Logan — Don’t be what they made you.
Logan’s shaking feet come out of a rented car from which some thieves are trying to steal the chrome plating on the tires. His beard has gone grey and his body posture is slouched. He throws himself in front of the car because he knows his body can take the bullets but he doesn’t wanna explain holes in the car. He has a limo service which he works on in order to buy medicines which keep Ex Professor Charles Xavier’s mind freezing seizures in control.
Logan has become a caretaker for a cribbing, unapologetic, cranky grandfather-figure in a rusty big iron chamber locked away from the world.
Charles remarks, “You’re waiting for me to die.”
His own eyesight has gone weak. His body feels tired and he keeps an adamantium bullet alongside in case he feels like shooting himself without healing back. A mysterious Mexican nurse wants to pay him 50k dollars in order to help her drive over to North Dakota. There is this little girl as well. Dressed in Denims, playing with a ball bouncing in the compound of a motel. Bad men want to manufacture kids without souls and train them as soldiers for war. But now have to seize this little girl and the rest of the kids who escaped with the help of the nurse.
The films taps into the essence of the best bits of Hugh Jackman’s 17 year old run as the X-Men character. The fact that he is an animal. Always has been. Prefers to work alone because he has trust issues. The people he cares about get in trouble which further reinforces his beliefs that he should be alone. That leads to a fucked up history from which you wanna run away. In the world of Logan, all the X-Men are gone. He is depressed but has the responsibility of taking care of Charles. He feels indebted to him for taking him when he was a nobody and desperately needed some guidance.
“I gave you a family.”, reminds Charles.
“They’re all gone now...”, retorts the depressed Old Man Logan.
He would have fired that bullet a long time ago had Charles been not around. So in essence this film is all about a family that you didn’t get born into but rather chose to be a part of despite the many flaws of people comprising them. While travelling to their destination, they decide to help out a family stuck on the roadside and like all elderly people who embarrass the young ones, Charles happily accepts their invitation to stay in for dinner and then the night itself. Logan’s past comes back to haunt him in the form of the lab made X-25 mutant who is his look alike but 20 years younger. His rage is designed by the bad guys.
He kills everyone in sight but Logan and Laura (his Daughter) escape. His wounds aren’t healing as quickly now and he resists to go anywhere neither can he stop because he continues to run from habit.
The X-Men comic in the film plays the role of the mythological text. Something that the inhabitants adhere to as religion and it is a matter to faith whether or not they should follow its every word or not. That’s where the location of Eden comes from. A safe haven where the new generation of mutants will be safe. Logan doesn’t believe in all this. But upon his rebellious daughters insistence, goes ahead just to prove her that he was right all along.
He is shocked to find that something like Eden even exists. Not in the pristine impossible form that the comic alluded to but something more real, grounded and very practical. The medicine that they use helps them with their powers in small doses but can also be lethal if overdosed with. When he wakes up he wishes to leave but Laura wants him around. He reasons with her and tries to explain that…
“Bad shit happens to people I care about…”, says Logan.
“Then I’ll be fine.” says his sarcastic daughter.
The film hits the right balance between reality and adventure. Decaying souls and bodies with aggregated energetic bursts. Nature and Nurture with the desire to control and manufacture products for capitalistic gains. What the world wants you to be and what you really want to be. For someone who was an outlaw all his life and hardly cared about what anyone thought of him, Logan gives a non constricting piece of advice to his daughter on his deathbed after saving her. Dont be what they made you.
Logan beautifully deconstructs the superhero genre and apart from the slightly repetitive action hits feels fresh and raw like the western ‘Shane’ which also plays in one scene of the film. This form of story has become a classic now. The retired/old war general who is called back for one last mission which involves him because something very personal is at stake. But Logan does it better than most in recent memory. It’s final act is also a testament to it’s strength as it sways away from blue laser beams pointing to the sky and instead keeps everything on the ground and under it infact.
