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Update: March 1, 2017
Dragonlord's Review of LOGAN (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: Is to superheroes as Unforgiven was to western, Logan brims with masterful acting, visceral savage action, and stirring poignancy; it's a magnificent send-off to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine.
Fox finally did it! They finally made a honest-to-goodness great Wolverine movie. Logan also enters trivia history as one of the rare movies where the 3rd film is better than the first two installments.
After portraying the character for 17 years, Logan is Hugh Jackman's last hurrah as this will be his ninth and final appearance as Wolverine. He might have been vertically wrong for the part and not all the X-Men related movies were keepers, but there's no denying Jackman's performance as Wolverine has been terrific. He exudes the swagger and savagery of the character so splendidly. This Wolverine threequel is no different, Jackman delivers a moving, sublime performance to cap off a tremendous run at the character.
In Logan, the story is set in 2029 where the X-Men are gone, most of the mutants are dead and there's no mutant born in the past 10 years or so. A shell of his former self, Logan is now an alcoholic limo driver. His healing factor is on the fritz and he's slowly dying. Living in an abandoned farm on the Mexican border, Logan is the custodian of a senile Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) whose suffering from degenerative disorder. Their lives are threatened by dark forces when a young mutant, Laura, arrives.
Having escaped from the research facility of Transigen, Laura a.k.a. X-23 exhibits the same healing powers as Wolverine as well as being given Adamantium claws of her own. Making her feature film debut, newcomer Dafne Keen plays Laura impeccably. The natural state of her face radiates a feral quality that is unleashed with such ferocity when she explodes into action. Not since the debut of Hit-Girl in 2010's Kick-Ass has such an adorable child character made so much impact on action film.
Chasing after our heroes are the cyborg mercenaries Reavers led by Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook). Holbrook's Pierce is an enjoyable lead villain; he plays the role with charm and proficiency. Also really liked the Reavers' distinct but subtle cyberpunk look.
Logan is not only Jackman's last appearance in the X-Men franchise, it's also Patrick Stewart's swan song as he retires from playing Charles Xavier after this. The R-rating not only benefited the film's action sequence but it also allowed Stewart the freedom to cut loose and give a masterful, heartbreaking performance, not to mention the amusement of seeing Xavier cursing. Xavier and Logan also share an amazing chemistry and relationship dynamics that really shines naturally after sharing the screen together for the past 17 years.
Probably one of the most beloved characters in cinema, it's heart-wrenching to see Xavier suffering from debilitating mental disorder. He's such in bad shape that he's now considered as a weapon of mass destruction. Again, Stewart's performance is so superb, it definitely warrants a Best Supporting nod at next year's Oscars.
Though all the supporting characters and actors were adept and written competently, a special nod goes out to Stephen Merchant who plays the mutant-tracker Caliban and co-caretaker of Xavier. The role is not that flashy but Merchant did a remarkable job providing some subtle humor, dramatic moments and great persiflage between him and Logan.
Finally giving fans what they have been craving for - a rated R Wolverine movie, Logan goes all-out in the action department with Wolverine and X-23 graphically slashing people's bodies, slicing off limbs and bloodily skewering their faces. The action and fight scenes are choreographed spectacularly.
There's also a dark and surprising horror element to the film. Composer Marco Beltrami thankfully keeps the heroic music to a bare minimum, focusing more on ominous and foreboding tension.
The ending to the 2nd act felt like the finale which results in the 3rd act suffering a bit and it loses a little steam and feels a tad overdrawn. The 2nd half of Logan also shares a lot of similarities from X-Men Origins: Wolverine and borrows many elements from the terrible first movie (see spoiler thoughts below for more).
Overall, Logan is to superheroes as Unforgiven was to western; it's a mature, superhero deconstruction film that's part modern nihilistic western (there's even an obvious Shane reference in the film) and part road-trip adventure thriller. The film was derided and belittled by almost everyone during the early stages, but writer-director James Mangold proves the haters wrong by crafting one of the best superhero movies ever made.
Rating: 9/10
P.S. there is no post-credits scene.
As I said above, some parts of Logan's 2nd half eerily reminded of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
1. In Logan, Transigen creates the perfect killing machine Wolverine X-24. Origins had that genetically-mutated Swiss-knife Deadpool freak, Weapon XI.
2. Logan meets Eriq La Salle and family, invited to their house and they end up being killed. Origins had the Hudsons who took in Wolverine to their farm and end up being killed by the bad guys.
3. Transigen is hunting down mutant kids and they end up escaping at the end. Origins had the bad guys capturing mutant kids and they end up escaping at the end.
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.
I'll add more later when I have the time.
I'll be seeing it at 7 pm tonight. Can't fucking wait.
