LOGAN

(2017) Dir: James Mangold

It’s a weird world we live in. Fox, the studio responsible for some of the worst comic book movies of all time (FANT4STICK, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE), has managed to deliver two of the freshest, boldest superhero films the genre has seen, barely a year apart. First we got the ridiculous, hilarious sensation DEADPOOL, and now LOGAN.

LOGAN is not just a great superhero film, ignoring generic spectacle and instead scaling things down to focus on its characters, it’s a great film full stop. Where THE WOLVERINE abandoned its more personal first half and descended into cartoonish punch-ups involving a 9ft tall CGI samurai, LOGAN commits fully to its savage, gritty tale of loss, pain, of being a killer, and becomes something daring and brilliant.

You wont find any city wide destruction, with thousands of civilian deaths in LOGAN. There’s no witches gyrating in front of a digitally created energy beam, and no care for building a franchise. It just wants to tell a story, a story we’ve been waiting for, of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine finally unleashed. “This is not the family friendly X-MEN films”, I thought as a blood splattered Logan jams those three claws through some poor bastards skull, moments after removing his friend’s arm. Not 5 minutes in and I’m awestruck and giddy with the violence on display. Make no mistake, this is the Wolverine fans have longed for.

We meet Logan working as a limo driver in El Paso, visibly struggling with age, his healing factor worn from decades fighting against the poisonous adamantium coating his bones. His claws stick when he tries to snikt, his body is scarred and his hair greying. Swigs of bourbon are about the only thing keeping him running. Logan is trying to save money so him and his old mentor Charles, both hiding away just south of the border along with another mutant, a tracker named Caliban, can try to find some safety, and peace from this cruel world. Xavier’s mind isn’t what it was, the worlds most powerful telepath struggling with Alzheimer’s, he suffers seizures that render those around him frozen and struggling to breathe, there’s even hints at these powerful accidents having led to terrible consequences in the past.

It’s a truly harsh and violent world, but all the bloodshed and f-bombs would be nothing without compelling characters to sell it, and that’s what makes LOGAN a really special entry to the X-franchise. Jackman gives absolutely everything to the role he’s played for 17 years now, and he’s never been better. The nuance and depth he’s brought to a character that’s main selling point is stabbing people with knife hands, is genuinely astounding, there’s heart-wrenching scenes dropped throughout the film that are more moving than a superhero film has any right being.

Patrick Stewart, in his last turn as Charles Xavier is equally great, all sass and swearing as his mind fades, but it’s Dafne Keen as Laura in her feature debut that stole the show for me. Mostly mute, traumatized by her awful, painful upbringing in captivity, but it’s anything but a quiet performance. She’s brilliant and strong, but still just a kid, abused all her short life. I really loved how they portrayed her, I think some films would’ve had her needing to be rescued by Wolverine, but here she is every bit as deadly, several times even having to save Logan herself. She’s just brilliant, watching a dozen or more fully armed soldiers back away in fear from an 11-year-old girl was an especially fantastic moment. Although her life has made her savage, almost feral at times, she grows throughout the film, softening through her friendship with Logan and Charles and she brings a sense of hope, of light to the harsh surroundings.

This is how you do gritty and grim. Minimal darkness, no rain, LOGAN looks absolutely gorgeous* while being devastatingly brutal. It’s not dark because the visuals are forcing it to look that way like some superhero blockbusters have done, its dark in its themes, in how it deals with its characters, in the story it tells. You can do all that without beating people over the head with its imagery.

*Theres talk of the director wanting to release a special black and white version when its released on Blu-Ray which I would love to see.

All the talk before it’s production was focused on its rating, but LOGAN works best not because it’s R rated, but because it’s true to the characters and tells the best story it can. The rating is just a result of being a brilliant Wolverine film that does its titular character justice. It’s great to see Fox taking these chances, I hope it encourages more comic book films that aim for a proper character driven film, without worrying about if it’s going to be rated R or PG. We don’t necessarily need more visceral, violent superhero films, but if the character works best in that style then great.  I hope the success of DEADPOOL and LOGAN have shown that smaller, harsher films will not only work, but the fans will embrace them all the more, so long as the characters are done the right way.

LOGAN is something special. A superhero film that doesn’t behave anything like a superhero film should, sharing more in common with classic westerns than it does with X-MEN APOCALYPSE. A brutal, violent, emotionally powerful tale that puts its characters through the wringer to deliver a brilliant and satisfying end to the character of Logan. Hugh can rest easy now, this is the definitive take on the character.