It never ceases to amaze me how unpredictable FOX's "X-men" movies are. Following two all-around mediocre "Wolverine" movies and last summer's disappointing "X-men: Apocalypse," comes a third feature starring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, titled "Logan." And it's completely different from any of the previous "X-men" films, and really anything else that's ever been done with a superhero property.
Instead of positioning itself as a franchise starter, as so many other films have done, "Logan" is emphatically an ending point. It's been widely reported that this will be the last time that Hugh Jackman appears as Wolverine, aka Logan, a character he's played since the original "X-men" in 2000, and has been shoehorned - often unwisely - into practically every other "X-men" installment since. So, the movie assumes that the audience is already familiar with Jackman's brusque adamantium-clawed loner, and his difficult history rife with personal tragedies.
"Logan" imagines our hero facing the roughest chapter of his life yet, having grown old and increasingly haggard in a version of the future not too distant from our own. He works as a limo driver in Texas, looking after the only other surviving member of the X-men, Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who is stricken with advancing Alzheimer's disease, and prone to losing control of his destructive mental powers. With the help of another mutant, Caliban (Stephen Merchant), Logan is barely scraping by. Then one day, a desperate woman offers to pay him to escort an eleven year-old girl, Laura (Dafne Keen), to a safe haven in North Dakota. Laura has been targeted by a biotech company, Transigen, that has sent the villainous cyborg Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook) to capture or kill her at any cost.
Fanboys might rejoice at the film's R-rating, that allows Logan to fully unleash his terrifying berserker rages on his enemies at last, but what struck me as the most distinctive about "Logan" was its lack of superhero excesses. The plot is based on the "Old Man Logan" stories from the comics, where the older Wolverine is living in a post-apocalyptic nightmare world. In "Logan," however, the world has stayed pretty much the same, aside from a few minor technical advances. The only big development is that mutants appear to be gradually dying out, adding an existential melancholy to our heroes' meager existence. Day to day woes like busted cars and shortages of medication are often more alarming than the threat of traditional baddies. Special effects are comparatively minimal, though there's plenty of action, and Wolverine has a particular disdain for the "X-men" comic books that pop up occasionally in the narrative.
Directed by James Mangold, who also helmed "The Wolverine," this doesn't look much like a superhero film. Instead, its dusty car rides through the Midwestern landscape and gloomy interiors give it more of a minimalist neo-Western vibe, even without the references to "Shane" and the appearance of Johnny Cash on the soundtrack. The violence, likewise, feels less exploitative than usual. It's brutal and graphic, yes, but the camera doesn't linger on severed limbs or gory wounds. Instead, we watch as Wolverine grows increasingly beaten down after each fight, his diminished healing powers unable to keep up with the amount of damage that he's doing to himself.
What's more, "Logan" turns out to be a pretty solid character drama. The stakes are more personal here than they've been in any "X-men" movie in a long time. Having only a trio of primary characters means the film can really get into their relationships in depth, and it isn't afraid of wearing its heart on its sleeve, no matter how bloody. Jackman's great as Logan, but the performance that I came away loving was Patrick Stewart's. His occasionally addled, occasionally irascible, and deeply regretful Professor Xavier is a heartbreaker. Also, Dafne Keen is just about perfect as tough little Laura, and manages to wrest the spotlight away from her more venerable co-stars a few times.
I'd love it if "Logan" were allowed to be a real swan song for FOX's "X-men" franchise, but of course that won't be the case. Wolverine will be recast sooner or later, and there is an awful lot of material left in the "X-men" comics to be plumbed by enterprising filmmakers. However, it doesn't take away from how remarkable an achievement that "Logan" is. To date, it's one of the very, very few superhero films that actually works as an adult drama, and opens up the possibility of more in the same vein. It's also a wonderful counterexample for those who think the MCU is fated to continue dominating the superhero landscape. Marvel Studios, as strong as they are, is not in the position to make a film like "Logan."
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