The time has come...
Now, I don't love superhero movies as much as you guys do so my standards are a lot lower, but I would even go a step further and say that Logan is the best superhero movie of all time (unless you count stuff like
Dredd). Including all the
Batman stuff. That said, the movie didn't feel very comic-book-y, which might have contributed to that. But I've read a precious few comics in my day so that might be an egregious statement on my part.
Also, there's elements of Looper in there.
Second, to the skeptics:
@Flemmy Stardust, what
Ricky's saying about
3:10 to Yuma is legit. The
Looper connection either isn't there or I'm just not clear what
Ricky means by it (probably the latter as I only watched
Looper once and it's been a while whereas I watched
3:10 to Yuma a bunch of times when it came out and it's much fresher in my head),
Personally, the
Looper vibe resonated the strongest with me.
There is a lot of shots in Logan about modern decadence and dissolution. The people in the casino hoitering and hollering over gambling. The decadent personas that Jackman drives around in the limo (like the tits-flashing bride). Him spending all time lonely at the bar. All his friends and family being dead. Like Looper, it's a world where people fill their soul with sensory stimulation. This is of course taken to the extreme with the Institute that threat children like nothing but assets.
The relationship between Jackman and Laura (and Laura and her friends) I felt mirror the experience of Joseph Gordon-Levitt at the farm. You have a movie set in this world of moral and emotional dissolution, with its protagonists experiencing an emotional void in said world. They then encounter a more pure, genuine sense of happiness -- found in a family, which gives them a purpose and sense of contentedness in life. In both cases, it's a return to something more "simple". Leaving the sensory-gratifications of the modern world behind and seeing a family, at a farm-home or in the friendships of a group of abused kids.
Probably my biggest bone to pick with this movie was Proffesor X deciding to stay with the farmer-family. He knew they were being hunted. He knew that he was putting them in mortal danger. He remembered killing 600 people. You'd think collateral damage would be on his mind, no? How could he so recklessly endanger them? Wasn't he supposed to be the wise one?
and you will watch it, and soon, because the Shane thing is that fucking important to this movie and so worth your checking it out - you and I can have a discussion of the implications of the specific way it was used.
You c
an't break the mould.
Both Logan and Shane are men of violence who see the opportunity of settling in a more wholesome, communal, family-existence. I think the differences are sort of more interesting than the similarities though. Shane
really tries to integrate. He wants to be a part of the community more than anything else on earth. Ryker and Wilson force his hands. When the going gets rough he feels compelled to use violence again, to be his old self. But that also dooms him, since it would be impossible to re-integrate into the community, since the stamp of violence would change how everyone saw him and thought of him. But he still had to do it because of what he cared about.
As a man of violence, he can solve the question of violence by eliminating Ryker and Wilson. But to really rid the valley of violence he too needs to leave. "There are no more guns in the valley, Joe".
Logan stays at arms-lenght at all times. He rejects the money but never plans to follow them to the promised land. He's to emotionally scared to even try to integrate into the community. But like Shane, he's a man of violence, and therefore he can solve issues related to violence.
You can't break the mold. Or -- as the Swedish subtitles said -- you can't change your personality. Ironically, it's violence itself that enables him to forge the bond he wants with Laura, by saving them from the Institute and therefore guaranteeing their future, allowing him to bypass the whole "social interaction" thing-y.
The quote containing the words "Joey, there's no living with... with a killing. There's no going back from one. Right or wrong, it's a brand. A brand sticks." Is a bit wonky for this film though. Shane saves Joey from becomming a man of violence himself (along with the rest of the valley I suppose). And he does so by doing the violence himself. The situation isn't really analogous in
Logan since Laura kills a shitload of people herself. By Shane-logic, she already has the stamp. She's already a killer. So is the movie insinuating that she's going to grow up and become like Logan? But that seems particularly egregious since she seems to have a wholesome family-unit with the other kids, which would enable her to grow up and become an emotionally balanced and good human being. The specter of loneliness and violence doesn't seem to hang over Laura the way it did Logan at the end.
Some other random thoughts...
* The hotel scene was fucking awesome. Small, details, like the mercenary shifting his eyes as Logan approaches. Badass.
* This movie was fucking dark man! Children tortured, killed, brainwashed and raised in enslavement. Some really disturbing stuff. I got sort-of pissed off at the audience I was watching this movie with. Near the end where the fat black kid was running away from the soldiers -- a whole slew of people started laughing! They think more about the fact that watching a fat kid running is funny than the fact that these kids are in the process of being slaughered and butchered?
* I thought it was sort of funny how the nurse says "This is illegal in America and Canada" before showing footage of children being killed and experimented on. Like, really? I'm pretty sure those things are illegal world-wide, lady.
* I really liked how the evil scientist guy used a negotiation tactic when talking to the mutants (start by acknowledging their pain, accept partial responsibility, claim "greater good" etc). I don't really remember the name but it's a common method for handling a conversation. It shows just how cold-hearted he is. He uses a therapeutic method to try and gain someone's trust. It shows that he thinks that emotions are just something there to be manipulated so that he can gain what he wants.
* My friend kept complaining that Laura's Spanish accent was clearly Spanish instead of Mexican.
* On the subject of Spanish, wouldn't it have been cooler if Laura kept speaking spanish through the film until the Shane-quote came?
That's cracking Grommit. I can't believe someone else on here watches these.
For some reason this guy scared the bejesus out of me when I was seven.