Logan Spoilers

Oh my god, if every X-men movie from here on out, instead of having an after credits scene there is a pre-movie scene of Deadpool, I will be so happy.

The movie begins with what I think might have been a trailer, but to me just seems like a short film, similar to Pixar films, of Deadpool seeing a man getting mugged and he decides to go save him… after he changes into his costume in the style of super man, in a nearby phone booth. This had me laughing my ass off. Fox realizes how much of a cash cow Deadpool is now that it made them all the money last year so it makes sense that they will probably throw him into everything moving forward. Whether it’s just that brilliant marketing team starting early, or if this is going to be a thing moving forward, it was great to see the Merc with the mouth start us off with a laugh in what really turned out to be a very sad and emotional ride after the scene was done.

When we catch up with Logan, he’s taking care of a decaying Charles Xavier with Stephen Merchants character. All Logan wants to do is get away with Charles so they can take a boat and

disappear. I liked how Boyd Holbrook knew that Logan and Charles were hanging out doing their thing but he didn't seem to care, that wasn’t the point. The objective came when Laura comes into the picture and we the X-men universe really hitting a home run when it comes to realism.

The woman trying to save Laura makes a video of the inhumane treatment of these children and it’s done in a way that feels very real. Alkaline doesn’t feel like an evil organization because it has a secret lair, it feels evil because it takes experimentation to an inhumane level. This is not the first time something like this has happened in comic book movies, even in X-men movies, but this time around it just felt more gritty and real to me as I was watching it.

So eventually it comes down to just Logan, Charles, and Laura and like I said in my review, this is where the movie hits its stride. These three worked really well together. Charles is just this senile old man with a heart of gold but at the same time the R rating allows him to swear because he’s been through the ringer and he doesn’t want to lose his mind. I have never experienced a loved one suffer from ALS or Alzheimer's but you can see the effects on not only Charles, but on Wolverine. It’s really heartbreaking. They handled that subject matter incredibly tastefully and while I did not cry in this movie, I definitely got close, especially with the more emotional moments involving Charles.

The relationship between Charles, Logan, and Laura worked so well because it was putting Logan in a situation where he’s trying to find that family that he never got the opportunity to find and it’s done really well. Again, this is how these movies should be made, the characters serve the story, not the other way around.

Speaking of Charles though, the subject of him having Alzheimer's works incredibly well because it does allow his powers to be show cased and display how a mutant of his abilities would respond to having Alzheimer's and how that would effect him. The moments where he inflicts paralysis on everyone and Logan needs to stop him are done incredibly well and I only wish they had explored that more. One of the unfortunate parts about the new X-men franchise is that James McEvoy is going more into the mentor role and the focus is on mutants who (for lack for sensitivity) aren’t in a wheelchair. First Class worked so well because it showed Charles utilize his powers so well and I kind of miss exploring those mind reading powers. Logan did a little bit more into that and I wanted more, especially with such a unique situation.

The further along the movie runs you realize that there was definitely something that happened prior to this movie that Charles feels guilty over. They don’t say specifically what happened but we can infer that this brain disease Charles has that causes him to have these seizures have led to the death of people before and you can also infer that those people might have been mutants. And then of course there’s the moment where Charles remembers what happened and he feels such guilt for what happened and it’s incredibly tragic. It makes it all the more tragic when he sees Logan above him, but definitely not the Logan we know and he just stabs Charles with his claws, maybe making him think that it finally happened and Logan finally just didn't want to deal with this old man anymore. I have a lot to say about the Wolverine clone, but that moment really works and it's sad as hell, especially when Logan comes and pleads with him to know that that wasn’t actually him.

I had an inkling that Charles was going to die in this movie, but I had no idea how or that it would give me such a heartache, especially, like I said, I didn't have the same connection to the character that other people did prior to this movie.

But let’s talk about the villains of this movie. Like I said, Boyd Holbrook worked for me because he was menacing enough to be a threat and he served the purpose of someone going after Logan and Laura. His boss, that guy from Doctor Who, didn’t really seem to have that defined of a character enough to really make me enjoy him as a villain. For a while I thought that he was supposed to be Mr. Sinister. I’m pretty sure he’s not, but if he wasn’t then who was he? Stryker’s son who goes out like a punk when Logan shoots him in the neck at the end? He just didn’t feel like he was of that big of consequence in the larger picture. And I think if he had just been left at being the guy holding the lease of the Draco Malfoy-look alikeI don’t think I would have had an issue with the villains in this movie. But then there was Clone Wolverine.

And here’s the thing, thinking about it now, the scene where Charles is killed by clone Wolverine and you don’t really know if he died believing that Logan just was waiting for him to die or not is very sad. So I get the purpose of X24 in that particular moment. However, I somehow feel like they could have done something a little bit more original than just a clone of Wolverine. It felt very strange that they have all these mutants in these testing facilities, they want to find the strongest mutant to create this absolute monster and weapon, and in the end they create the same exact thing that this guys dad

built back in Wolverine Origins. Like there are really no good things about X-men Origins, least of which is sewn mouth Deadpoool, but the concept of that character and the combination of all the mutant powers that they’ve collected and utilized into one super mutant is pretty cool. I guess I would have liked to see the Mouthless Deadpool done right because that makes more sense to combine all the powers of captured mutants and create a super mutant slave rather than just creating Wolverine again. I appreciated that they didn’t make the villains center stage and they focused more on the heroes and the relationship between them, but I think I would have liked to see a little bit more developed villains or just make the villains more ambiguous like having them just be the government or a shady organization.

I think one thing I would have maybe liked to have seen was Liev Schreiber return as Sabretooth and perhaps switch out with one of the villains, perhaps Boyd Holbrooks character or the placeholder that was the clone Wolverine. I know this movie wanted to be as far away from any kind of resemblance to X-men: Origins Wolverine but there were a couple things they didn't necessarily need to bring back but they could have done better and bringing back Sabretooth would have given them another chance to do the Wolverine and Sabretooth relationship, something that should have worked, another shot to work. I don't know how he would have fit in entirely but I heard the idea floated around as something to add to this film and I actually don't think that would have been a bad thing if it had been realized.

Having Laura be Logan’s daughter, or clone daughter, was an interesting development and again, it worked with that theme of family that is pretty strong in this movie. The best part was when these two decided to work together. There was nothing that could stop them and it was absolutely perfect seeing them with both their claws out and just tearing shit up. Like I said in my regular review, I wasn’t incredibly wild about how Laura just suddenly decides to talk half way through the movie. It felt random and just out of nowhere. I guess now that I’m thinking about it, she didn’t really need to talk before Charles died because they were just having conversations in their minds but I didn’t think about that during the movie and Charles had talked with her without using his powers before so I guess it didn’t make a lot of sense for her to not talk and then suddenly start talking again after the farm scene.

Speaking of which, I will mention quickly, if you needed some kind of extreme for that R rating, the farm scene was definitely that because not only was it a heart felt moment when they’re all around the table, but it becomes all the more sad when Clone Wolverine comes in, stabs Charles and massacres the family living on that farm. I was sitting there thinking that this felt more like a horror movie than it did a comic book movie because everyone is getting slashed, Laura is screaming, Logan is getting the piss knocked out of him, it was intense.

The action and violence in this movie was just done so well and it was so intense that it was just a pleasure to watch. As I've mentioned before, the focus was not the display of powers like in past X-men movies but they utilized the powers of Wolverine and other mutants really well in this film.

It is just totally worth it when its the end and Logan and Laura are just pulling off the sweet team up. The action was exciting and it just added so much to the movie that all this action was done in an incredibly violent and graphic way.

So the question is, what does Logan mean for the future of the X-men franchise?

Is Laura/X23 going to show up in future X-men films? Is she going to be portrayed by Dafne Keene? That remains to be seen. The ending of Logan suggests that she goes off with the rest of the mutant children and they go off to live in Canada. But there's a couple things that make that difficult. 1) this is set in the future and doesn't really match with the X-men universe they've kind of already established with the cast from X-men Apocalypse so you'd have to either set the new X-men franchise in the future, or you'd have to have Laura go back in time, something that would create a lot of problems. Not that it hasn't been done before in the X-men comics or even the movies, but it could continue to make the X-men timeline even more complicated.

I think at the end of the day, this franchise has gotten so convoluted and so messed up timeline-wise that it might be time to reboot the entire franchise (save Deadpool). The great thing is that Deadpool never established where in the timeline it is and there really isn't any reference to the X-men franchise as we know it today so it could work to create a new universe centering on new X-men characters and since Hugh Jackman isn't playing Wolverine anymore, maybe you cast an older woman to play X-23 in the new universe. Maybe you start it up with X-Force...

If Logan has shown us anything, it's that it has made Fox Studios pretty much all the money once again. It's really funny how Fox Studios goes from one bad movie to one really great movie. They definitely have their peaks and valleys. In 2015 you had The Fan 4 Stic which was really bad. Then you had Deadpool which was fantastic. Then you had X-men Apocalypse which was not as well received. And now you have Logan.

There's clear writing on the wall and it's that Fox is going to put a lot more of it's energy into their more mature properties and dole out some more rated R films because they seem to be the ones getting them the most money. Even their TV is supposedly doing well with Legion on FX and that's a more mature story so I think this might be the future of the Fox Studio Marvel films. I think that if they were going to reboot the franchise with more of a focus on the more mature stories, perhaps X-Force is the way to go.

I've heard stories that say that a reboot is possibly happening in the future for the X-men universe and with the success of Deadpool and the R-rated properties, it might be very interesting to see Fox go in a more mature direction but keep the entertaining elements that have made us really enjoy their films. While I loved Logan, it doesn't exactly point the X-men franchise in a clear and concise direction.

A lot of their films are successful but the ones that have been the most successful recently have been Logan and Deadpool and maybe instead of trying to do exactly what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is doing, it might be within Fox's best interest to break off and try something new.

But what do you think? What were your favorite parts about Logan? Spoilers away! What do you think the future of the X-men Universe is? Will we ever see a collaboration of X-men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Is Fox going to make their superhero franchise more R-Rated? What would you like to see? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should be reviewing in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. I found this little gem and I thought I'd include it. Enjoy!

The Great Gatsby

Like every other high school student, I read The Great Gatsby. The part that I find funny is that everyone else in my class thought that book was one of the best books they had every read and to this day they put it down as one of their favorites of all time. I thought the book was fine and I enjoyed the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald, however, it never had the lasting effect on me that it had with everyone else I knew. It was a book that I enjoyed but it was nothing spectacular.

I think I feel the same about Leonardo DiCaprio. Everyone else knew him from their childhood as they watched Titanic or Romeo and Juliet and have since believed that DeCaprio walks on water, like The Great Gatsby. So I think it’s a little bit ironic that they made a movie adaptation that starred DiCaprio and everyone was so excited to see it… except for me.

The Great Gatsby came out in 2013 and I never got around to watching it. It wasn’t until I was saw it free on an on-demand service that I decided it was time to check out the remake of the classic and give my thoughts on it.

The Great Gatsby follows the story of Nick Carraway (played by Tobey Maguire). The frame of the story has Nick in a Sanitarium trying to come to grips with the death of his friend. I don’t remember the book very well, but I know for a fact that this wasn’t in the original novel. I’m not saying it’s a bad way of framing the movie, I guess I just didn’t really see the point. The story is framed in Nick telling the story of how he met Jay Gatsby and his experiences in New York and eventually writing the book, “The Great Gatsby”. 

Nick eventually meets a cast of characters that all are connected in one way or another. He connects with his cousin Daisy (played by Carey Mulligan), a bubbly trophy wife to the racist and cheating Tom Buchanan (played by Joel Edgerton). He also meets their friend Jordan Baker (played by Elizabeth Debicki). Tom's mistress Myrtle (played by Isla Fisher) and her unassuming husband, George (played by Jason Clarke). Many of them allude Nick's mysterious neighbor, Jay Gatsby. They all seem to be connected in one way or another, but it's not until Nick meets him that Jay Gatsby's plan begins.

Gatsby (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is a mysterious man of wealth with an ambiguous backstory. Some people call him a war hero, others call him German spy, others call him a criminal. But Nick befriends Gatsby and gets to know him like no other person has in a while. Eventually Gatsby brings him in on a plan to woo Nick’s cousin Daisy because they are long lost lovers from a bygone time.

Overall, the story is of lost love in the 1920’s but it also echoes the themes from the novel that made it so timeless in the first place.

The reason The Great Gatsby is such a relatable story is because the themes and the underlying messages within the story are attainable enough for the laymen audience to understand. The giant eyes on the billboard in the middle of the lower class areas could represent the eyes of God, especially when there are sins being committed in the lower class areas. I don’t mean to belittle anybody who finds meaning in the Great Gatsby’s storytelling, I only mean to comment on the accessibility of the story.

The movie is directed by Baz Luhrman, who you might recognize from Moulin Rouge, and if you liked the style of that film, you’ll definitely like the style of The Great Gatsby. Everything is very animated and very colorful. On top of that the movie blends the style of the roaring 20s, an era known for social enlightenment and lavish parties, with the raging party vibe and actual music of the modern age. There is a lot of music actually used in the movie that is composed by Beyonce and Jay-Z. It mixes both the radicalness of Jazz in the 1920s with it’s arguable modern counter-part, hip hop of today.

Now as intriguing as the style of Baz Luhrman can be, you do have to remember the obnoxiousness of Moulin Rouge and accept that that is also in this film along with the innovative styles. For me personally, I think it’s a little bit over the top and takes away from the dramatic elements of the story. This could be a really great story if it was focused more on the substance rather than the style, but that’s not to say its bad.

The performances in this film are what even out the obnoxious Luhrman styles. I really thought that there wasn’t a bad choice as far as casting goes. As much as I think Tobey Macguire has kind of always been Spider-man since the early 2000s, this film does give him some opportunity to play a different role. Now is he still a social odd ball in this film and every other film he plays? Yes, the guy looks like a guppy. However, I did enjoy him in this film and the conflict he comes with holding the secrets of others.

You really can’t help but fall in love with Carey Mulligan in this film. Not only is she gorgeous but she really does play this bubbly personality that is conflicted and flawed at the same time. I think that Mulligan is an actress that is not in nearly enough film these days. I kind of wish this would have introduced her to more American audiences but I guess that’s not the case as I haven’t really seen her in a lot of films lately.

I also really liked Joel Edgerton in this film. I feel like I haven’t seen enough of Joel Edgerton but everything I have seen him in whether its Midnight Special, Jane Got a Gun, or this, I have really enjoyed him in everything. When I read the book I guess I didn’t pick up how much of a bastard Tom Buchanan really is in this story and Edgerton does a really good job at being a bit of an asshole in this story.

And the best part of it all I think is when all these people come together. I think Joel Edgerton or even Tobey Macguire can have good performances but it's when they all come together is when this movie starts to show off the ensemble cast. It's pretty well done. I think everyone plays off one another very well. 

The big surprise that I guess I didn't really expect was the tension between Joel Edgerton and Leonardo DiCaprio as Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. To be fair, these are the two actors with the most acting chops and talent so it's not really surprising that they're probably the most entertaining of anybody in the cast, but I was really entertained every time these two go head to head. 

On top of that, the relationship between Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Macguire as Gatsby and Nick Carraway is pretty genuine as well. I think the movie took a little bit of liberty with the way that they portrayed that relationship because it does come off as though Nick experiences more than plutonic feelings towards Gatsby, however that could all be conjecture. 

But the performance everyone was really interested in seeing was that of Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby. And I’ll be honest, it’s okay. This movie came out in 2013 which was about the same time that people started to really get up in arms about Leo never receiving an Oscar and I’ll be honest, this role doesn’t support him deserving one any more than the Wolf of Wall Street did or any other role he’s been up for in the past for Best Actor. He doesn’t do a bad job, I'm not going to sit here and try and argue that Leonardo DiCaprio is a bad actor, because it's just not true. Even in a mediocre movie like that of J Edgar, DiCaprio pulls off a great performance and steals the show and that's exactly what he does in The Great Gatsby. I just thought that with all the “Old Sport” and weird accent that is almost cartoony, the role was almost hindered by the style and the over the top nature of the movie.

And that’s the overall thought I had for the entire film. The movie in my opinion is a classic case of style over substance. While the performances are very good and they make up for some of the cartoonish style that the movie brings, Baz Luhrman tends to get in his own way when it comes to creating a good movie with lucrative style. The visuals and the music are very good but I think they over shadow the dramatic acting and good performances within the movie.

But what did you think of The Great Gatsby? Did you have nostalgic connection to this story? Do you have nostalgic connection to Leonardo DiCaprio? If you do, please let me know, what is the appeal? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I’ll leave you with this. This is really unrelated but I really doubt I will get around to writing a reaction to this new Spider-man: Homecoming Trailer. I thought it was pretty good, I'm excited to see what this Spider-man brings. Enjoy!

The Justice League Trailer

Disclaimer: This post has spoilers of Batman v Superman. The short summary of my reaction to this trailer is that I enjoyed it and while I'm still skeptical of this film, there are a lot of good things I'm seeing.

So I'm not gonna lie. I have been pretty nervous about Justice League. The truth is, Batman v Superman hurt me. I used to get joy out of superhero films and the speculation of such films. Now I go into a film like Doctor Strange, a film I feel I would enjoy immensely if it had come out in 2015, but now I recognize the formulas and a part of my child like innocence has died.

But then the first actual trailer comes out for Justice League. And yes I consider this the first official trailer because the first thing that was released was more a special set of clips from comic-con and not so much a full on trailer. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but as far as "trailers" go, it wasn't a very well put together trailer.

Now here's the thing. I am still very nervous for Justice League. I put a lot of trust into Zack Snyder to handle my two favorite superheroes of all time, and he mucked it up. Now I'm giving my trust to him once again to take on my favorite superhero team of all time and... honestly, I was scared for a little while...

Now, since I've seen the trailer, I am still skeptical... but... well let's talk about it.

The trailer picks up where we've seen Bruce Wayne (played by Ben Affleck) since the end of Batman v Superman, going around trying to find other meta-humans in order to establish a team that will fight the next fight against those who wish to do humanity harm since the death of Superman. (Sorry for the spoilers?). He explains again that he's gathering a team of people with special abilities in order to face a threat that is on the way. Of course that refers to Aquaman (played by Jason Momoa), The Flash (played by Ezra Miller), and Cyborg (played by Ray Fisher). But the threat seems to be growing larger in this film because Wonder Woman (played by Gal Gadot) states that the threat is not on the way anymore, it has arrived.

We see a lot of cool stuff in this trailer and we see a lot of action. We see the parademons from the dream Bruce Wayne has in Batman v Superman. We also see the Justice League in action as Batman, Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg all start working together and fighting individually

and together. Now there is a pretty cool scene with Joe Morton as Dr. Silas Stone in possession of a motherbox and a parademon appears behind him. While it looked really cool, I am a little bit concerned about the use of the parademons for a couple of reasons. The first being that I just think it's too early for the Justice league in general, but also, they seem like they are just the faceless alien Army that we've seen in so many superhero films recently, that it already makes me pretty worried.

But I'm trying hard to look at the good things.

The action is pretty great. This is the first time we've really seen all these members of the Justice League really come together (see what I did there? Because they used that in the song!) and fight on the big screen. The other great thing I picked up from the trailer was that they didn't really give away a lot of the story. We still have the idea that there's going to be a dark force coming to Earth that the Justice League will have to fight and defeat.

Because I've already spoiled Batman v Superman, I do want to talk about the larger picture of this and how important a trailer like this is.

This is one of the first times we have seen all five of these characters together on screen and it's a pretty important moment. The thing that I really enjoyed about this trailer was just the aesthetic of the team and how epic these guys look.

I've always thought the method they should be utilizing when filming these characters is portraying them as modern greek gods and goddesses, and I'm not the only one. Think about it, DC superheroes really do have incredibly supreme powers over any of the heroes from the Marvel cinematic universe, and while that sometimes makes them less relatable, we want to see Aquaman utilize his powers of the sea, we see that in this trailer. We want to see Barry Allen attain the speed force, we kind of see that in this trailer. We want to see Cyborg... do Cyborg things. And he does!

Another issue with the trailer, and this is one I've heard from a couple of people is how Cyborg has a distinct CGI stink about him. I'm sure that the CGI for Cyborg is going to get better, I'm not incredibly worried right now, but I've heard a couple of critics make mention of this and ask, if this isn't the finished project, why would you show this?

I think the reason why is because Cyborg is kind of the member of the Justice League we've seen the least and this was the opportunity to show him off a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for him, I just think they could have waited a little bit to show him off, especially since the movie doesn't come out until November.

Something that I noticed in this film was that each member of the team showcased someone from that particular heroes individual world.

You had Amber Heard appear as Mara. You had JK Simmons appear as Commissioner Gordon (even though that's supposed to be the only scene he's gonna be in apparently, JK Simmons is a boss). You had Billy Crudup show up as Dr. Allen, Barry's dad, something that I hope they capitalize on as well as they did on the TV show. And of course, you see Lois Lane... which I will talk about in a second...

It's obvious that each member is going to have their own little introduction scene where they are living in their own world and they need to be pulled into the format of the team.

I can only hope that we are familiarized with these characters enough so these new characters and familial characters actually mean something and aren't just used for fan service. I hate to bring in The Avengers, but when the first Avengers movie came out, there were a couple of small cameos from characters familiar to the Avengers. Gwenyth Paltrow made a cameo as Pepper Potts and that worked because we were already familiar with that relationship and it made sense for her to make a small appearance. In Age of Ultron (which was done a little sloppily but still works for the example) when Stellan Skarsgard's character appeared for a small cameo, it made sense because we remembered him.

Really the only character that is really familiar to us is Lois Lane and that's a supporting character for a character who doesn't even appear in this trailer, Superman.

I did not expect to see Superman in this trailer. I don't expect to see him until the last or second to last trailer for this movie, probably not until August or September. However, the question still is up in the air, how will Superman fit into this story. Is he going to be resurrected? Is he going to dawn the Black suit? Will he be evil? Is he going to have a mullet? We don't know.

If you read my spoilers review for Batman v Superman, or have picked up on any of my vibes about how I felt about Batman v Superman, you will know that I did not like the way they handled Superman in this film and I certainly thought that killing him was the wrong choice for multiple reasons but mainly because I thought it was a premature move and wasted the Death of Superman storyline.

Something that was pretty interesting from this trailer was how I really did feel like this is the team that would be built in a world that had a Superman and no longer had one... you know... instead of a different one...

The Justice League is what you would need to fight the true evil that is headed towards Earth. And while it hasn't been confirmed yet, it would also be the team you would need in case a certain Super man came back to life and was instead against humanity for some reason instead of for us. You would need a Wonder Woman, a Poseidon, the fastest man alive, a Cyborg, and the Dark Knight.

Now I don't know that Superman is going to be evil, but I'm a little worried about this character because while I look at this team and as much as I love it, I feel like it's still a little bit incomplete without Superman, I don't really want Superman in this film.

I would rather have a film or two developing these characters as a team and doing their best to fight off the evil. However despite all their best efforts, they're still no match for the great evil, whether it's Steppenwolf, or Darkseid, or whatever. I feel like there needs to be a need for Superman and if he comes in as a good guy in the second half of this film, you're just adding you're heaviest hitter onto your already All-Star team.

I'm sure they have a plan for Superman, but I have reason to be skeptical based on what they've done with this character in the past.

I've talked about this in the past but I don't think Warner Brothers really understands how much they royally screwed the character of Superman. Remember, not only does Superman die in Batman v Superman, but so does Clark Kent. It would make sense for Superman to come back to life, but if both Superman and Clark Kent come back to life miraculously, people are going to start connecting the dots. You think Perry White isn't going to notice when his reporter comes back to life magically as the Man of Steel? Come on!

I think actually seeing these characters in action is better than seeing them lined up. I can't say there's anybody in this group that I'm not excited about. Jason Momoa looks great, Ray Fisher looks pretty good. I think that Ezra Miller is a good actor and with a dramatic character like Barry Allen, I'm sure he'll be a fun addition to the team.

And Gal Gadot looks absolutely stunning. I mentioned this on Twitter, but I'm convinced that regardless of how good Wonder Woman or this movie is, I'm not on the Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman band wagon. She looks fantastic and every trailer I see her in, she continues to be a grade A badass.

The one part of the trailer I am intrigued and yet a little worried by is the scene where there seems to be amazonian warriors fighting parademons.

I have no idea what this is all about and I'm uncertain about how its going to fit within the movie. I hope it's epic and I hope that the parademons serve as good cannon fodder but there is a great evil and a better story at the end of the day. 

Overall, I'm excited for Justice League. While my childlike wonder of Superhero films may have been stabbed by the DC cinematic universe, I still have faith that it can be brought back with the superhero films that are coming out in 2017. You have to give DC credit, while their movies have gotten progressively worse, their trailers continue to get better and better. I think that there are a lot of good things I'm seeing from this trailer and I'm sure there's a lot we're going to be seeing before November. 

Am I nervous still? Of course. 2016 was not the year that we all expected for superhero films and clearly not the year we expected for DC superhero films. But if anything can bring my spirits for DC films back, it's Wonder Woman and Justice League. 

But those are my thoughts on the Justice League trailer. What did you think? Are you excited for Justice League? Does this trailer look good? Is it going to be a repeat of 2016's trailers or is 2017 going to be different? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for future reviews I should post in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews on this blog. 

I'll leave you with this. I didn't really get a reaction trailer out on the newest Wonder Woman trailer. I think this trailer is absolutely awesome! Enjoy!

Hacksaw Ridge

Aziz Ansari did a stand up bit on SNL a couple months back talking about how some people voted for Donald Trump the same way that they listen to Chris Brown music. How Make America Great Again is Donald Trump’s “These Hoes aint loyal”. I think in a way, the same can be said for Mel Gibson movies. There is a reason that when the first trailer for this movie hit, they never put Gibson’s name in the trailer and instead said, “From the director of Braveheart”.

Mel Gibson has clearly had a rocky career and if you’re out there thinking that you can’t support him as a director because of the things he has said, I wouldn’t blame you one bit. However, this is the last time in this review that I’m going to be talking about Mel Gibson as a person and I will instead discuss his work as a director and the merits of his newest film, Hacksaw Ridge.

Hacksaw Ridge takes place in the middle of World War 2. Everyone is enlisting and joining the Army to fight the Axis. Our story centers on a young man by the name of Desmond Doss (played by Andrew Garfield) who despite having a religious objection to killing and violence towards other people, joins the Army and aspires to become a combat medic. His philosophy is that while the rest of the world is going around tearing each other apart in war, he’s going to try and put things back together as a medic. So he joins the Army but refuses to kill anybody and refuses to even touch a weapon.

Now the movie is basically broken up into two segments. The first segment is a little slower and it centers on Doss joining the Army, refusing to pick up a weapon and the conflicts that come along with being in the Army, an organization that centers a lot on the act of killing other people. Now when I say slower, I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. The first half of the movie spends a lot of time getting to know the character of Desmond Dos and the people around him. Hugo Weaving plays his drunk abusive father, Rachel Griffiths plays his mother. The first section of the movie is focused on a love story between Doss and his girlfriend and later wife, Dorothy Schutte (played by Teresa Palmer).

And I will say, this is a really fun relationship. It’s definitely not the focus of the movie and besides a small moment where she questions why he can’t just pick up a weapon, show them he knows how to use it just to get them off his back, there’s not a lot of conflict between these two. The way they develop their relationship is very reminiscent of the way you’d expect your grandparents got together. It’s very innocent and it’s kind of like an American fairy tale where everything is so certain and so quick that it’s almost like it was meant to be.

And part of that only works when you take in the performance of Andrew Garfield as Desmond Doss.

Doss is this happy go lucky guy with not a care in the world. He’s so optimistic and so happy that you can’t help but like him. I would say it’s very similar to the almost dumb simple mindedness of Forrest Gump because he says things with such optimism and innocence that it actually doesn’t seem one hundred percent realistic. Luckily, Garfield does a great job in this because he keeps that optimism and that innocence throughout the film and he keeps it consistent.

It also works within the context of the film because this guy is tested on what he believes and how strong his resolution is towards those beliefs. Especially in the first act of the movie when he joins the Army and refuses to pick up a weapon.

Vince Vaughn plays Doss’s Sergeant and Sam Worthington plays his Company Commander. When they discover that Doss is a conscientious objector, they are baffled by the resolution of this guy and only want him out of the Unit. And to be one hundred percent honest, I don’t really blame them. Their mindset is that if he is unwilling to pick up a weapon and defend not only himself but the other members of his unit, what use is he on the battlefield.

Being familiar with the inner workings and the mindsets within the United States Army, I know that this is not an unwarranted concern and while I understand that the point of the movie is to point out how wrong they are, I was sitting there kind of wondering how he actually got through the whole legal process that works against Doss and tries to kick him out of the Army.

The members of his unit fall under the same belief that Doss is a coward and would not have their back in a fire fight. Luke Bracey plays one of the Soldiers in his unit and he’s one of the biggest critics of Doss in the beginning. I only have really seen Luke Bracey in that crappy Point Break remake and I honestly didn’t recognize him at all in this film, one because he didn’t have that stupid long haircut, but he also did a really good job in this film. He’s portrayed as the rival to Doss from the very beginning but you know that eventually they’re going to come together in the heat of battle and have each other’s back.

Again, while the first half of this movie is slower, I actually think I enjoy it more than the second half. It’s got a lot of character development, a lot of great acting, and a really interesting story about a pretty controversial topic, conscientious objectors on the battlefield. I don’t think the subject is as cut and dry as the movie makes it out to be, but it’s actually pretty interesting how they address it in the film.

The second half of this movie is after all the legal discussions and it finally gets Doss and his unit out onto the battlefield in Okinawa, and the notorious Hacksaw Ridge. What follows is an incredibly violent and incredibly heart breaking display of war that I really haven’t seen since Saving Private Ryan. Anybody who thought that the first half was Mel Gibson getting away from his extremely violent roots were reintroduced to the Mel Gibson we know from Braveheart, Apocalypto, and The Passion of the Christ because the second half of this movie is very bloody, very gory, and does not pull any punches. But the second half of the movie does not work without the character development of the first half. You care about the characters from Doss, to the members of his team, to his sergeant, to his commander, everyone means something to audience and you want them to be saved and survive the battle… and not everyone does.

If you have a weak stomach or you don’t really like war movies, you might think Hacksaw Ridge is not for you. But I would disagree. There is such an optimism and testament to the human spirit in this film that it’s definitely worth checking out. The performances of everyone from Andrew Garfield, to Vince Vaughn surprisingly is very good. Before I even saw this movie I knew that it wasn’t going to win a lot of awards, especially at the Oscars. As much as I want to say that the awards are given to the person who deserves it the most, I do understand that a lot of the process is political and it would look very bad if the Academy gave an Oscar to someone like Mel Gibson who has basically been Hollywood poison for the last decade. I do think that Andrew Garfield really shined in this movie and probably should have been considered a little more for Best Actor, however, I do recognize that it was a stacked year and it must have been a difficult choice for those picking who wins.

Regardless of what award it won and didn’t win, Hacksaw Ridge, in my opinion, is one of the best made films of 2016. I’ve spoken about this in previous reviews on Oscar nominated movies, but it is all about personal preference. Moonlight didn’t speak to me the same way it did for a lot of people. It didn’t speak to me the way La La Land did and La La Land didn’t speak to me the way Hacksaw Ridge did. The jury is still out on which of the Oscar nominated films were my favorite, but I still have to watch Arrival.

But overall, I really enjoyed Hacksaw Ridge. I definitely recommend this one and while I don’t condone the past behavior of a guy like Mel Gibson, I do have to take the man out of his work and the fact is, his work is really well done. I do hope that we see more of Gibson’s work in the future because Hacksaw Ridge is a really powerful film and definitely worth checking out.

Those are my thoughts on Hacksaw Ridge. What did you think? Did you enjoy that film? What is your favorite war film? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I’ll leave you with this. Stephen Colbert had Mel Gibson on his show when Hacksaw Ridge debuted and the exchanges in the interview with him are actually pretty well done. Enjoy!

Logan

I have never liked Wolverine movies. I love Hugh Jackman, I think the fact that he’s been playing Wolverine for about 15 years is incredible and I think he’s a staple to the industry that is comic book movies. But when looking at the Wolverine movies that have come out in the past, X-men origins, The Wolverine, I have not really enjoyed either of them as much as Ive enjoyed other superhero films. So when I heard a while ago that there was going to be one last Wolverine standalone film, I rolled my eyes a little bit because I didn’t think that it was going to be any good. Then the trailer dropped… and my tune changed quickly. This third Wolverine movie went from being a movie I thought was going to suck to being one of my most anticipated films of 2017.

Before I say anything about the movie itself, Fox did something absolutely brilliant with how this movie opened. I don’t want to give it away as this is a non-spoiler review, but if that is how any future installment of the Fox Superhero genre is going to open, I think we are in good hands going forward.

Logan takes place in an actually not so distant future where Mutants have virtually gone extinct. I actually found it interesting that the world wasn't very post apocalyptic, it was just devoid of mutants. The movie explains what happened to all the mutants and I have to give Fox credit, there is a good amount of time in between the other X-men movies that Logan that if Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and the rest of the cast of the original X-men trilogy ever said they wanted to come back, they definitely could and you could get some great X-men movies out of that time period.

The movie centers on Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackman) who just goes by Logan now. He’s living a low key life, especially as one of the last mutants on Earth, hiding away and taking care of a very old Charles Xavier (played by Patrick Stewart). Logan has gotten very old himself and his powers have begun to decay. He’s no longer healing and if he does it’s not anywhere near the pace he used to and needs to survive. He’s got a drinking problem, he’s in constant pain. And man does Hugh Jackman play this well. You watch Logan just go about his business and he looks like has gone through hell and he’s still going. He’s walking with a limp, his claws aren’t going out all the way, he just looks in pain the entire movie.

And then there’s Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier. I have a bit of confession to make and it is that I never really connected to Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier like other people did. I came into the X-men movies pretty late and I only saw Last Stand for a while. After that I became more familiar with James McEvoy’s Xavier and by the time that I saw the old X-men movies, I just didn’t connect to Patrick Stewart’s Xavier like everyone else did. Like Wolverine, I appreciated the contribution and the impact he had on the genre but I never really loved him until I saw this movie. Charles suffers from either Alzheimer's or ALS in this movie and it’s absolutely fascinating to think about a character like that with such great powers of the brain, have a such debilitating brain disease. But Charles is the heart and soul of this movie. You can tell these two have gone through so much and he is the conscience for Logan when Logan just wants to hide away and leave the world to it’s own destruction.

Eventually, Logan and Charles come across a young girl who is being hunted by a shady organization led by a guy who I could have sworn was Draco Malfoy (actually played by Boyd Holbrook). It is obvious that this young girl, Laura (played by Dafne Keen) is a mutant and the premise is basically Logan reluctantly helping her escape from this organization.

The girl they got to play Laura is really good. It should be pretty obvious that she’s playing X23. If you don’t know who X23 is, I’ll let the movie explain that, and if you know who X23 is, it’s not that difficult to figure out that she is X23 from the trailers so I don’t think I’m spoiling anything that anybody who knows anything about X23 shouldn’t have known already. A lot of the movie she is mute and the way she communicates is in her looks and her actions. The relationship she has with Logan is really great and it actually gets pretty emotional at times. The only issue I think I had with her is that she is mute for a good portion of the movie and then she suddenly decides that she can talk all of a sudden. And the movie kind of addresses it as weird that she didn't talk before but suddenly she can. It’s not a huge deal but it was a little bit weird having this character who spends a good percentage of the movie mute and then suddenly she talks.

First off, this movie is a pretty hard R. There are some really graphic scenes of violence in this movie. Think about it, Wolverine has metal claws that come out of his knuckles. After watching this movie, I’m actually kind of amazed that Fox was able to dole out half a dozen movies with Wolverine and never show as much blood and full fledged slashing than they did in this film. This movie gives Hugh

Jackman the green light to go all the way with Wolverine and his abilities and they are definitely on full display. And because they went full R with the action, they also went full R with the language. It’s actually kind of amazing hearing Charles Xavier and Wolverine swear as much as they do in this movie and while it’s weird, it never felt forced or unnecessary. Logan takes the X-men franchise to a point of disparity that it’s never gone to and it makes perfect sense why they would be swearing as much as they do.

But the other part that is really amazing about this movie is that for as much as it is a hard R rated movie, this is the best acted superhero movie I have seen since The Dark Knight and it has the most emotion and heart to any superhero movie I’ve seen ever. In essence, this movie was a family movie centering on Logan, Charles, and Laura. The relationship between these three is so genuine that I almost feel like they didn’t even really need a villain. This movie could have just been these three just living in the world that they live in and I think I would have enjoyed it just as much. It’s a superhero film so I obviously expect there to be action and violence. As a whole, the movie utilizes these things very well, but it’s not the strongest part of the movie. The strongest part are the performances and the chemistry between these three characters as they go through conflict. This never really felt like an X-men movie, it felt like a drama with characters who just happened to have extraordinary abilities.

This movie in many ways reminded me of the Michael Shannon movie, Midnight Special. Where the story was more centered on the characters than the action and the abilities of the characters and this is how movies are done right. I love how a lot of my friends who watch X-men movies didn't know what Logan was because it just never gave off that superhero vibe.

I will make mention that beyond Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and the girl who played Laura, I thought everyone gave a really good performance in this movie. Stephen Merchant plays a mutant who is helping Wolverine take care of Charles Xavier in the beginning. Again, I thought Boyd Holbrook was a good villain and a good adversary. That guy from the Doctor Who snowman episode (Richard E Grant) plays a villain and he does a good job. I think overall, this movie was well casted and it for the most part, everyone felt like they belonged there and served the story rather than the story serving to show off the characters, something X-men movies have done in the past.

Now if there was anything that I could criticize the movie on, it would be the villains. Boyd Holbrook is a decent enough villain for the movie and I enjoyed him in the first half of the film. But then I feel like the studio execs said, there needs to be a bigger villain. I can’t really say who the villain or villains are in the later half, I will talk more about my issues with the villain in my spoilers review, but again, since the chemistry and relationships between Logan, Charles, and Laura are so great, I don’t really feel like there needed to be this over the top villain that they pulled out in the second half. Luckily, the villain element of the movie is not that huge and they do center on what’s important, but I feel like this movie could have taken more from Midnight Special and had a vague villain in the government or this shady organization and just leave it at that.

But I’ll be honest, that’s really the only complaint I have of the movie. I enjoyed this movie because it had a sense of finality to it. The X-men franchise is not over, they will continue to make X-men, Deadpool, and whatever moving forward, but this felt like a one off. It wasn’t building up to anything, it wasn’t vying for a sequel, it just was Logan. There’s not even an after credits scene. This story had a beginning, a middle, and an end and when the movie ended, it felt complete. I get that superhero films are based off comic books and comic books don’t have that sense of finality. Another issue can come out and characters are introduced, characters are killed off, characters are brought back to life, but Logan didn't feel that way. This didn’t just feel like a send off for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, it felt like a complete story.

I definitely recommend going to see Logan. If you’re a comic book fan, you will like this movie. But if you are a movie lover, if you love good performances and good actin, you will like this movie. I can’t praise this movie enough. It’s still early, I need to have a re-watch, but this might go down as one of my favorite superhero movies of all time.

But those are my thoughts on Logan. Have you seen it yet? What did you think of it? Is this a good send off for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine? Comment and discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. These guys give a really great rap recap that I'm also including but they do cool acapella remixes of songs and here's on from X-men. Enjoy!