almost all extinct. Think Obi-Wan in Star Wars (1977). Logan, Charles Xavier, and Caliban are all that remains of the X-Men and they are hiding out near the Mexico border while Logan works as a sort of uber driver, but with more of an attitude then any uber driver you’ll ever see. Soon a young girl named Laura comes along, and as Logan discovers she is a mutant. Soon trouble follows her as a group of Reavers, as they’re called, try and catch the girl. So it’s up to Logan and Xavier to protect her, but age and the long road behind them have left their toll, making this a difficult task for the two.
So there’s a number of positives to mention: the whole cast is excellent, especially Jackman as Logan, giving his best performance as the character and arguably his best performance in any movie to date, though I really thought he was overlooked in Prisoners (2013). Patrick Stewart provides a little comedic relief as the former Professor X, and at the same time takes the history of the character with him and makes it, like Jackman, arguably his best performance he’s given in the franchise. Dafne Keen, a newcomer, plays Laura, and if this film is any indication, she has a lot of good films ahead of her. Without being the character with the most lines, she makes the greatest impact of the new characters, though lots of screen-time also contributes to that. James Mangold, who directed the last stand-alone Wolverine film, knows how to make movies, and this is easily his best work since Walk the Line (2005), which I really liked, too. Similarly, there’s a western vibe with this film, from the setting to the almost bashing-you-over-the-head references to Shane (1956), one of the few non-John Wayne westerns from the 50’s that still holds up today and should be seen. There’s also a wonderful set-piece in Oklahoma where the three on the run stop at a farmhouse and have dinner and stay the night with a farming family. It’s a great moment where the chasing stops and we can take a breather. It’s also a moment of levity where we can see how Laura interacts with normal people, perhaps an early sign to see if she will be interested in the future in saving normal people, the same way the X-Men did years ago. Also, the last action scene is very exciting and, without giving the exacting details away, emotionally satisfying.
I do have a few complaints though, but it’s hard to say exactly what I want to say because it kind of spoils the movie. Well, one complaint that doesn’t give anything away: for the most part, Laura is a mute character. At first we don’t know if she actually is mute or if it’s because she’s been raised in Mexico, not the US, so the language barrier makes sense, but soon she speaks both Spanish and English, so what gave? It’s very late in the film, too, so it’s like nothing before then impressed her enough to speak or anything? The villains in the film, for the most part, are adequate, but it’s the same problem I have with the Marvel Studio films: they flesh out the hero character very well, but then the villains are copy-pastes of each other. Destroy the world, blah blah, capture the hero, blah blah, get captured and escape damaging the hero(s), blah blah…you get the picture. The bad guys in this film don’t have the same objectives, but still I felt like if they’re paying enough attention to the good guys, shed the same spotlight on the villains. I go back to Die Hard (1988), perhaps the best example of a great movie in the action genre where you can have a fleshed out hero with a bad guy that’s also fleshed out and a perfect match for him. My biggest complaint with the film, and one that ultimately took away a lot of enjoyment, was a surprise villain that’s introduced like an hour and half in. Those who have seen the film know who or what I’m talking about, but it felt like our villains aren’t good enough in confrontation and fight scenes, let’s make Logan fight…a character. It was a really dumb way out of having a real match for the characters that was pretty lazy writing. It really disrupted the film and took away my enjoyment of earlier strengths, like the farmhouse subplot.
Again there’s a couple more complaints I have, but I’ll have to save them for another time when everybody’s had the chance to see Logan, and I do very much recommend you see the film. The R-rating really did bring something new to the table, being at times an extremely violent film, but not just because they could, but because the characters have been through so much and are so grizzled they might as well stand alongside half of Clint Eastwood’s characters in the last twenty-five years. So when they’re dropping F-bombs and slashing people into shreds, it feels earned, different, and welcome. So if you’re of age and enjoy the franchise, you’ll get a hell of a kick out of it, and again the performances and western-like vibe should also entrance newcomers to the franchise or those who don’t normally enjoy superhero films. Really, just about anybody can enjoy this one in various ways.
My rating: 8/10.
