So, This Is What It Feels Like

Logan

Well hello again faithful readers, just want to say thank you for continuing to read this and bearing with me as I try to mold this into something that I can call my own. With saying all of that I think that I am going to change it up from the overdone aesthetic that many critics form their reviews into. So going to try and write this out as if I could afford for this to be an actual podcast and my words were coming loud and clear over a very nice listening device that you may own.

Welcome to another issue of my Diary where I indulge myself in everything movies and of course some TV. I have been watching a few movies of many different genres this week, a little more than I am used to. I really didn’t know where to begin so I am just really going to begin with one of the most popular movies in the past month or so, Logan.

Logan is set in 2029 and most of mutantkind has been wiped off the planet and seem to have been forgotten. Trying to live a quiet and uneventful life is Logan (Hugh Jackman) as a limo driver, while taking care of an elderly Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) who is slowly slipping into a state of dementia. Logan’s peaceful existence is shattered when he runs into a mysterious woman begging for his help. With her is an even more mysterious middle school aged girl who doesn’t say much at all. Trying to avoid helping this woman at all costs, trouble seems to find Logan anyway and soon he is swept up into a high stakes cat and mouse game that requires him to escort this girl named Laura (Dafne Keen) to North Dakota.

Like all of my other reviews, I am still going to start off with the positives because I truly believe that people like to hear the good stuff more than the bad. With that said, I am pretty positive that 20^th Century Fox and X-Men producers Simon Kinberg and Lauren Shuler Donner should just hand over the X-Franchise over to director James Mangold. He obviously knows to tell a great comic book story and bring a sense of realism to the franchise that I so desperately lacks. The X-Franchise is starting to remind me of the Batman Franchise before Christopher Nolan took over. After seeing this film, I think that Mangold would do great things to the X-Franchise if given the opportunity to reshape and maybe reboot (I hate that word) the whole franchise. Playing off the same themes of western classic Shane, Mangold’s Logan is a story about an aging cowboy “roped” in to one last fight, all the while finding his purpose again. That couldn’t have been pulled off any better than how Jackman portrays his most iconic character. Hugh Jackman has always given life to Wolverine, but nothing like this. In this film Jackman presents Logan with more depth than a weapon that loves a beautiful red head. Jackman’s interactions with Stewart are most superb about this film. Xavier here seems to be suffering from mental illness, which I know is ironic seeing what his mutant abilities are, and it is hinted throughout the film that he may be the cause of the mutant “extinction”. Because of this, Logan has this love/hate relationship with Xavier almost to the point of a child caring for an abusive father. Logan loves Xavier, but knows that he is the cause of a great loss. Stewart pulls off the sympathetic abusive father quite well because somewhere in Xavier’s mind, he knows he did something terrible but he can’t really remember what. As far as the newest member of the X-Family, Dafne Keen and her character Laura are hugely welcomed addition to the franchise. Laura turns out to be a direct clone of Logan with all the fixings (adamantium claws in both her knuckles and feet).  Keen gives us a vicious fighter and introverted pre-teen that  does an amazing job of taking what Jackman has created with Logan through nine films and yet making Laura a little more feral.

Now for my problems with Logan are twofold. First is the fact that I supported and still support Fox and Mangold’s decision to make this film a brutal R rating, there was some parts that I thought that were unnecessary and took the violence a little too far. One in particular scene is when the villainous Reavers come to capture young Laura. Holding Logan captive, the leader of the Reavers group sends a couple of unsuspecting goons to retrieve Laura from inside a building, while eating cereal no less…tisk tisk. The audience does not see the scuffle but hears the struggle. After the fight, we see young Laura walk outside backpack in one hand and a severed head in the other. I just didn’t find this needed. I think that the scene could have been just as impactful if Laura just walked out bloodstained. My second problem with this film isn’t really the films fault but the fault of all of the X-Men films. The continuity. This film doesn’t even connect to Mangold’s last Wolverine film. Logan makes references to the very first X-Men film but that is about it. Hey FOX, let’s put these films together and have them make sense!

Even with those minor problems, I found Logan to be quiet a potent film not just for the comic book genre but even for the modern western genre. In 2008 The Dark Knight elevated the comic book genre by using impactful crime film influences like that of Heat and here Mangold raises the bar for the genre yet again. If Logan is not mentioned come award season, a tragedy has befallen the world of film. Jackman and Stewart give powerful performances and Mangold conducts a brilliant orchestra of a film.

Definitely Worth Your Time.