Matt Reviews: Logan

WARNING: GIANT-SIZE SPOILERS for LOGAN follow. Enter at your own risk, bub.

And so, the saga of the Wolverine comes to a close. Seventeen years. Four X-Men ensemble movies, three solo movies of varying qualities, and a handful of cameos sprinkled around. Hugh Jackman really proved himself worthy of the adamantium claws, instantly silencing critics of his casting. It’s had its ups, it’s had its downs, but it has been a hell of a ride.

And not once did he ever wear the $#@&ing yellow costume.

Set in the year 2029, Logan features the final adventure of Hugh Jackman as, well, Logan - a.k.a. the Wolverine – who is looking more like failed Wolverine audition Mel Gibson than ever. The mutant race has almost completely been wiped out, the X-Men are gone, and Logan is working as a chauffeur while taking care of an Alzheimer’s-ridden Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). But he is thrust back into action when he encounters a girl named Laura (Dafne Keen), who has the same powers that he does. Together, Logan and Xavier journey to take Laura to the mutant sanctuary of Eden, which may or may not really exist, while pursued by cybernetic mercenaries the Reavers and Laura’s creator Dr. Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant).

So first off: Holy Hank-McCoy’s-furry-blue-balls is this a VERY R-rated Wolverine movie. Logan’s first line in the movie is the F-word, blood and gore are thrown around like confetti, and characters – including children – are killed or dismembered in various graphic ways by the boatloads. This is definitely not a movie to take your children to, but much like Deadpool, I’m sure there are going to be a ton of rule-breakers out there who ignore the obvious R rating.

I think the actor that deserves the most celebration in this movie is Dafne Keen for her portrayal of Laura. Not only is this her first film role, but she also spends much of the movie not saying anything, relying entirely on her facial and body language to convey her character. That’s pretty impressive for someone who’s - *checks Wikipedia* - 12 years old?? You mean she’s younger than the kids from Stranger Things, has only ever acted in an 8-episode TV series, and is able to expertly play a near-mute badass next to acting powerhouses like Hugh Jackman and Sir Patrick Stewart and not feel out of place? If this girl does not go places after this, I will be shocked.

"I thought I was suppose to be the one in the stupid get-up."

Though, that’s not to say the other actors in this movie aren’t good either. Jackman and Stewart once again put in great performances as Wolverine and Professor X, showing how broken they both are after long, hard lives filled with fighting. Considering this is the last time we’ll see either one of these actors playing their respective characters, it’s great to see them put in such powerful performances.

British comedian Stephen Merchant plays Caliban, a mutant-tracking ally of Wolverine and Professor X who was last seen in X-Men: Apocalypse. While Merchant doesn’t really get to show off the comedy chops he’s famous for, his performance is serviceable in a dramatic role. (Though Caliban’s new casting does raise questions about how the character has changed so much since Apocalypse, such as how he’s now an albino and British instead of Russian.) Richard E. Grant once again plays a good villain in the role of Zander Rice, adding in an additional level of politeness and affability to an otherwise atrocious scientist. Though, a part of me wishes that he was instead cast as Mister Sinister, a villain that was teased in the post-credit scene for Apocalypse that hasn’t been followed up on yet. But, maybe adding in a big baddie like Sinister into a movie like this would have just overcrowded the whole thing.

Jackman also portrays surprise villain X-24, a younger clone of Logan created by Rice and his company. Basically, he’s all of the rage and ferocity of Wolverine but with none of the humanity. He’s definitely a terrifying and brutal antagonist, with his healing factor proving to be an uphill battle for Logan, whose own healing factor is decaying. It’s an older, broken Wolverine going up against the force of nature he used to be. However, he doesn’t have any lines aside from animalistic grunts, resulting in him really having no personality aside from “Kill! Kill! Kill!” His appearance is definitely an impactful moment for the film, but Rice and Reaver leader Donald Pierce (the Southern cyborg played by Boyd Holbrook) are the villains with more distinctive and defined characters. They probably could have made him Daken, Wolverine's son from the comics, but like with Grant playing Sinister, it might have been wasteful to include a fan-favorite character with a detailed backstory if it was just going to be rushed.

"An evil pterodactyl man? Who writes this $#!&?"

Needless to say, the movie is one big tearjerker from beginning to end. Fitting, as it’s the end of an era for the X-Men films. The advancing ages of both Logan and Xavier are affecting their powers. Logan’s healing factor is quickly fading, rendering the once-invincible Wolverine a weakened, battle-scarred man who constantly fears that his next fight will be his last. With Xavier, his dementia requires him to constantly take medication to suppress repeated seizures that create deadly psychic waves, making his own mind a danger to every living thing around him. It’s even heavily implied that one of these psychic outbursts is what killed the rest of the X-Men, and Logan is the only one between him and Xavier that remembers. Both of these characters meet their ends by the film’s finale, and with no mutant having been born naturally in over twenty years, mutantkind loses the last remaining members of their greatest generation.

(Side note: Wouldn't it have been cooler/more heartbreaking if Logan was forced to kill Xavier because they ran out of medicine and that was the only way for him to stop his psychic seizures from killing more people?)

However, the movie does end on a bit of a hopeful note with Laura and the other mutant experiment children escaping. Sure, the deaths of the Reavers and Rice don’t necessarily mean the kids won’t still be hunted down by their creators, but at least they’re all together. They’re united, stronger than ever, no longer the frightened experiments tortured by their oppressive creators. The old generation of mutants may have all died out, but the next generation has arisen and is ready to fight. I could definitely see them getting their own movie in the future.

I still haven’t decided if Logan is the best X-Men movie ever, but it’s definitely the best Wolverine movie ever. It’s a brutal, heartbreaking western with bloody action and fantastic moments of character and emotion. The best scene, I think, is the dinner scene, where Xavier and Logan are reminiscing about the past with the family and Laura. It's a pleasant, quiet scene sandwiched between tense chase sequences and gory bloodbaths that really allows the actors to show the great chemistry they have with one another. If Fox were to retire the Wolverine character from film, I would be perfectly okay with this as his ending. But seeing as how Wolvie is an adamantium-coated cash cow for the studio, that’ll probably never happen, and there’s already talk of recasting the character to appear in (presumably) the “Past X-Men” film series. However, I’m more than open to Laura being the “Wolverine” for a few films, like how she’s taken over the mantle in the comics currently.

He was the best at what he did.

Final verdict: 9/10

Also, there’s a teaser for Deadpool 2 attached to the beginning of this film. It’s not much – just a short film of Deadpool attempting to rescue a mugging victim while spending too much time changing into his outfit in a phone booth – but it’s funny and a good little taste while we wait for the Merc with a Mouth’s sequel. While it is a far reach from the dour tone of Logan, I am glad that the teaser came before the movie as opposed to a post-credit scene like previously reported. That would have REALLY been a mood dissonance going from that feels-rendering ending to Ryan Reynolds pressing his ass against a glass window.