Logan

#22 

Going into Logan, my expectations were very high. I was led to believe this would be one of the better movies of the year, let alone comic book movie. The year is young so that is a bold statement, especially considering how packed this year looks to be in terms of amazing movie after amazing movie.

Logan is a mixture of the Old Man Logan graphic novel and a neo-western. James Mangold has directed 3:10 to Yuma (which was a great remake), so he has a decent handle on that genre. He also directed The Wolverine which was one of the better versions of Wolverine on the big screen up until this point. This is also the swan song for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, so surely they would give them adequate send-offs right?

Well I would give it 8 “claws to the face were worth the R” out of 10. Out of the 10 X-Men movies I would place it as 5th best, rankings below:

1. X2
2. X-Men: First Class
3. X-Men: Days of Future Past
4. Deadpool
5. Logan
6. X-Men: Apocalypse 
7. X-Men
8. The Wolverine
9. X-Men: The Last Stand
10. X-Men Origins: Wolverine

THE BEST

The tone is the standout in comparison to all other X-Men movies: violent / bloody action, bleak landscapes, and a distopian timeline (not counting Days of Future Past since you see almost nothing). It is the R rated Wolverine movie that fans have been clammering for since the first movie. Sure you got to see him stab a bunch of people and get slightly angry, but this time you get to see the bloody aftermath of his almost berserker rage. It was a much more adult in the story as well. This isn’t about a group of heroes who are fighting against yet another world ending event with no repercussions, it is about one of the last of his kind trying to keep his head down and get away from everything. Not to mention, you know deep down from the trailers someone who isn’t a bad guy is going to die.

Logan is the rated R counterpart to Deadpool. For every 4th wall break and low brow that was in Deadpool, Logan made correlations to Shane and was the first X-Men series to show a familial connection.

THE WORST

While this movie was fantastic on almost all fronts … it missed the mark on almost all of them just slightly. Without going into spoilers, it is very difficult to describe the issues. Everything just seemed to be one notch short of being perfect. 

Wolverine was the best version yet, but should have been better. This is the first time he got to use profanity and decapitate people … but it was an old Wolverine who was sick and had trouble getting his claws up. Even when the movie builds up to his berserker rage, it played as slightly comedic. 

One of the main villains is great … but was that the best they could do? The enhanced squad of bad guys had robot hands that never came into play, that is disappointing. You don’t need to be a superpowered villain to be a viable antagonist, and he was a great example of that. Until the movie started stealing his thunder every chance they got.

OVERALL

Don’t get me wrong, this movie is fantastic. It is a phenomenal movie, let alone a comic book movie. My expectations were a little high, so hopefully the issues I had were exaggerated because of that. I will be going back to see it again tomorrow, so my Rewatch Review will reflect the possible change of opinion.

RECOMMENDATION

The movie that came to mind before I even watched Logan was another unconventional western. Bone Tomahawk snuck under the radar and is still there. The movie moved along slowly until you have an idea of what will happen, then you realize that you knew nothing! It is a horror / western starring Kurt Russel and Matthew Fox. The last act is utterly jaw dropping … literally and figuratively.