Logan (2017)

Logan (R)

"Bezereker Barrag... wait let me get my cane"

In the not so distant future the last remaining mutants struggle to survive in their old age, but when a new conspiracy falls in their laps with a new threat uncovered, a sickly Wolverine and a mentally unstable Professor X must travel across America's future landscape with a mutant-cloned daughter in tow to rescue their own race's perpetuation in Director James Mangold (Cop Land), stylized Logan.

Hailed as Hugh Jackman's final turn as the adamantium infused anti-hero Wolverine, Logan is a strange farewell to the star that helped reignite the current comic book movie craze.  He anchored the now-loopy X-Men (2000) film and franchise that has seen many a high and low since, but it was his portrayal of the iconic Wolverine that was it's centerpiece attraction; a cage fighting, cigar chomping loner without a past and a serious attitude problem.  As a character his story has gone through several convolutions, some Good (X2), Bad (X3) and Ugly (Xmen Origins), but now the most surprising wrinkle is how it all ends.  Or, put less obliquely, how Fox has allowed it to end.

Directed and written by Mangold, Logan doesn't say much about the reluctant X-Man that we already didn't know; he's grumpy and sick of being alive (except he's also now a pill popping alcoholic).  These themes are well worn by Jackman and Mangold, their previous collaboration (2013's The Wolverine) somewhat explored this side of the character to somewhat clunky results.  And now instead of a Japanese motif the American West is the dusty fuel in this film's veins.  Logan not only dips his hairy toes into the Western but the actual movie plays as a huge homage to one of the genre's most famous entries, Shane (1953).  It's a strange idea for a mash-up, and it isn't the film's only weird foray. Touched upon are the institutional death of the small town American farmer as brought about by the meddling GMO corporations that are villainously tampering with our genetic code through corn syrup.  Yes, corn syrup is another odd backbone in this film's rather strange story skeleton.  Also a dying Wolverine isn't the funnest Wolverine, his staggering fight choreography and limping action sequences are not the limelight, and yet the pain inflicted and wrought in a lifetime of snikts also aren't called back upon.  It comes through as a one-off story, completely divorced from any other X-movie, like a trip to the depression dimension with ol' Bluehair.  These kinds of things are the norm in the books, but at the cinema it's new territory and is a ballsy choice for Fox.

So is the scary prospect of Professor Xavier with a diseased brain, out of control and off his meds.  It becomes the most interesting plot point, he's a ticking time bomb in a wheelchair.  Played again by Patrick Stewart, he is also bringing his presence in the Xmovies to a close and almost steals the whole show.  Not only are his wide ranging super powered seizures frightening, but his hollow eyed grief and grandfatherly stubbornness give his co-star Jackman a true emotional motivation.  Comedy writer Stephen Merchant's role as the albino tracker Caliban came as a great surprise as well.  Then follows other great strong dystopian Sci-Fi touches to the franchise, like a conglomerate creating it's own test subjects in third world countries and using nefariously violent means to control them with it's bio-mechanically enhanced mercenaries called Reavers lead by Donald Pierce (played with delightful gold-toothed malice Boyd Holbrook).  Just the "slightly in the future" design of the vehicles in Logan is also a nice touch. The X-Men have never strayed so close reality, to true gritty Science Fiction as they do here and it is much to it's benefit.  Also included are several new mutants, all young children escaping the Reavers which include Wolverine's clone-daughter Laura X-23.  They are treated with surprising care and with nary a cliche (go electrical fat kid!), but in reality they are just a Mcguffin to kick off Logan's last ride into the sunset, a script-writing-by-the-numbers: add a character's "child" to generate new motivation and emotions for an audience to react to.

Logan is also being much ballyhooed due to it's harder "R" rating.  Deadpool broke that barrier (and Box office records) with aplomb a year earlier (and it must be mentioned that the majority of the film's belly laughs come from old Skull-Poop-L's teaser preceding the Logan film), but here the R is much more of a gimmick.  The proliferation of FBombs dropped by Wolvy and Chuck are excessive and out of character, and the violence (while indeed more extreme) never truly reaches the high level of gore made possible by 6 impossibly razor sharp claws.  True, the adult themes of death and dying lay heavy on Logan, but does a quick flash of tits justify Logan's stronger rating or just prove they did it because Deadpool made so much money doing it first?  Box office receipts will tell all.

In the comics Logan is the best at what he does.  In the movies, not so much.  They have muddled his motivations and mannerisms to a point where the two characters are now distinctly different beasts.  There is Jackman's version and the book's, and though they are closely related and we will always have the source books to flip through, it will be Jackman in the leather suit that will pop into the audience's mind and measure up to the next likely actor(s) taking up the mantle (how many years did it take before it was safe to replace Christopher Reeve?).  Luckily this film only shows how Hugh's Wolverine ends, not the character itself.  And much like the books, as writers and artists come and go, changing plot points and history and overwriting nuances, Jackman's legacy too will be slowly buried.  Considering how the X-titles have been treated on screen lately, perhaps it was the best time to bow out, and what a surprisingly brutal way to choose to go.

7 SNIKTS, But Where's My Stan Lee Cameo? out of 10 (GOOD)