Logan is the third installment of an otherwise lackluster spin-off franchise of the live action X-Men movies. It seems like the third time is the charm. Director James Mangold gives us both the Wolverine movie we wanted and the one that we deserve. By focusing less on the “super” and more on the “human” parts of the world of mutants, Mangold guides both Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart through what is decidedly their swan song performances of the Wolverine and Professor X characters, respectively.
Logan shines as a stand-alone movie that eclipses not only its spinoff predecessors but, also it’s namesake superhero IP. Logan has so little in common with its predecessors that one wonders if director James Mangold had written into his contract that he would have final cut.
Logan is a typical superhero movie the same way Johnny Cash is a typical country singer. What Christopher Nolan did for Batman in The Dark Night, Mangold does for Wolverine in the movie Logan. In Mangold’s interpretation, gone are the usual trappings of the superhero genre. There are no spandex suits or leather costumes, no fantastical opponents with CGI make-up and no aliens with other world spaceships and weapons.
You can watch Logan as a stand alone film and enjoy it without needing to have been immersed in the intellectual property or seen any of the other franchise films. If it reminds you of classic and near current westerns like Shane or Unforgiven, I believe the intent was deliberate.
This movie is not for kids. They will sell no toys with this version of the Wolverine story. The R rating is there for a reason. Freed from the limits of a PG-13 rating, our anti-hero is allowed to express himself with the patois one expects from the character. The F word is used to full effect. Brutal, savage and bloody, it has several moments throughout that the audience will experience like witnesses to a car crash. You will hear audible gasps from the audience. We can neither look away nor can we believe what we’ve seen. Death, dismemberment, and maiming are often the results when heroes and villains clash in Logan. Gone is the conceit of rebirth or cats with nine lives.
Fans of the property wishing to see the Wolverine character in full berserker mode, your wish has been fulfilled.
Director James Mangold does an exemplary job of showing the action in real time, never slowing down the pace nor the footage in the attempt to milk the moment for the gore that often happens in superhero or horror movies.
We find our protagonist Logan (Hugh Jackman) living in Mexico, taking care of an aging Professor X (Patrick Stewart). It’s 2029, and not much has changed aside from self-driving trucks prowling the interstate. People are still prejudiced, people are still horrible to each other and the world is mostly free of mutants. Our hero Logan drives a limousine. He puts up with the prom night brats, the bachelorette parties and a multitude of self-obsessed wannabes and celebrities because he needs the money.
Bring a handkerchief as well since this movie is likely to make casual viewers and fanboys alike exclaim, “I’m not crying, you’re crying!
The end game for Logan is the purchase of a Sunseeker yacht. On this yacht, he believes his current inner circle, the Professor and fellow mutant Calliban (played by Stephen Merchant), could live out the rest of their lives on the sea. Free from the prejudices of society and controlling governments. It just might be the sanctuary they desire.
Disrupting this dream is a Mexican nurse who introduces Logan to an unruly child named Laura (Daphne Keen) said to possess powers similar to the children who once populated Professor X’s School for the Gifted. Logan finds himself sacked with the unwanted burden of playing the reluctant hero, one last time. This piece of his past does not come without a price nor does it come without a pseudo-government entity wishing to reclaim its property. After this groundwork has been laid, the movie quite literally is mayhem unleashed.
Daphne Keen, a relative unknown, deftly plays Laura the gifted child. She does so with actions, facial expressions, and emotions on a level of sophistication many years beyond her age. This makes her character believable and thankfully free of the cloying performances of most child actors.
Patrick Stewart reprises his role of Professor X with a joy that almost betrays the condition of his fictional character. In this translation Professor X, previously the world’s most pre-eminent mind, is suffering a form of dementia. This combination of intellect, power, and dementia leads the US government to label him as a plausible weapon of mass destruction.
Any hero narrative is only as strong as it’s villains and the Logan movie serves up two. The first are the people of 2029 still concerned about who is right, the color of a person’s skin and their station in life. The second are the members of a well-funded shadow organization hell bent on recovering what they consider to be assets, not humans. They see their prey as property, weapons meant to be used as they see fit. In Logan, this manifests in the form of Pierce (Boyd Holbrook), an enhanced soldier more hell bent on following orders than doing what is right. Pierce is backed up by Dr. Rice, the creator of this madness. Played with a controlled reserve by Richard E. Grant, Dr. Rice is a character we love to hate and one we wish would meet his demise sooner than later.
The X-men have always been an allegory for social issues in our real world that often extends to cover racism, anti-Semitism, diversity, subcultures and the LGBT community — but, in Logan, it also brings us in touch with one undeniable fact.
Death comes for us all. And what, if anything, are our lives worth if it wasn’t dedicated to the cause of making it better for those around us? You’ll want plenty of popcorn and something refreshing to drink on this roller coaster ride. But, bring a handkerchief as well since this movie is likely to make casual viewers and fanboys alike exclaim, “I’m not crying, you’re crying!”
