As I said above, some parts of
Logan's 2nd half eerily reminded of
X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
1. The bad guys unleash a genetically modified soulless, killing-machine mutant. In
Origins, it was Weapon XI a.k.a. super sucky Deadpool. In
Logan, it was the Wolverine clone.
2. Wolverine stays with a family in their farm and the family ends up being killed by the bad guys. In
Origins, the Hudsons took Wolverine in and got bullet holes for their troubles. In
Logan, Eric La Salle's family invites Wolverine to their home and got a shish kebab'd in the process.
3. Mutant children are being hunted and rounded up by the bad guys. In
Origins and
Logan, all the mutant kids managed to escape in the end with some using their powers in the process.
Though
Logan is not based on Old Man Logan comic book (not even loosely based), there is still a quasi homage to it when it's revealed that Professor X, not Wolverine, killed the X-Men when he suffered one of his seizures.
It's strongly hinted that Charles did something awful to the X-Men and fans will be slowly dreading the reveal during the first hour. But when it's finally revealed that Charles killed them and he finally knows what he did for the first time, that scene was just heartbreaking.
Wolverine can't bear to end Xavier's suffering but he also can't take the risk of Xavier having an episode and killing a lot of people, so he tries to buy that Sunseeker yacht where Charles wills spend his remaining days in the middle of the ocean and away from civilization. Wolverine, who is also slowly and painfully dying due to Adamantium poisoning, will kill himself with the Adamantium bullet after Xavier dies.
There's a twisted but brilliant logic to using X-24 as the final opponent. In some ways, X-24 is Wolverine's darker ego, the uncontrollable berserker animal that he has been struggling to control for all his life and Wolverine's last battle is with himself. In a poetic fashion, Wolverine gets his wish of killing himself in the end through his clone's hands.
The question of where did all the mutants go are answered when it's revealed that Transigen's Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant) genetically modified the crops to suppress the mutant gene and that's why there's no new mutants born. As for the existing mutants, Transigen hunted them down (with the help of Caliban), experimented on them and eventually killed them.
A weakened Logan using a gun to kill Zander Rice and disable Pierce was a surprising move but a nice touch in practicality.
Seeing Wolverine so pathetic at the beginning was sad and amusing at the same time. And Wolverine jumping in front of a bullet to save his limousine from being damaged was funny.
One perplexing question and possible plot hole that bugged me was why didn't the Reavers try to kill X-23 on the spot and instead tried their hardest to capture her. They're just going to kill her when they get back to their headquarters, why not kill her right there and then. Same goes for the mutant children at the end. Why bother capturing them (and risking getting killed themselves) when you're just going to kill the kids back home.
Having the Reavers try to kill the mutant kids at the end instead of trying to capture them would have been much better as it would have raised the stakes and tension even more.
Logan's ending credits used Johnny Cash's
"The Man Comes Around." This is the
second time they've stolen my idea (the
first time was using
"Hurt" in the trailer). Damn you, James Mangold! Stop reading my posts! (j/k)
I'll add more later when I have the time.