Review: Logan

Logan is not your normal X-Men Movie, and that's a good thing!

Faced with the near-extinction of the X-Men mutants, the newest addition to the solo Wolverine saga and the X-Men series puts us in the middle of a mutant apocalypse. But is this apocalyptic world enough to make us forget about the flop that was X-Men: Apocalypse?

Although the third Hugh Jackman solo Wolverine movie, Logan is a departure from the two films that came before it. Set in the alternate timeline created in X-Men: Days of Future Past, Logan fast-forwards to the year 2029, where almost all mutants have gone extinct and no new mutants have been born in years. Wolverine has retreated into obscurity where he now works as a limousine driver. Hiding on the Mexican border in an abandoned mine, Wolverine keeps Professor Charles Xavier in a fallen water tower for his own safety. Now a senile man who struggles from seizures that can paralyze and potentially kill entire towns, Professor X is listed as a weapon of mass destruction and is watched over by Wolverine and another of the few remaining mutants, Caliban. While working to earn enough money to buy medication that keeps the professor under control, Wolverine is approached by a mysterious woman and a young girl who are being chased by government agents. The young girl, known as X-23, is a female Wolverine clone, and this encounter forces the Wolverine and Professor X to flee, taking the young X-23 along for the ride. On the run, Wolverine must grapple with Professor X’s dangerous condition and constant attack from the government agents, all the while being reluctantly pulled into the middle of the mutant’s last chance for survival.

Despite its departure from traditional comic book films, Logan is still at its heart what we have come to expect from the genre. There is still the central “main” villains, there are still superpowers, and there are still comic book tropes that we have come to expect. Logan departs from the genre, however, being the first Marvel movie in recent history with an “R” rating since Deadpool blazed the path last year. And trust me, they really want you to know that this is an R-rated movie. The opening scene had me rolling my eyes with the first line being “oh fuck” and then proceeding into a scene where Wolverine brutally defends himself against a group of carjackers. The opening scene set the expectations for the rest of the movie to be an over-the-top, annoyingly “edgy” film only for the sake of earning an R-rating.

My expectations after the first scene were happily turned on their head. Logan was a powerful, entertaining movie that did enough different and is bound to be a hit even to mainstream audiences. Other than the first scene, the movie utilized its R-rating well. Although I personally feel like some of the gore of the film could have been cut (not because it was exceptionally disturbing, but because some of it just wasn’t as polished as I wanted), a majority of the rating comes from circumstances that enhanced the movie. Logan features some great action that kept it fresh and exciting. But where it really shined was in the desperation and the on-the-run feeling that it evoked. The movie made it clear that no one was safe and that it truly set the stakes high. Despite its length, the action and the suspense kept the movie feeling short and never gave us a dull moment.

In this same vein, Logan was an amazing counterpoint to the Marvel and X-Men franchises. Despite still relying on some classic comic book tropes that I feel the movie would have been even better without, the overall feeling is drastically different. Even in their most desperate moments, Marvel and X-Men films still always have a hopeful, optimistic perspective. You always know that somehow things are going to work out. Logan turns all of that on its head. And it is all the more amazing for it. It sets us toward the end of the mutant extinction where every remaining mutant is stuck in a battle for their lives. It is desperate, dark, and almost fearless. And most surprisingly, the movie has emotionally poignant moments. It endears you to every character. Additionally, Logan is not a movie about heroes. It shows that our protagonists aren’t perfect and aren’t infallible.

Logan is one of the best showings the comic book movie genre has to offer. Deadpool proved comic book movies could be over-the-top, absurd, and could break out of the mold of the formula that made the movies before it so successful. And what Deadpool did to the industry, Logan has also done. Logan is proof again that comic book movies can be different. They can be dark and desperate, and they don’t have to focus on heroes. For these reasons, I recommend Logan to everyone – even people who didn’t love the previous X-Men or Marvel movies. Logan deserves all the praise it is soon to get.

4.8 out of 5

What would I have changed? (Spoilers)

Click here to read what I would Change

Obviously, I loved this film. It was a great departure from the expectations that others in the genre have created. But being the first to truly try to break out of the mold in the way that it did, it seemed afraid to completely discard all of the tropes of the genre.

One of my biggest complaints are the villains. I think the movie would have been much more powerful without any central villain at all. It would have been more desperate if they were running from a faceless organization – that no matter how many goons they killed, they would just keep coming. The deaths of the main villains makes it seems like everything just wrapped up, and it gave us someone to as the problem. The villains we get were rather disappointing as well. Dr. Rice being the son of the man that led the Weapon X program was cliché and pointless. Even worse was his monologue that gives Wolverine time to kill him. The whole character was annoying and I am just glad that he was such a small part of the film. Additionally, X-24 existing was just as annoying. Once again, facing an evil version of yourself creeps up into yet another comic book movie. Although they did a great job making Hugh Jackman look young, the only point of having X-24 as an exact replica of Wolverine was so he could kill Professor X. It was just unnecessary and I could have done without it.

Another point that I feel weird about even wanting changed is that I wish that some of the children had died or disappeared. Seemingly all of the children from the facility made it to the rendezvous point at the end of the film. If we are expected to believe that they chased X-23 so fervently, I find it hard to believe that all of the other children would have made it out of the same circumstances alive. Plus, not a single one of the nurses made it to the rendezvous point which shows that they all probably died during the dangerous journey – yet none of the children did? That leaves two explanations: no one else was chased like X-23 or all of the children were able to fight off their hunters even without Wolverine there to help them. Either scenario is disappointing. Instead, they should have shown a much larger group of children and left it to our imagination when only half or a quarter of them showed up at the rendezvous point. It would have made the ending feel more triumphant and less like a happy ending, relatively speaking. Lastly, the timeline of the movie felt off. I had assumed that the movie existed in a third alternate timeline compared to the original timeline which includes the first three X-Men films and the first two Wolverine films and the second timeline which includes the newest X-Men series. However, after the film, I found out that this movie actually shares the same timeline as the newest series. Although it would have been mildly annoying to have two separate X-Men timelines existing at the same time, I would have preferred it to what we ended up getting. This revelation means that within ten years all the work of X-Men: Days of Future Past was for nothing. That within 10 years, we go from the ending scene of Professor X’s academy thriving to almost every mutant on the planet being dead. And with Logan only taking place twelve years from the future, if any future X-Men film takes place in the present day, they are going to have to alter the timeline again or they are going to have to exist in the world that Logan created.

That said, these are only minor complaints and I commend the movie for its handling of the deaths of Wolverine and Professor X and I truly look forward to the future of the series.

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Johnny (Contributor) was born and raised in San Diego. He's been a fan of films the majority of his life. He enjoys the feeling it invokes and the power it has to take you to another place.