Review: Logan
Even though Logan came out over a month ago, I finally got around to watching it. Logan tells the story of superhero Wolverine in the future where he is caring for an ailing Professor Xavier. It’s supposedly based loosely on the Old Man Logan line of comics which helps explain the name of the film (he no longer wants to be Wolverine – the hero). Interestingly it is also the first Wolverine or X-Men film to be rated R which I thoroughly enjoyed!
Hugh Jackman’s last outing as Wolverine is fitting since he will be turning 50 next year!
I’ve never read any X-Men or Wolverine comics but I have been a big fan of the character ever since Hugh Jackman portrayed him in X-Men. I always found his backstory intriguing (if not confusing at times) and I liked the idea of the imperfect hero. Logan in this movie has become jaded and done with the world. He has to be coaxed into doing the “heroic” thing since he has left that in the past. I liked this version of Logan after seeing the more altruistic versions in the more recent X-Men movies.
Except maybe X-Men: First Class…
The R rating on this movie allowed for some amazingly brutal fight sequences. The fights never felt stale and even though there were a fair number of claw related kills in this movie, they managed to add a lot of variety to the fights and kills which made it very fun. Newcomer Dafne Keen who plays Laura is ferocious with her performance in all of her fight scenes. I actually found a lot of her fights more fun than Wolverine’s; probably because a small girl taking out groups of grown men allows for more interesting fight styles (plus I like watching girls kick butt).
Additionally the R rating allowed for crude language which is always how I see Wolverine/Logan. He’s always been a crude and rude guy but a PG-13 rating has forced writers to tone him down. I don’t believe that a Wolverine movie needs profanity in order to be good, but I felt that the profanity was true to his character (or what I believe his character to be) which made the movie more enjoyable for me.
Just look at that ferocious face!
While there was plenty of action in the movie there were a lot of travel sequences and emotional scenes that felt inconsistent with a traditional superhero movie. Because of this and the storyline, I didn’t feel like this was a superhero movie. It’s been compared online a lot to a western or a road movie which both feel accurate in a lot of ways. For me I found it to be more of a character driven story with chunks of each genre. I really enjoyed seeing Logan in a way we never really have, which is vulnerable.
Speaking of vulnerable, Patrick Stewart’s Professor Xavier felt incredibly vulnerable and frail in this movie. Stewart really did a good job with capturing the “crazy old man” type vibe swinging between humorous situations and the quite sad. Also Boyd Holbrook who I wasn’t familiar with before this movie did a wonderful job playing the role of “the dick you can’t wait to be killed”.
You just want to punch him in his pretty, smug face.
I don’t really have any complaints about Logan. The story was great, the casting felt right, it was beautifully filmed and the action was fabulous!
I give the movie 5 claws out of 5!