Review by Bob Ignizio
Although it exists within the X-men series of films dealing
with a band of mutant superheroes, James Mangold's LOGAN is less a superhero film and more a serious, adult action
film. The kind of movie Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson might have starred in
in the seventies. Sure, the title character has metal claws that pop out of his
hands, as well as the ability to heal from almost any wound, but this is a much
different, and much more grown-up beast than your average comic book fare.
The violence is part of that, to be sure. From its very
first scene, LOGAN announces its
intention to earn its 'R' rating as Hugh Jackman's hirsute hero slices and
dices a group of car thieves unlucky enough to have picked his limousine as
their target.
But this isn't a non-stop orgy of fight scenes and gore. No, much of what sets the film apart from its fellow
franchise entries is the more mature tone it takes, and the themes it deals
with, notably that of an aging warrior who has tried to leave violence behind,
but finds himself pulled back into the fray. It's the same engine that has
powered films like Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN,
and perhaps more pertinent in this case, George Stevens' SHANE, scenes from which appear in LOGAN.
The film is set in the near future and Logan, once known as
the Wolverine, is keeping a low profile. We're not sure exactly what happened,
just that there was a terrible incident that resulted in the death of several X-Men
and wounded hundreds of regular people. Apparently new mutants have stopped
appearing, too.
Other than Logan, the only mutants we see are Professor
Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who is suffering from some sort of
degenerative brain disease (probably Alzheimer's). While Logan does his driving
job to keep the money coming in, Caliban (Stephen Merchant), an albino mutant
with tracking powers, looks after the Professor. He not only tends to Charles'
needs, he also makes sure he gets drugs to tamp down his mutant psychic powers.
The plan is for Logan to save up enough money to buy a boat.
Not a particularly practical plan, but a plan nonetheless. One that gets tossed
out the window when Logan is recruited to help a young girl named Laura (Dafne
Keen) escape from a group of mechanically augmented bad guys known as The
Reavers, led by Piecre (Boyd Holbrook).
Laura, it turns out, is a mutant. Not only that, she has
claws and a healing factor just like Logan. You don't have to be a genius to
guess there's some kind of connection. Anyway, once Laura comes into the
picture, Logan and the Professor set off on a road trip to get her to safety,
the bad guys in pursuit.
Not surprisingly, a number of well executed fight scenes
ensue, and Mangold thankfully shoots them in a way that is exciting without
being incomprehensible. Again, recalling the seventies when directors
understood that if you were going to pay stunt people and special effects
people to do a really bad ass fight scene, maybe you ought to shoot it in such
a way that audiences can actually see what's going on.
But as this review mentioned early on, LOGAN is not a non-stop action film. Mangold also understands the
concept of pacing, and sees value in spending time developing his characters.
Old fashioned concepts in this age, perhaps, but there are still some who
appreciate them.
This is Jackman's 8th time playing Logan/Wolverine (9th if
you count his cameo in X-MEN: FIRST
CLASS), and he wears the character like a finely tailored suit. There
aren't a lot of new twists to the character, as even the surrogate father angle
has been explored to some degree in his relationship with Rogue in the first X-MEN film. Nonetheless, fans will be
happy with the portrayal, and the film offers a fitting swan song for what
Jackman says is his last go-around.
Stewart gets to do a little more with his Professor X,
showing a more vulnerable version of the character. One who has some very
serious regrets, but has still managed to hold on to some small reserve of
optimism and hope despite everything that's happened.
And Laura/X-23... well, she's pretty much a more feral
version of Hit Girl. She doesn't talk a whole lot, but can more than hold her
own in a fight. A little more depth to her character might have been nice, but
given the film that this is, it's not a major issue.
What is kind of a major issue is one sequence near the middle
of the movie. It's a fairly standard digression in a movie like this, the one
in which the heroes on the run find themselves staying with some ordinary folk
for a bit. Sorry, but given Logan's way of thinking, he would never have put
these people in the kind of danger they get put in by his presence. And the way
it plays out just didn't feel right to me. That's about all I can say without
getting into spoilers, though.
Flaws aside, though, I enjoyed LOGAN a good deal. I almost never say things like, "this is a
super hero movie for people who don't like super hero movies," but in this
case, I would. Now you'd still need to be open to action movies, and ones with
considerable violence, to boot, but I do think it's fair to say the audience
for LOGAN would skew a little older
and a little wider than that for, say, the average Marvel or DC film. 3 ½ out
of 4 stars.
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