(Movie Review) Logan - One Last Snikty Snikt

Logan (2017)

Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

Directed By: James Mangold

It's been seventeen years since Hugh Jackman's Wolverine first appeared on screen, seventeen years and now we finally have the movie fans have always wanted from his character. Thanks, in large part to the massive success of Deadpool last February, James Mangold was finally allowed to make the movie this character deserves. Boasting a hard R rating which, trust me is more than necessary, we for the first time get to see what this character is all about. Logan is an insane, hyper-violent, fresh take on comic book cinema that opens new doors for the future of the genre.

Following in franchise tradition, the movie picks and chooses the details it wants to acknowledge and utilize from previous films. It's 2029 and Logan (Hugh Jackman) is working as a for-hire limo driver on the border of the U.S. and Mexico. Most of the mutant population is extinct but he has secretly been keeping Professor X (Patrick Stewart) alive south of the border. He has a plan to get them somewhere safe that they can live out their few remaining days, but the unexpected appearance of a new mutant kills any ideas for a peaceful end they had in mind. Whether Logan likes it or not they now have to get this girl someplace safe before some bad people get their hands on her. 

Right from the start, this doesn't feel like any "superhero" movie we've seen before, and that's probably because it isn't one. Though it's steeped in X-Men lore it doesn't rely on your previous knowledge of this world in order to work. Sure, the more familiar you are with these characters and the world the more of an emotional payoff you get in the end, but at the most basic level anyone can enjoy this as a ultra-violent, sci-fi-action-western, and that's pretty incredible in an age where everything is in a "shared universe" 

Let's talk about that R rating, is it necessary? because that's the only thing that matters, and in this case, it's a requirement. When you see this movie, in the first minutes it is made abundantly clear just how necessary that rating is for telling this particular story.  It's not just that they spew a lot of blood and drop a ridiculous amount of curse words, which is fantastic, it's that those things help create the true portrait of who Logan is and how his long, violent life has weighed on him this entire time. 

This is a true genre film, pulling from all different kinds of western, action, and even horror movies creating something, unlike anything we have seen in the genre before. The action is on a level that makes even the most violent of comic book movies pale in comparison. It's not just graphic and gruesome, it's brutally real. Where movies like Deadpool and Blade made their ultra-violence fun, this movie makes it painful. When Wolverine's claws go to work they leave behind a long trail of blood and body parts. 

When Jackman first appeared in the role on 2000 he instantly owned the part and now seventeen years later he is better than he's ever been. If this is actually his last go-around as Wolverine is as good of a send-off as you could ever have. The same goes for Patrick Stewarts Professor X, these iterations of the characters have been around for most of my life and it's amazing to see that almost two decades later they care just as much, if not more, than when they first began. 

Logan also introduces us to the young actress Dafne Keen, who plays Laura aka X-23, the new young mutant who throws a wrench in Wolverines plans. Her performance is incredible, especially considering the only time she opens her mouth, for the most part, is when she's screaming bloody murder has she dismantles a batch of mercenaries. If anyone from this movie goes on to be in future X-Men films, it needs to be her. 

At 137 minutes this is certainly not a short film, and you feel the length of it, but not necessarily in a bad way. Though it feels like it starts to drag in a few moments around the mid-section, there is nothing I would want to see cut out. Every scene feels necessary on the journey to its big ending and really, who can complain about more screentime between Wolverine and X-23? 

These spin-off stories have never felt like they were that intertwined with the main X-Men franchise, but this one even more so than the others feels totally detached, even with the small nods here and there to other films. Logan succeeds with just the basic knowledge of who the character is and nothing more. This is a critical analysis of Wolverine in all of his forms and how his tortured life affects him and the people around him.  

If you go into this looking for the same thing you got out of Deadpool last winter, you may come away disappointed. The hyper-violence will surely satisfy you, but the slow burn of the story and the examination of deeper themes makes this a much more exhausting watch, and I mean that in a good way. Logan takes the genre into new areas and blazes new trails for future stories to go down in what may be the greatest achievement in the X-Men franchise to date.   

As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches Movies. You can find me anytime on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later!