Director: James Mangold
Writers: James Mangold (story by), Scott Frank (screenplay by)
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen
Plot: In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X, somewhere on 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.
Running Time: 2 hours 17 minutes
Rotten Tomatoes Score: Critics 93% Audience 90%
Why I Watched it: A R-Rated Wolverine movie how could you say no.
Thoughts: Now it took me awhile to watch this and it’s because of the hype, it’s the one thing with fan boys now nothing is just good it has to be called the best, the best comic book movie, the best Wolverine movie, and I have to say with watching the trailers it looked dark which I like but it also looked somber, not sure I wanted a depressing Wolverine movie. The other thing I will say going into the review just because something is different doesn’t make it better so much has been made of Logan being a great film cause it’s different from other super hero movies, and it is but just on that fact alone doesn’t make it better.
What I Liked: Hugh Jackman will always be Logan, he just nails the character and for me he’s been the best part of the X-Men franchise, he never sleeps walks and he always shows heart and emotion playing Logan. In this film I think Patrick Stewart is even better he gets to be sad, funny, noble, wise and also tired. We’ve never got to see comic book characters end or get old, there’s no riding off into the sunset for these guys cause comics by their nature get to reboot whenever they want but you get the sense in both Stewart’s and Jackman’s performances that they’re saying goodbye to dear friends.
One thing I want to point out here there’s a couple of fight scenes and they’re just wicked, I don’t think I’ve ever seen fight scenes in this genre being this ferocious, the energy in these fights are off the charts. Really like the young actress Dafne Keen, she does a lot in her fights, she has personality in her fights. For a young actress she has a very strong presence. I liked half of Boyd Holbrook’s performance the first half and boy this guy can be a star. A lot of talk has gone into what this film is like and for me it’s the first comic book movie to really look at the person not the character, not the ability but what cost they’ve paid to be what they are and yes they take that to the grave. It’s like The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven was to Westerns, bare bones the grit and reality of it all.
What I Didn’t Like: I had a few major problems with the film, and I didn’t care for the writing of Logan this time around, look Jackman owns it but he’s so one note here it bothered me, I get he has demons but come on, he has no charm and no sense of humor at all and just yells at everyone, his lines are just saying “take your pills, there’s no more mutants, I don’t care, there’s no Eden it’s a dumb comic book” Take a drink for every time he’s wrong in this film, he’s not an anit-hero he’s an annoying old man and I wouldn’t want to be in the same room as him. Now I don’t think it worked and I don’t like the character as written in this film. Also I was very disappointed in no word building here, they say the future they say no more mutants, how? what’s the world like now? How did we get there? Also are we going from the comics or the movies? Never got the sense of this future.
I found the film boring and slow at times and the sub-plots didn’t work for me, it’s like now all comic book films feel they have to be over 2 hours the long running time shows how important it is. Near the end all the momentum is drained from the film, hey let’s have three scenes of Logan sleeping, the drama. The ending left me cold, look we all knew what was going to happen and it didn’t move me the way it should, they set this up not of wondering what will happen but when it will. Really the main bad guy is an evil doctor, really? Boy it’s so different.
Final Thoughts: It was for the most part a well done film and for the record I liked that it was R-Rated and I liked seeing these characters again played by these actors. It’s just not the greatest anything of all-time and it doesn’t have to be to be a solid film.
Rating: 6/10
Movie Burner Entertainment 