Logan (2017)
8.6/10 on IMDb
92% on Rotten Tomatoes
Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
Watch it in cinemas;
I'm buying the DVD
Watch it if you: Are a fan of the X-Men series;
Want to see an R-rated version of Wolverine that is truer to the comics;
Are not really into superhero films and want to see what the fuss is about these "X-Men" people;
Want to see a superhero character receive a poignant and serious movie;
Liked the dark superhero tone of The Dark Knight
It is the year 2029, and mutants are endangered. An ageing and injured Logan cares for Professor X somewhere along the Mexican border as he attempts to hide from the rest of the world. As Logan and the Professor are each plagued by their haunted pasts, surviving is a struggle as is. Yet, the arrival of a young mutant heralds a new challenge for them.
Hugh Jackman has stated that this will be the last movie with him portraying our favourite claw-bearing mutant. Whether or not they will recast Wolverine (I hope not), or introduce another character to fill his void (likely), remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: this is the last Hugh Jackman Wolverine movie we will see, and that is enough for me to begin my period of mourning.
The trailers for this film had a really sombre tone to them, so going in you know that this will be a very different superhero movie. In fact, it's more a drama piece rather than an action film, and that was really refreshing to see. I think they did a really nice send-off for Hugh Jackman, and it was everything I hoped his last film would be.
It is really difficult to discuss this film without spoilers, so I will have a spoilers section at the end, and right now I'll just talk about the film broadly.
As I said, the tone of the film is what strikes you the most. It's a really tragic movie, and you see that right from the opening scene. Logan is ageing, scarred, limping, and a bit slow to draw out his claws. He's damaged, both physically and mentally. He has been through two timelines, he has seen many of his loved ones die, and he himself does not have the luxury of death. He is bitter, violent, and indulges in self-sabotaging behaviours. This film, and this portrayal of Logan, is truly heartbreaking.
It is also really sad to see Professor X ageing as well, because you are seeing two of the most powerful mutants be brought so low over time. It is also really interesting to see how damaged Professor X is due to his age and his past. He who was so mentally powerful; the strongest of the strong. Something seriously messed up must have happened to bring him down like this (but more about that in the spoiler section).
I have mixed feelings about the R-rating of this film (MA15+ in Australia). Hugh Jackman actually took a paycut so that this movie could have an R-rating, which just shows how necessary it was for him. On one hand, this allowed them to create that heavy tone for the film so it could have a bit more weight to it. With a lower rating, producers might have wanted the film to steer away from such seriousness to pander to younger audience members. The film is also extremely violent, and the R-rating comes in handy for a lot of the fight scenes.
On the other hand, there are quite a few random things that I think they threw in unnecessarily just because the R-rating allowed them to. For example, Professor X swearing a lot at the beginning of the film seemed really out of character and too over the top. Of course, it does show you just how much has changed and does make you pity what he has gone through to make him so different, but still over the top. Another example: the girl that randomly flashes Logan was just really unnecessary (and it wasn't even a good flash, let's be honest). But you do forget about these things and the movie makes better usage of it's R-rating in later scenes, so its only a small gripe.
The actual storyline is interesting, but it's not the focus of the film. We're not saving the world this time; there's no giant beam of death going into the sky. The film instead explores the characters really in-depth, and in doing so it felt like a really grounded and realistic film, even in a film where the main character has retractable claws.
The character of the young girl was pretty interesting, and Dafne Keen does a fantastic portrayal of her, especially seeing as this is her first film. Hollywood is really going very well in casting child actors lately!
Apart from that, I also really liked the score in this movie, and of course it's always great to hear Johnny Cash.
Okay now
SPOILER TALK!
Spoiler on the mutants:
Sorry, this photo is meant to be blurry (I think; in the movie it was one of the scenes in the camera's videos)
Mutants haven't been born for 25 years. Did they give us a reason for this? I know they said those guys wanted to control and weaponise mutants, but how did they do this? Because if it's in a similar vein to
The Last Stand, then I think it's interesting to think how history just keeps repeating itself. Even though this is after the "happy" timeline of
Days of Future Past, maybe it really is like a ripple in the pond; you disrupt it momentarily, but in the end the pond will remain the same; humans will remain the same, and they will always continue to hunt mutants until mutants become the dominant species. (Cue Magneto's
"I told you so!")
^After I wrote this I found out that Dr. Rice's company actually came up with a mutant-gene-suppressor and put this into the corn-syrup that they were mass manufacturing. I must have completely missed this part of the movie because the only mention of corn-syrup I remember was when the farmer is talking to Logan about how much corn they need. But anyway, it does parallel The Last Stand in trying to suppress the mutant gene, it's jsut unfortunate that corn syrup is used in almost all food products, and this ended up pretty much eradicating the mutant gene altogether.
Also, I was keen for some
Children of Men type revelation of a mutant being born, but I'll settle for this.
(Hide this spoiler on the mutants)
Spoiler on Professor X:
The introduction into this ageing Charles was also very hard to swallow. Patrick Stewart lost 21 pounds (9.5 kg) to portray his sickly character, but the saddest part is his mental deterioration.
I think they mentioned he has Alzheimer's disease, and they certainly alluded to it when he couldn't recognise Logan, even though he always knows who he is. I guess he just can't recognise the ageing Logan, similarly to like how he seems really unrecognisable to audience members who are so used to the dashing, young, and strong Wolverine. But what's interesting is that he instantly recognised X-24 when he walked into the room, and started talking to him and opening up to him.
Speaking of which, did anyone realise what was happening in that scene? I thought it was a dream sequence and didn't think much of it. Sudden stabbing of Charles, young, strong, buzz-cut Wolverine with a black shirt; they all pointed to the fact that Charles was dreaming, right??? And then Laura starts attacking him, he throws her against the wall,
what is happening?, then he kills the rest of the family and
oh no! Charles really is dying! :(((
And his dying scene in the back of the ute, where he seems to be almost delusional, constantly repeating the name of their boat, Sunseeker, reminded me of the chapter in A Dance With Dragons when Maester Aemon is delusional on the boat to Oldtown and thinks Sam is Aegon ("Egg"). So that was pretty sad for me.
But I think the main thing everyone is wondering, is what was the Westchester incident? It sounded like he accidentally had a seizure and killed a bunch of innocent people two years ago and is living in constant regret of that whenever he does remember it. After giving it a google, I realised that Westchester was where the X-mansion was located, meaning Professor X, the one who founded and fostered these mutants and the only family Logan has ever had, was the very one to destroy it.
Living with the murders you committed, accidental or not, justifiable or not, self-defensive or not, seems to have been a theme of the movie. Charles tells Logan how much he feels he doesn't deserve to enjoy a nice family dinner, because of his guilt. Unfortunately, Logan doesn't actually hear this because it's actually X-24 that Charles is talking to, but Logan is able to make it in time to tell Charles that it wasn't him.
(Hide this spoiler on Professor X)
How sad was it to see him in the very first scene? He wakes up in the car,
limps out, and then proceeds to get momentarily beat up by those guys! It was a cool fight scene when his claws just go through their skulls like butter, but I was still pretty sad after seeing just how much he struggled.
If you think of what he has gone through, time travel included, it means that he has had to see all of his closest friends die, twice. And then with the Westchester incident, it must have been terrible for him to witness that, because his friends all died in a similar way the first time around (Phoenix being unable to control her powers).
I also only realised after watching the film that the thing that is poisoning him is his Adamantium, which is slowing down his healing process. It kind of makes me wonder whether Laura will suffer the same fate. Of course, he tells her not to be the weapon they made her to be, but she too will grow old and see all her loved ones die, over and over again. It seems like a sad cycle.
Also, that scene where he overdoses on the green liquid and goes berserk was amazing. That is probably what everyone has been wanting to see since the comics came out, sort of similar to the Darth Vader massacre scene at the end of
Rogue One.
He is also amazing as X-24; I wonder how they filmed that, dang!
And turning the cross on an angle to make an X for the last X-Man, dayum.
A side note: The scene where Charles has a seizure in the casino and Logan is struggling in the hallway was actually filmed with Hugh Jackman being attached to a rope being pulled back by two men to make his struggle realistic. How crazy is that! Hugh Jackman, you will be missed.
(Hide this spoiler on Logan)
At first I thought,
dayum the consequences and similarities are too high! Little feral Laura, with claws and a healing factor, she's way too similar to Wolverine and they were so not creative. Then:
oh right she's a clone of him.
I was pretty interested in her foot talon, but she didn't use it that much so that was a bit disappointing. She is great though, and seems even more deadly than Wolverine, mainly because of her wild and feral-like nature.
I'm also a bit confused with whether she has telepathy? I know Professor X was communicating with her, but I don't know if this was a sign that he was being able to control himself better, or whether it was easier because Laura could also communicate with him. Because Charles didn't communicate with Caliban or Logan, or any of the other child mutants to be honest. They also stated that the tank was meant to sort of block his powers, but he could still communicate with Laura?
Another thing is that as good as the actress was, I didn't buy Laura's sudden desire to start speaking. Like, she suddenly started speaking a lot. It seemed really out of character. And I didn't buy her desire for Logan to care for her more. Of course, she was probably told over and over again by that nurse that Logan was her father, but I just didn't buy it how much she cared about him, and even her little eulogy seemed a bit forced. Although, that's probably an issue with the writing rather than the acting, and it was very sweet to see her call Logan her daddy; he finally had a real family.
(Hide this spoiler on Laura)
A few side notes:
Caliban really did look like a motherly Nosferatu, it was pretty hilarious
Logan reading comic books (loosely) based on his X-Men adventures was great
Self-driving trailers look so scary!
No post credits scene but it doesn't need one
How did that lady edit her video on her phone like that?! Is she like a genius or something?
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