Logan (2017)

“Logan” stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, and Dafne Keen.  Released on March 3, 2017, the film has Logan going on one last adventure with Charles Xavier and a mysterious young girl.

The film is directed by James Mangold, who also directed films such as Kate & Leopold, Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma, and Knight and Day.  It is the tenth installment in the X-Men film series, as well as the third and final film in the standalone Wolverine trilogy.  This is another 2017 film that I was very excited to see.  Not just because it marks Jackman’s final role as the X-Men character, but also because of the tone they’re approaching compared to the other X-Men films.  After the surprise box office success of last year’s Deadpool, Fox and Marvel decided to give Wolverine the R-rated treatment as a big farewell gift.  That’s right, after 17 years of playing it safe for the little ones, the hot-tempered, ageless superhero is finally ready to play with the big boys, and yes, my fellow readers, there will be blood.  The standalone Wolverine trilogy got off to a troublesome start with X-Men Origins: Wolverine back in 2009 (for obvious reasons), but got a better reception with The Wolverine in 2013.  Now that we reached the final chapter in Wolverine’s life, it’s time for me to see if this film has what it takes to fully capture the epic farewell of the title character.

If you’re a big comic book nerd, then you may have noticed that the film’s story took some inspiration from the Marvel comic book, Old Man Logan, which focuses on the aging Wolverine.  This isn’t the true adaptation of the popular comic, but it has plenty of things that comic book fans will love.  As for everything else…wow.  I was amazed from start to finish.  This is such a phenomenal way to say goodbye to the Wolverine.  Hugh Jackman once again delivered a brilliant performance as Logan, who’s more vulnerable than ever.  He can still put up a fight, but not that much.  Stewart was also great as Xavier, whose telepathic powers are now unstable.  Not only did he portray this type of character perfectly, but he also provided some good humor.  There’s also newcomer Dafne Keen as Laura, who happens to have some sort of connection to Logan.  She did a fantastic job with her role.  She’s like the mini-version of Logan, but a bit more aggressive.  All of these actors portray these characters like they’re real people, even though some of them are mutants.  This film isn’t just your average superhero movie, where the good guy saves the world from a super villain.  It’s a film about a person who knows that his time has come and accepts it, but is thrown into a situation that forces him to do one last act of heroism before he is done for good.  There’s no powerful mutant that he has to face and no giant mutant-killing robots.  Just some bad regular people doing really bad things, and for a film like this, it works because it gives off more of a realistic and grounded feel to the X-Men universe.  Kind of like what DC did for The Dark Knight.  The film is rated R for a reason…well, OK, two reasons, to be exact.  One of them is the mature storyline and themes.  The other is for the violence, which is another thing that didn’t disappoint me.  It was absolutely brutal.  When I first saw what they did with the action, I immediately cheered.  I was blown away by the fact that they fully capture the grittiness of the character without playing it too safe, and it’s all thanks to director James Mangold, who fully understands who Logan really is, inside and out.  Mangold did a great job at handling the action sequences, while also maintaining the same tone they were going for.  The cinematography and the film’s pacing were both suitable.  The former for its visual appeal and the latter for keeping things moving at a more comfortable pace.

Overall, not only is “Logan” a brilliant, yet emotional, farewell to the Marvel character, but it is also a smart and appealing character-driven superhero film that doesn’t actually feel like a superhero film.  Filled with strong performances, solid characters, great direction, and its amazing depictions of R-rated violence, this film gets my approval of being one of my favorite superhero films ever as well as being one of my favorite films of 2017.  This is a must-see for comic book fans, X-Men fans, Wolverine fans, and the non-fans.  However, I would not suggest bringing anyone under six to see this film, because it is brutal, with a capital B.  Oh, and spoiler alert, there’s no after-credits scene.

A