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!