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rich_jackoLogan is, fundamentally, a film about getting old. Your mind and body start to pack up, and all your hopes and dreams fade away. Set in the not-too-distant future of 2029 (a deliberate Judgement Day parallel?), the X-Men are long gone, mutants are a dying species, and Logan (Hugh Jackman) ekes out a basic living while struggling to care for a 90-year-old Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart).
It's a far cry from the recent prequel trilogy which, for all that the world was constantly under threat from nuclear war / giant killer robots / ancient demigods, essentially painted a bright and shining future for the X-Men, full of endless possibilities. What went so horribly wrong? We're not told in any depth.
Things change, however, when Logan and Charles encounter Laura (Dafne Keen), a young mutant in a world where there are no young mutants. Bad guys are after her. It doesn't really matter why (although Richard E. Grant as a mad scientist is always going to be worth watching). She needs to escape north to Canada and has no one else to protect her.
Not that she seems to need much protecting. Seriously, this kid makes Hit-Girl look like a playground hair-puller. Logan has absolutely no interest in trying to play a father figure ("I really suck at this shit!"), but events overtake them and the trio go on the run.
It's a much smaller-scale, more personal film than previous X-Men (which you don't need to have seen to appreciate this), and a real tour de force for the lead actors. You really feel for Charles and Logan and, while Laura is more a MacGuffin than a character to begin with, she grows as the film progresses. The minor and incidental characters are well fleshed-out too.
On the downside, the film does at times feel like it's indulging Hugh Jackman (which it is). Also, while it's very different from other films in its genre in a lot of ways, it does stick excessively to predictable movie tropes - When they split the party, you know whoever's not with Wolverine is going to get attacked. Character X gets item Y, which you know means they're going to do action Z with it by the film's end. And so on.
These are minor gripes though, which don't seriously spoil what is solidly a four-star film. Lots of superhero movies claim to be dark and gritty, but this one really is. I don't mean in a dumb, moody-lighting-and-cool-anti-heroes, MTV style. Much of Logan is set in sunlit desert and none of the characters are remotely cool. I don't mean in terms of there being enough violent deaths and F-words to make even Tarantino proud, although there are both of those (The film definitely earns its 15 rating). I mean in the sense that it deals with grim realities and offers no easy, comforting answers. Every one of us gets old, is emotionally messed-up at times, and is occasionally very selfish. The world is a mess and no good deed goes unpunished.
If this all sounds rather bleak, it is. But this is also an action film, with chases and fight scenes galore. (Now, if only the director would hold the damn camera still for a second - although I suspect that if you got a better look, the frequent, bloody impalings would push the certificate up to an 18.) It's also not without hope for the future. The ending, while calculatingly sentimental, feels absolutely right. I defy anyone not to be moved by it.
This is Hugh Jackman's last outing as Logan, easily the best of the standalone Wolverine films (Don't bother with the other two), and a damn good road movie in its own right. Go see it.
It's a far cry from the recent prequel trilogy which, for all that the world was constantly under threat from nuclear war / giant killer robots / ancient demigods, essentially painted a bright and shining future for the X-Men, full of endless possibilities. What went so horribly wrong? We're not told in any depth.
Things change, however, when Logan and Charles encounter Laura (Dafne Keen), a young mutant in a world where there are no young mutants. Bad guys are after her. It doesn't really matter why (although Richard E. Grant as a mad scientist is always going to be worth watching). She needs to escape north to Canada and has no one else to protect her.
Not that she seems to need much protecting. Seriously, this kid makes Hit-Girl look like a playground hair-puller. Logan has absolutely no interest in trying to play a father figure ("I really suck at this shit!"), but events overtake them and the trio go on the run.
It's a much smaller-scale, more personal film than previous X-Men (which you don't need to have seen to appreciate this), and a real tour de force for the lead actors. You really feel for Charles and Logan and, while Laura is more a MacGuffin than a character to begin with, she grows as the film progresses. The minor and incidental characters are well fleshed-out too.
On the downside, the film does at times feel like it's indulging Hugh Jackman (which it is). Also, while it's very different from other films in its genre in a lot of ways, it does stick excessively to predictable movie tropes - When they split the party, you know whoever's not with Wolverine is going to get attacked. Character X gets item Y, which you know means they're going to do action Z with it by the film's end. And so on.
These are minor gripes though, which don't seriously spoil what is solidly a four-star film. Lots of superhero movies claim to be dark and gritty, but this one really is. I don't mean in a dumb, moody-lighting-and-cool-anti-heroes, MTV style. Much of Logan is set in sunlit desert and none of the characters are remotely cool. I don't mean in terms of there being enough violent deaths and F-words to make even Tarantino proud, although there are both of those (The film definitely earns its 15 rating). I mean in the sense that it deals with grim realities and offers no easy, comforting answers. Every one of us gets old, is emotionally messed-up at times, and is occasionally very selfish. The world is a mess and no good deed goes unpunished.
If this all sounds rather bleak, it is. But this is also an action film, with chases and fight scenes galore. (Now, if only the director would hold the damn camera still for a second - although I suspect that if you got a better look, the frequent, bloody impalings would push the certificate up to an 18.) It's also not without hope for the future. The ending, while calculatingly sentimental, feels absolutely right. I defy anyone not to be moved by it.
This is Hugh Jackman's last outing as Logan, easily the best of the standalone Wolverine films (Don't bother with the other two), and a damn good road movie in its own right. Go see it.
