Logan is one of the best superhero movies ever made. Speaking as a film fanatic who owns thousands of comic books, that isn’t something that I would say lightly. It is both bewildering and stunning that this was made by the same director (James Mangold) that made The Wolverine. It’s bewildering that the man was hired again and it’s stunning that he made something this good. It would be like if Batman & Robin and Batman Begins were made by the same guy. The leap in quality is that big.
I use the term “superhero movie” here more for the sake of convenience than as an accurate description. This isn’t a superhero movie in the traditional sense. In fact, it could easily be rewritten as a general action movie or even a western without any connections to the X-Men. I don’t mean that in a negative way, rather just to illustrate that this stretches the genre in a way that is rarely seen outside of comics themselves. The plot is basically that of a road trip movie. Wolverine and Professor X are now shadows of their former selves and live in a near future (2029, I think) when all other mutants are gone and a new one hasn’t been born in decades. That changes when they cross paths with a young girl (also known as X-23) that has powers oddly similar to those of Wolverine. They then embark on a trip to a rumored mutant sanctuary in North Dakota while being pursued by mercenary-types that want to get ahold of X-23.
I am normally a stickler for plot continuity in franchise films, but this is actually a case where I find it refreshing that the movie couldn’t seem to care less about that. Regardless of how you feel about the other X-Men/Wolverine films, we can likely agree that the continuity has become convoluted at this point. Hell, Deadpool even made a joke about it (Is it Stewart or McAvoy? Where are we in the timeline?). Logan gets around that by simply not giving a shit. It picks and chooses references to previous movies without concern for continuity, but rather with the sole intention of ensuring that this story works as a standalone film. That would usually irritate me, but it works here. And it pays off.
The tone of this movie is perfect. Completely eschewing the more light-hearted adventures of the X-Men, Logan takes place in a bleak and brutally violent world that feels like a different universe from what came before it. If you watched the previous films and wished Wolverine could go berserk without the limitations of a PG-13 rating, then holy shit will you get your wish. Heads are chopped off, limbs fly everywhere and people are shot in the face. Characters that you think are safe are quickly eviscerated. However, it is not dark for the sake of being dark and this tone fits Wolverine (unlike, say, Superman or Fantastic Four). It isn’t a cynical film, either. The violence and tone are required for this subject matter and develop organically; it isn’t there because someone took an old Wolverine script and stuffed some extra violence in it. And even among the darkness and violence, there are some sweet and funny moments too. The characters are not mere cannon fodder; I actually cared when people died in this movie.
If the Academy Awards were actually about movies and not political causes, Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart would both be nominated for their performances. Jackman portrays Logan as a grizzled, burnt out man that has seen some shit and drowns his memories with whisky. It’s an incredibly effective and often poignant performance that reminded me of Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven. Stewart gets some of the funniest lines in the film, but also brings an aura of sadness that permeates through the film. He plays a man that knows that he is on his last legs and wants to do something right to make up for his past. All of this is unusually heavy stuff for a comic book movie, but it works without feeling forced. Dafne Keen, the young girl that plays X-23, is also excellent. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pre-teen girl seem this intimidating and the physicality of the role is impressive. Hoping to see her career continue in the coming years.
If I have one gripe about the film, it’s that the villains aren’t particularly interesting or memorable. But the main characters are so well done that I don’t really care. I have also heard some people nitpick about differences between the film and the comics. Those people need to let it go. Not everything in a comic can work on screen, for both artistic and logistical reasons, and even the best adaptations take liberties with the source material. I am not particularly knowledgeable about the X-Men comics, but I really can’t imagine that being a huge issue unless you are just looking for something to bitch about.
I expected to like this movie, but I didn’t expect to like it this much. Even halfway through, I kept waiting for something to ruin it. Maybe a villain in a samurai mech suit would show up or Wolverine would get a comic relief sidekick. But no, none of that happened. It’s both sad and irritating that this is (supposedly) the last ride for Jackman and Stewart in these roles, because it made me realize just how much better these movies could have been all along. But one great Wolverine movie is better than none and franchise swansongs don’t get much better than this.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_(film)#/media/File:Logan_2017_poster.jpg
