The X-Men film series has had a spotty track record throughout the years, especially with the spinoff movies following Wolverine’s solo adventures. 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a movie that had some good cast members, but they were unfortunately wasted in a movie that really is not all that great. Then we got 2013’s The Wolverine, (directed by James Mangold) a movie that was much better than Origins, but it still didn’t completely deliver what fans wanted from a solo Wolverine movie. Mangold returns to direct Logan, and he delivers a movie that is grounded, emotional, and sure to please fans.
Logan sees the title character at a much different place in his life, and in a very different world than we have seen before. He’s working as a limo driver in Texas and living across the Mexican border with Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and the mutant tracker Caliban (Stephen Merchant). His healing factor is failing him, his health is slowly getting worse, and he’s taking care of a Professor X who is suffering from a degenerative brain disease, causing him to have seizures that effect everyone around him. And although it only takes place in 2029, a few years after Days of Future Past left us a happy ending, all the other X-Men are dead and mutants have all but gone extinct. Logan’s life gets turned upside down when he’s tasked with taking a young girl named Laura (Dafne Keen) to North Dakota. When trouble comes knocking in the form of Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook), things only escalate and the road trip begins.
Logan serves as a sendoff for the character of Logan/Wolverine, a role that Hugh Jackman is seemingly playing for the last time. He’s been Logan for 17 years, so if this truly is his final time donning the claws, then he certainly is going out on a high note. The character of Logan/Wolverine has always been a tragic one that had a certain level of world weariness about him, but Jackman takes it to another level this time around. This is a Logan that does not go by his X-Men name and just wants to leave those days in the past. He doesn’t want to fight or get wrapped up in anyone else’s problems. Past movies have helped us understand why Logan is the person that he is, but Jackman brings a new level of emotion to the character and makes us feel bad for Logan in a way that we never have before.
Also playing his character for the final time is Patrick Stewart as Professor X, and it truly is a heartbreaking performance from him. Whereas in past entries the professor was a man that was infinitely wise and a leader that people could get behind, here he’s a very different person. When we first see him, he’s riding around in a wheelchair, screaming and going on about things that sound like crazy talk. It’s jarring and saddening to see someone that was so looked up to, reduced to this state. Although things are pretty sad concerning the professor, he is pretty funny as well throughout the movie. The first time you hear him drop an F-bomb is sure to make you laugh at how funny and out of character it is coming from him.
Rounding out the core trifecta of characters is Laura, and Dafne Keen does a great job bringing her to life, whether it be in an intimate personal scene, or one of the action scenes throughout the movie. The bond that she forms with Logan is believable, powerful, and one of the best aspects of the movie.
When Fox announced that Logan was going to be rated R, people were worried that it would be abused and was solely to ride on the success of last year’s Deadpool being rated R. Thankfully that is not the case though. Logan uses the R rating to tell a grounded story that has real stakes, which is a breath of fresh air in a sea of superhero movies that have grandiose, “save the world” stakes. When it comes to the action, it is everything you would expect from an R-rated Wolverine movie. No more are we limited to quick shots of Wolverine slicing people and having clean claws after killing swaths of enemies. There is actual blood, limbs get cut off, and heads get stabbed. It’s brutal, intense, and very real. It never feels gratuitous though, and it very easily could have. The camerawork also never keeps things from getting too out of control or hard to follow either, so you can really take it all in.
With Logan, James Mangold has made the best solo Wolverine film, the best X-Men film, and what is arguably one of the best superhero films ever. It is an emotional and visceral ride that pulls you in and grips you for its entire runtime. Everyone in the movie gives a truly great performance, with the highlight obviously being Jackman. If this truly is his last rodeo in the X-Men universe, then he could not have picked a better note to go out on. Logan is not just a fantastic superhero movie, but it’s a fantastic movie in general, and everyone should see it.
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