Logan is a 2017 action/adventure film directed by James Mangold, and follows the final chapter in Hugh Jackman’s role as the Wolverine in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men series. The film stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, Richard E. Grant and Dafne Keen, and follows a weary Logan who is caring for an ailing Professor X somewhere along the Mexican border. However, Logan’s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are upended when a young mutant arrives, pursued by dark forces.
So there’s a lot to say about Logan that I just can’t say in a spoiler free review. Granted I will find a way, but unlike a lot of the reviews I’ve seen about this film, I wasn’t all that impressed. While Logan does a lot of things right, it also does a lot of other things not so great too.
To start off, this film’s cast is beyond great, but that is to be expected as these characters have already been set up in the X-Men universe. Of course Hugh Jackman is absolutely fantastic and steals the show, but the real scene stealer is Dafne Keen. Like holy crap. This girl has only a handful of lines in the entire film, and is probably one of the most fleshed out characters in this movie. I’d much rather watch a movie about her with Jackman as the supporting role than the other way around. That brings me to what I found as the biggest flaw throughout this film, and it’s specifically with Logan as a character. Although the film is about Logan, he really has no reason to continue on with his life. They say throughout the film that Logan and Charles are planning on buying a boat and want to spend the rest of their lives on there, but Logan has no real ambitions for him to keep himself alive throughout the film. There really isn’t an end goal for this character, and at least for me, it’s a major turnoff in the film’s narrative.
Now this is a vary hard R film.. and I love it. The gore and so forth is used as a tool and not as a crutch, and that helps add to the tone of the film. This is very much a western kind of film, and it keeps that feel throughout the entirety of it’s run time. Although the camera work and cinematography is great, it still just feels like there isn’t enough variety in scenery throughout the film. Each set seems oddly reminiscent of the previous and that just doesn’t seem too interesting to me.
I guess that’s just the thing. Logan is a good movie if you love the X-Men universe, but if you walk into this film expecting to be blown away like in The Dark Knight you’ll be sadly disappointed. Although Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart are great, their character arcs are just too poor to care about, and yet Dafne Keen is the only one you’re really rooting for at the end. Without spoiling the end, the final scene is just beautiful and feels like the right move on the studio’s part. It’s emotional impact is great, and I hope a lot more of these superhero films can learn from this.
Overall, Logan was a good time and definitely worth the price of a ticket to see it. Keen’s character is fantastic, and both Jackman and Stewart were great while their characters weren’t as fleshed out. The western tone gave the movie a distinct feeling, unlike any other superhero film, but gets boring in the lack of set pieces. The finale takes chances that are unexpected from these types of production companies, and really brings out a lot of emotions that one might not expect to feel when walking into this movie. In the end I decided to give Logan a “Good” on theVade Review Bar. Although it’s a little higher than I wanted to give it, this is one of those movies that I feel will age better with time, ironically the opposite of Logan’s character in Logan.
