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!