Release Date: March 3rd, 2017
Rated: 18A
**There is a small spoiler at the end of this review, if you’ve been keeping up with the news around the movie you know what its about, but if you haven’t watched a Wolverine movie before and haven’t been keeping up with the news surrounding this film, do not scroll past my name at the end, the spoiler will be marked and I will move it further down just in case. However, you have been warned! enjoy!!***
I avoided all trailers for this movie, like actually avoided, as I knew I already wanted to see it, I’ve been wanting an R rated Wolverine movie since the first Wolverine spin-off – X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). What I got out of this movie was a surprisingly well told story that was brutally violent and had great one liners and was well written. If you’re a fan of Wolverine or the X-Men franchise, you should definitely do yourself a favour and watch this film.
Logan is an Action, Drama and Sci-Fi film about Logan caring for an ailing Professor X, they are hiding out 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.
Logan is directed by James Mangold. James Mangold’s filmography consists of Identity (2003), Walk The Line (2005), and 3:10 To Yuma (2007). He also directed The Wolverine (2013), which I haven’t seen yet, but after seeing his work on Logan, I would like too. I thought that Mangold did a brilliant job directing this movie, and he was finally able to give fans the best Wolverine movie to date from the ones I have seen. He was able to really capture the state of the world, doing some very standard techniques of story telling, but his action scenes were very well filmed and very well made that, there were genuine moments where I forgot I was watching a comic book film, and I was watching an action movie, but even more than that, I felt like I was watching a well crafted Sci-Fi, Drama film. This film does a great job in breathing in new life into the comic book movie genre. Last year we had Deadpool, which completely changed my whole opinion on comic book films, which actually paved the way for Logan to be rated R. These darker comic book movies I prefer, I like that they’re more adult, and not exactly family friendly and cater to a different audience. I really hope that James Mangold does another gritty and dark comic book film, as in my opinion, he definitely has a special touch to make these films something special.
Logan’s story was written by James Mangold. James Mangold’s writing filmography consists of Walk The Line (2005). As I said in my previous paragraph about Mangolds directing, he definitely has a special touch when it comes to comic book films. He was able to adapt a comic book and make it feel almost real. It didn’t feel like a run-of-the-mill comic book movie, but there were so many different elements that made up the film. He was also able to balance a very dark and gritty film, but add in some really quick and well placed one liners. I found myself laughing a lot at this movie, there were genuine funny moments but there were also pieces of really well written dark comedy pieces. For example: There was a scene where a character comes out, holding a guys decapitated head in their hands, the head rolls of their hands and the quote that comes out of a guys mouth is “ohhh, good girl.” It wasn’t super over the top, but just the delivery of the line and the subtlety of the violence with the line was funny to me (Maybe I’m just sick…). But there were these really great comedic moments littered throughout the movie, but it was a lot more depressing than I anticipated. I thought the story was well done in many places, however I do have some issues, which I’ll get to near the end.
Logan’s stars list is going to be short, as I’m going to focus on the main characters, that we see a lot of in this movie, those people that make up the good guys mostly. Hugh Jackman of course plays Logan, the one and only Professor X, or Charles is played by Sir Patrick Stewart, and new-comer Dafne Keen plays Laura in her theatrical debut.
Hugh Jackman’s filmography consists of X-Men (2000), Swordfish (2001), X2: X-Men United (2003), Van Helsing (2004), The Fountain (2006), The Prestige (2006), Flushed Away (2006), X-Men 3: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men: First Class (2009), Real Steel (2011), Prisoners (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Me and Earl And The Dying Girl (2015), Chappie (2015), Eddie The Eagle (2016), and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). Hugh Jackman is a brilliant actor, that can do pretty much any role he wants to do. I find him extremely versatile. I love him as Wolverine, but my favourite role that he has done is still Prisoners (2013). But he is definitely a great dramatic actor, he was able to balance raw fury with these great moments in Logan. He was tamed in some scenes and went to some next level anger in other scenes, as typical Wolverine does. He was funny, yet delivered one of the best performances I think he has ever done in Logan. There were moments I found throughout watching the film, where I forgot I was watching an actor playing a character, I thought this was actually Wolverine. Hugh Jackman is not just Wolverine, Wolverine is Hugh Jackman.
Sir Patrick Stewarts filmography consists of Dune (1984), Robin Hood: Men In Tights (1993), The Pagemaster (1994), Star Trek: The Next Generation {TV Series} (1987-1994), X-Men (2000), Jimmy Neutron (2001), X2: X-Men United (2003), The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion {Video Game} (2006), X-Men 3: The Last Stand (2006), Ted (2012), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Green Room (2015), and Ted 2 (2015). Growing up in a house where my father and brother are both big Star Trek fans, I remember Sir Patrick Stewart always as Captain Jean-Luc Piccard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, not even from watching it all the time, but I remember when I was younger watching a couple episodes of TNG with my dad, and seeing the couple of TNG movies in theatre with him. But growing up over the years and watching these X-Men films for most of my life, Sir Patrick Stewart is, and always will be the man. He is a brilliant actor, he is so loveable in most of the films he’s in (minus Green Room, which I’ll review down the line a bit, in that film he scared the absolute crap out of me, and he played his role in that so well). I thought he was superb in Logan, and I think that this is the best incarnation of his role as Professor X in the 17 years that he has been the character.
Logan was actually Dafne Keen’s first film… and holy crap she was amazing in this movie, there were actually moments in the film where she stole the spotlight for me from Hugh Jackman and Sir Patrick Stewart, and that is saying a whole lot since Jackman and Stewart have been acting for an extremely long time. Keen delivered her lines very well, she hit the comedic and dramatic tones with grace and accuracy and you couldn’t help but love her character. I see big things in her future, and I’m excited to see what she does next, hey…Hollywood! Give her more roles!
The acting in this movie was really well done, I thought the 3 main characters in this movie were excellent, especially Jackman and Stewart both portraying the best incarnation of these characters that they have been playing for 17 years.
My issues with the film are more pacing and some story issues. There were parts of the movie where it crawled along and the pace went from being well-paced and really good, to being slower and dragged along. The story was fine, not perfect, but the acting made up for the low parts of the film and when the action heats up its well done.
Despite my issues, I’m giving Logan a 4/5. Its definitely a film to re-watch down the line, the acting was well done. I would also say this is one of the best comic book movies I have ever seen.
Until Next Time!
-Andrew
*****SPOILERS BEGIN HERE******
I for one want to thank Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart for their 17 years of service to the X-Men franchise. They have both been Wolverine and Professor X for 17 long years, and I feel like the franchise wouldn’t have been the same without their talent. They’re both brilliant actors, who have had some really amazing incarnations of these comic book characters over the years. I’m sad to see them leave these movies behind, but however I’m very excited to see what they do next. After seeing Hugh Jackman in Prisoners (2013) and Sir Patrick Stewart in Green Room (2015), theres nothing they can’t do, and there is going to be some amazing roles waiting for them in the future. However, I do hope Hugh Jackman gives in an does a Wolverine/Deadpool movie with Ryan Reynolds, Hopefully! Because that would be fantastic.
Thank you Hugh Jackman and Sir Patrick Stewart!