Logan: Review

• If you have not seen Logan yet, watch Logan. This movie has a very good chance of being my favorite movie of the year. It may be too soon and I don't want to overhype it for you, but this might be my favorite comic book film of all time. So if you've watched at least some of the X-Men movies with Wolverine, you should 100% check Logan out. But if you have not seen it, I will warn you that this is a SPOILER review. Once again, HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD. This is one of a few movies that I didn't get around to reviewing that I'm trying to catch up on. This currently is my favorite movie of the year so far and I couldn't not review it. And I really wanted to have the freedom to get deep into the story. So let's talk about Logan.

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• This is ‪the Wolverine‬ movie you've been waiting for. The first Wolverine movie sucked, the second one was fine, this movie is incredible. This is ‪the Wolverine‬ story that I didn't even know that I was waiting for. If you've ever had the conversation of "What superhero do you wanna be?" Nobody has ever said Wolverine. I have always felt horrible for this guy. Hugh Jackman fits this role so perfectly. The first X-Men came out the year I was born. Which means Hugh Jackman has been getting ripped to play Logan for my entire lifetime. The first ‪X-Men‬ was a huge beginning for comic book movies, and Logan is a step into reinventing them by incorporating a different kind of story. To me, this is clearly a western. My definition of a western is very different from what a lot of people typically think. I don't think that a western always has to have cowboys and horses. You can clearly tell that James Mangold was going for a western vibe. There's the scene where Laura and Charles are watching Shane in the hotel room. This movie is a step forward to changing comic book films because it changes up the genre. It's not you're typical superhero movie at all. There's no superhero suits or a beam in the sky. And it's not just because it's rated R. This is a slow and emotional character movie that feels like it steps out of the genre.

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• This is the best performance I've seen from Hugh Jackman. I'm gonna be mad if he isn't nominated. In the words of Miracle Max, "It would take a miracle." Again, Hugh Jackman has played Old Wolvie for my entire lifetime. I love watching him as the character. He is able to portray this beast so perfectly. Just look up that video of him doing ADR for this movie. The way he growls and yells like a beast is so riveting and just perfect. Wolverine has the most tortured past you could possibly imagine. This guy fought in the Civil War. He has been slaughtering people for centuries. Everyone he has ever known has come and gone, over and over and over again. Anyone he connects with he knows he's endangering and he'll have to live on past. He has so much death haunting him. And he just keeps going. To me, The Wolverine's power has always been persistence. All this darkness this character is living with gives an actor a lot to work with. And Hugh Jackman excels with all the depth there is to the character of Logan.

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• I'll come back to Old Wolvie in a minute because I've barely scratched the surface. Let's talk about the R-Rating. I think that all the violence is very realistic to what damage these clawed beasts would be causing. It's very realistic but it definitely felt out of continuity (as if the X-Men universe even has continuity). And the same thing goes for the language. Both of these things I can accept. But they did take me out of the movie and make me think they were just having fun with the R-rating. I think that if Professor was at this stage in his life he would definitely be dropping F-bombs. And I think Logan should have realistically been dropping F-bombs way earlier. I think that if any of us were in this much pain, we'd be doing worse. So it takes you out a bit but it's also realistic in my opinion. I think that James Mangold was trying to tell us that the previous X-Men movies were censoring Wolverine a bit. To me, through Laura's X-Men comics, he's saying that those are the fluffed versions and this is what real life is like. And again, the violence feels a bit out of continuity but realistic. So those are some small flaws. Because it's so riveting to watch them growl while slicing people to bits.

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• Let's talk about the acting again. Dafne Keen is fantastic as Laura. I can't believe that she's credited as "Introducing Dafne Keen." I want so badly to see where her journey goes next. And James Mangold has been talking about making a spin-off with Dafne Keen called Laura. I think Logan is one of the best passing of the torch stories and I'm desperate to see where that goes next. I want more X-23. And I want to see more of Dafne Keen in anything else. She has a very similar performance as Millie Bobbie Brown in Stranger Things. She very silent and reserved, but she's also super powerful and a beast. I want to see Eleven vs X-23! Make it happen Hollywood! Dafne Keen doesn't have any lines until very late in the movie. Which makes her have to act Tom Hardy style - through the eyes. And I love her scenes with Patrick Stewart with her fascination with Charles stories, I thought she portrayed that perfectly. She's fantastic at playing a monster with claws just like Hugh Jackman. And I love watching them interact. I'll talk more about their connection later.

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• Patrick Stewart is also fantastic in the film. He plays a very sick Professor X that has fallen into the madness of this world and having to deal with all that he's lost. He has to live in the aftermath of watching everyone that he raised die. He's gone a bit insane. He gets a taste of the darkness Logan has always carried and he broke. He's been put in a fake Cerebro to live for really nothing. He taught so many mutants how to control their powers, and he can't even do that for himself anymore. The scenes when Charles has seizures are insane. And I love the way Charles connects with Laura. His whole world turns around when he meets Laura. He becomes so hopeful when he finally gets hope for the future of mutants.

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• Laura brings so much hope and light into Charles' life. And I love the way Patrick Stewart and Dafne Keen portray this. Logan is protecting his last friend Charles. And they're both completely bitter, and rightfully so. Charles becomes hopeful in Laura, and Logan doesn't see the potential in Laura until literally the end of the movie. Part of Logan's journey was to see the potential in Laura. And the conflict between Charles' hope and Logan's frustration was great acting and writing. I want to see Hugh Jackman, Dafne Keen, and Patrick Stewart all nominated for Oscars for Logan. I wanted to also give some credit to Boyd Holbrook who plays Pierce (The blonde dude with the robot hand). I thought he was very good as a sort of villain. He's not so over the top that you leave the theater remembering him instead of anybody else. He's more of an obstacle than a villain. I thought he was really good is his scenes and didn't draw too much attention to himself which is what a supporting actor is supposed to do. And I think he really fits the western vibe.

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• I love the dinner table scene with the family that Logan, Laura, and Charles are staying with. I love that scene because it's giving you a chance to slow down and get to live with these characters in one last peaceful moment. Because that dinner is the last peaceful moment before everything falls apart. So that brings me to Charles' death. The scene when Logan's double being X-24 stabs Charles, I honestly thought Charles was having a bad dream. When Charles looks up and sees a younger Logan and gets stabbed, I didn't think it was actually happening. I thought Charles was having a vision of a younger Logan killing him. So not until I saw the real Logan and X-24 together did I actually start to realize that I just watched the Professor's death. If they would have had just one scene showing X-24, I wouldn't have been confused. Maybe this was intentional. I saw that as a flawed moment. And then Charles burial is heartbreaking. Which brings me back to Hugh Jackman.

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• I love my heroes to struggle. I think the reason that we love Indiana Jones so much is because he struggles and because he's vulnerable. Logan is at his end and he's barely hanging on. He's been living this dark life for centuries and he's finally wearing out and facing his death. I don't know how a hero can struggle more. I love watching characters at the end of their rope especially when it's one that's been doing it for so long with movies like ‪Rocky Balboa‬ or ‪The Dark Knight‬ Returns comic. I love watching an old hero who's been fighting for so long coming back and making one final push. It's so riveting to me. Right from the opening, you see the spot that Logan has found himself in. It's very violent and he's at his breaking point.

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• I don't think that this is a movie that stands on it's own from the franchise. I love following a character throughout a series of films and this is one that pays off a lot. But I think that if you haven't seen any movies with Wolverine, you aren't going to be emotionally attached to Logan nearly as much as I was. Because I watching a character that I've watched for years slowly accepting his end and it's completely heartbreaking. His adamantium skeleton is poisoning him, he can barely even extend his claws without him having to pull them out with his hands. And Charles burial is one of my favorite scenes. When Logan is standing over Charles grave and his body is quivering. Hugh Jackman perfectly portrays him looking to the sky with all the weight of the world haunting him. He looks like a wounded old bloodhound.

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• The scene when Logan has collapsed after beating the car. And he wakes up to find himself still alive, his mood towards the situation I thought was fascinating. He's just lost Charles and lashed out in fury and collapsed in pain. And he wakes up thinking "I've gotta keep going." His mood is always persistence. All he knows is to keep going. That's all he's been doing his entire life. He's watched people come and go and all he can do is keep going and act like everything is normal. Logan is one of the strongest characters ever created. This is one of the few movies that has ever come close to making me cry. It's not easy to make me cry. And a movie has never made me have a tear coming down my face. And this is one of a few movies that came close.

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• I think that Logan sees a younger version of himself in Laura. Finally, at the end of his life, he has someone he can relate to and even teach. I love the lines they exchange - Logan says "I've hurt people." and Laura replies "I've hurt people too." and he replies "You're gonna have to learn to live with that." Again persistence. He originally blames her for losing Charles and Calaban and getting them into this mess. It takes him until the end of the movie to accept her potential and see her as a version of himself and to give her and the young mutants a chance by sacrificing himself with one final push. In the final battle, Logan is the most vulnerable we've ever seen him. He gives one final push with everything he has to save Laura. He has to fight all these men with the little bit that he has left. And you feel the chaos and you feel every hit that he takes. That final battle is completely overwhelming. You're watching Logan get so wounded and so bloody and it's completely riveting. And then X-24 who you've forgotten about by now, gets thrown into the mix. Logan has to fight a Wolverine that's in his prime and he loses. He's impaled and he knows this is finally his end. Both Hugh Jackman and Dafne Keen are both amazing in his death scene. And he finally understands what death feels like. And he finally says to Laura "Don't be what they made you." Could you ask for a better ending?!

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• This is a film about brokenness. Both Logan and Charles are both very broken people. And Laura is the hope that they both eventually accept and sacrifice themselves for. This film is absolutely brilliant. It's incredibly emotional. And even though it's super violent and dark at times, it's also a very beautiful story. And I love it to pieces. I know this is a super long spoiler review. So God bless you if you read the whole thing. If you’d like to discuss this movie further, leave a comment. I’d love to talk and agree or disagree. My grade for Logan is an A+