Okay, let me be very, very clear here. This review contains more spoilers than a Payday candy bar had peanuts. Okay? If you have not yet seen the film, I urge you to grab some popcorn and a soda and get comfortable at your local multiplex to enjoy the best Wolverine movie of all time. Then come back and read our little review, and comment. Let us know what you thought of the movie and whether or not you agree.
Trivia factoid: Hugh Jackman holds the record for the number of films in which the same actor portrays the same character. (X-Men; X2: X-Men United; X-Men: The Last Stand; X-Men Origins: Wolverine; The Wolverine; X-Men: Days of Future Past; X-Men: First Class (Cameo); X-Men: Apocalypse; Deadpool (on a magazine cover); and now, Logan. That’s ten films, but who’s counting.
Again, spoilers ahead.
Logan is rated R, and like Deadpool, who broke the mold on the way superhero movies are “supposed to look,” the film is filled with serious Walking Dead blood and guts violence, lots of f-bombs and other content not normally seen in a comic book film. This is a decidedly adult super-hero film to be sure. In fact, the super hero element is all but lost here. Instead, it’s more about human (and mutant) life and death.
In a storyline loosely based on the Old Man Logan comic series, we find Wolverine in 2029, a few years after he finally fell apart. A chronic alcoholic, he is also quite sick and his healing powers have slowed considerably, due the Weapon X program bonding adamantium to the antihero’s skeleton. The indestructible alloy has broken down over time, poisoning the mutant. (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 2009)
All of this following an incident at the school for gifted youngsters, in which enemies overtook the school in an attempt to kill off the mutants. Wolverine single handedly slayed the attackers, only to discover it had all been an illusion concocted by the evil Magneto, and Logan had in fact slain all of his friends. Of course, there was also the “Winchester incident” in which Professor X accidentally killed all of the mutants of the world with one of his seizures. Since I have not read that comic book series, I cannot truthfully tell you just what happened, but the point is, most all of the mutants are dead, and no more are being born. Well, except for Our (Mutant Gang), a group of kids with powers that show up in the third act.
Logan cares for Professor Charles Xavier, who now has dementia, and also suffers from seizures that can cripple anyone around him at the time by way of the effects of psychic pain. Logan has a plan to get Charles from his hiding place in Mexico onto a boat to live out in the ocean where he can’t hurt anyone.
The plot thickens with the discovery of Laura (Dafne Keen) a 12-year old mutant with claws and powers similar to Wolverine, but the new and improved model also has the claws in her feet. The agile youngster is an amazing defense machine, able to take on a large group of heathens on her own. Oh, and she can drive a vehicle like a pro.
Comics fans rejoice. There are several characters from X-Force that appear in Logan, including variation on Julio Rictor.
Perhaps the best thing about the movie is the intimate story telling. Like Deadpool before it, the film concentrates mostly on the central character, with no GGI monsters to wrestle with, and only a handful of special effects.
Did I say spoilers? It is common knowledge that both Patrick Steward and Hugh Jackman have said that this is the last hoorah for Steward as Charles and Jackman as Logan, so it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Dr. X and Logan both die in the movie. Talk about a one-two gut punch! The positive side is, both actors, freed up by an R-rating, give their all in this film, whether it be the senile, f-bomb dropping Xavier or the head-chopping, truck beating, clone fighting Wolverine.
The final scene of Logan’s grave is both sad and immediately classic. As Laura picks up the wooden cross at the head of the grave and tilts it into an “X” and puts it back, it is the perfect end to what could very well be the best comic book movie of all time.
No comments:
Post a Comment