Logan

photo courtesy of zrockr.com

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

     Logan is the 10^th film in Fox’s X-Men cinematic universe, the third and final film in the Wolverine trilogy, and Hugh Jackman’s last turn as everyone’s favorite adamantium-infused antihero. In a series marked by drastic highs and lows, this is one of the highs. Helmed by Director James Mangold, Logan is not just a good superhero movie or a fitting end to Hugh Jackman’s run—it’s one of the most thoughtful superhero movies since The Dark Knight.

     In Logan, we find a jaded Wolverine running a limo business and keeping the aging and increasingly unstable Professor X safe in a secret hideout in Mexico. The other X-men are (mysteriously) gone and Logan’s own powers are diminished, leaving him old and ailing. When a young girl with Wolverine’s powers gets dropped in his lap, Logan must choose whether or not he will protect her from the forces that seek to control her. But there’s more than the girl’s life at stake: Logan must decide whether being a hero is worth it at all.

photo courtesy of drafthouse.com

     The whole thing is remarkably well executed. The film carries a western aesthetic that complements Wolverine’s hard, blistering outlook on life. The music is sometimes complementary, sometimes eerily discordant. Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart give solid performances, as do X-Men newcomers Stephen Merchant (Caliban) and Dafne Keen (X-23), and there are some nice surprises in an otherwise streamlined and straightforward narrative.

     In a genre that struggles to tell meaningful stories about its protagonists, Logan delivers a poignant elegy. It’s is an incredibly close, intimate portrait, depicting its hero all his uncensored agony. In fact, the camera rarely leaves his side. We get the sense that Logan’s years of tragedy and violence have finally caught up with him. As his body finally begins to age, regrets about his past emerge—as well as concerns for his future legacy. The weight of loss, the cost of violence, the value of family, and the specter of death are at the forefront of the movie’s ponderous depths. That's not to say it's all gloom and doom; there are some genuinely warm, tender moments to balance it all out. 

photo courtesy of slashfilm.com

     It’s certainly not a perfect superhero film. There are poor exposition dumps here and there, and a few unfortunate plot conveniences. The otherwise excellent ending is thrown off course by a rather cheesy in-joke in the final moments.

     Overarchingly, however, the movie’s a triumph. It proves that the brand (and the superhero genre) has room to grow, and that it can bear the burden of real storytelling—even without the huge action set pieces and eye-popping spectacle. In fact, if X-Men: Apocalypse or Avengers: Age of Ultron taught us anything, it’s that we may be better off without those things sometimes. With enough courage, an intimate superhero story can be more powerful than anything the CGI department produces.

photo courtesy of theverge.com

     A final note: the R rating is for real. Logan is drastically more violent than the mainstream X-Men films and probably Deadpool, too. For the most part, the violence suits the film and its antihero well—so well that I’m wondering how we ever watched a censored Wolverine before. That being said, Logan is not for children. Claws through faces. So many claws through so many faces. 

photo courtesy of indiewire.com