Logan Review: Just another X-Men film

‘Logan’ is a 2017 film by director James Mangold and showcases the story of James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine from the X-Men movies in his supposedly last chapter. The film overall is an interesting mix of a couple different genres including western, road trip and superhero. The mixing of all of these different aspects end up assimilating for an interesting mix and adds new diversity to the X-Men landscape. This is supposed to be Hugh Jackman’s last time portraying the character and it is a send off that is worthy of his history and the time he has spent playing this character. Overall the film is an interesting look at Logan but falters at some parts. There is a lot of strange additions just to make it more “x-men like” and it truly hurts the film. It is the best Wolverine movie but that isn’t a very high standard to surpass.

3 ⭐⭐⭐/5

There is a lot of things that are working for the film such as the cinematography. Director of Photography John Mathieson captures the world in a beautiful manner. While viewing wide picturesque and land spaces and busy action scenes there is also the tendency to return to intimacy as we often close ups and extreme close ups on characters as we can, therefore, explore the emotion in the scenes. While the film is set in the future it still feels very old-timey to fit in with the western atmosphere that the movie is giving off. This mixing of the genre is not done perfectly but it is interesting to watch as they try to stir the different elements together. Another element of the film is the music as it can be used to set the aural tones of the world and here it was trying too hard to do too much. Created by Marco Beltrami, the music is trying to capture the western influences with modern blockbuster themes flowing through the fight scenes and it doesn’t work. While listening to the score as a standalone it works well but it stands out too much when paired with the visuals on screen.

One of the most engaging parts of this movie aside from the brilliant Patrick Stewart doing his thing is the fight scenes and choreography. This is the first time we have seen Wolverine in a rated R movie and there is a level of brutality and danger that can be now included because of the rating. He slashes and snickts his way through numerous henchmen and characters and we see the true danger that a character with 6 sharp claws on his hands can create. My favorite addition was Laura played by Dafne Keen, she is created from Logan’s DNA and therefore also has claws akin to Wolverine but instead of the regular 3, she has 2 on her hands and 1 on both feet. This amazing little murder girl slashes and violently attacks anyone that seems to bother her. There is a ferociousness to her because she has little understanding of what to do that is beautifully dangerous. She ensures that her assailants are dead and there is no question about it. Over the film, she leaps, slashes, thrusts, and lances herself onto every attacker, and it is both elegant and dangerous.

Most of the film focuses on Logan, Charles Xavier and Laura there is a fun cast that seemingly surrounds them. The best part of this movie comes as there is a random issue on the highway and our heroes end up helping a family save their horses after they escaped from a trailer. They then return to their house for dinner and a lot of stuff happens after. For me seeing this simple family dynamic really allowed for the film to explore the personal sides of the characters and develop them. This is one place the rest of the film was lacking. The Munson family, whose house they are in also played large roles especially the father, Will, played by Eric La Salle and Nate played by Quicy Fouse who is great on TV in The Goldbergs. The villains in the film are honestly very generic and lackluster but Boyd Holdbrook who is playing Pierce, the leader of the ravagers is enticing enough to keep my attention. It is obvious that he is no match for any of the characters but he functions enough mustache twirling to be enjoyable.

Let’s get into SPOILERS!!!!

So I went to see it Saturday morning and I had the surprise of seeing a teaser before the movie started for Deadpool 2. Not really a spoiler because as I returned home it had been released online but waiting for Logan to start and instead I saw Wade Wilson show up, the Superman theme by John Williams played and it just made me so happy to be able to experience that in the theater and got me ready to see the movie.

There is a lot that I think is unnecessary in the film. The idea that there are now X-Men comic books, that is just very weird because it creates the main plot idea of going to this Eden where everything will be ok. We don’t actually get to Eden by the end of the film and it seems to be like, we know fans want this but the closest is 3 pages of a comic book. In addition to that one of the kids is holding a Wolverine action figure at the end of the film. So you are telling me that these kids that have been locked up since birth, lived in isolation not only knew where to buy toys from but took the time while being chased across America to buy a memorabilia from one book he read. They include a lot of things like the stuff I just mentioned to create this superhero world and it’s very unnecessary. We end up meeting the kids that are like Laura with vague mutant powers and that pretty much is what it sounds like. They work sometimes and others they can just be grabbed by soldiers. It is just so undefined and just happens to further the plot that I really don’t care about these random kids.

Also, they are in a forest as every X-Men movie supposedly has to do because of reasons. Wolverine ends up dying at the end because either his powers have been not as effective because of something with the adamantium in his bones or because he used some serum to enhance himself and it wore off and he couldn’t regenerate. It was really confusing because I don’t think that it is a plausible way from him to die, especially after we have seen all the ways he has regenerated in previous films. What does him in at the end is drugs and tiredness? It is weird and I wasn’t ok with it. And Laura changes the cross on his grave to be an X, right we get it, he was an X-Men. We get it.

Side note. They have these trucks that are driverless and they are cool. It’s pretty much just a shipping container on wheels and there is no cabin. Fingers crossed we see it in the future.

There was also a clone of Wolverine but a younger version of himself because we need to have a physical match for Logan to fight and clearly, Deadpool is too good to come back. It’s cool because its a younger version of him and the CGI mostly works well. I just didn’t feel an emotional connection to anyone to care about what was happening. Logan was here mostly because he felt a weird connection to this girl because of DNA and money. I didn’t really see the story as meaningful to the characters of impactful. Also, Professor X dies because I guess everyone has to die because it’s the last movie. I think we all know it’s not so here starts the wait for the next time they show up in the mess that is Fox’s X-Men movies.