Logan : Movie Review

This is it folks. This is the last one. The last time that Hugh Jackman will play the coolest, most badass violent-hero from X-Men - the Wolverine. Or as he is otherwise known, Logan


'Logan' is the third film in the Wolverine series but the character's 10th one in the X-Men series overall in the last 17 years. And this one is not for the kids. It's for the kids who grew up with the characters. This is a proper, slashin-killin-bloody Wolverine movie with plenty of curse words and even has Charles Xavier (Sir Patrick Stewart) telling the clawed superhero to fuck off. But it also has an emotional side to it, which the internet says would be familiar to fans of the comic series.

Set in the year 2029, Logan is shown to be ageing and ill, in a mostly mutant-free world, and driving a Chrysler limo service for a living. His trademark mutton chops have grown into a scraggly (but still manly) beard, he's a drunk, and his adamantium enhancements are poisoning him, slowly guiding him towards death. He doesn't recover from his wounds as fast, bullets definitely slow him down even if the wounds heal, and he simply cannot keep his wild pace while taking down those who piss him off.

His only objective in the world, is to look after Professor X himself, who is kept in a giant fallen-over water tank just south of the American border. Why? Because old man Xavier has a degenerative brain disease, because of his ageing, and seizures within a mind that powerful, is a threat unlike any other and therefore must be kept safe, and the world safe from him. It's temporary, as Logan is saving up to buy a big cool boat to live out on the seas with the Professor. Helping him is fellow mutant Caliban (Stephen Merchant), whose reasons for answering the request for assistance are not fully shared. While the character was likely brought in to fill a simple plot gap, Merchant does a good job of making Caliban memorable nonetheless.

Of course, there wouldn't be a film worth watching if everything went to plan. Enters a lady named Gabriella, a little girl and a cyborg who works in the security detail of a leading pharmaceutical R&D company, Pierce (Boyd Holbrook). Gabriella comes to Logan pleading for his assistance as the Wolverine but is shunned by the cranky old mutant. Pierce follows up, explaining to Logan that he knows about Xavier and that the lady needs to be turned-in to him because she stole something that doesn't belong to her. Soon after, Gabriella hires Logan as a driver to take the little girl to a location near the Canadian border, and he accepts in exchange for a significant sum of money as his fee.

The day of the pick up, Logan finds Gabriella dead and the little girl sneaks in the boot of his limo as he goes back to Charles. It turns out that the little girl, Laura (brilliantly played by Dafne Keen), might just be the first of the new generation of mutants. Of X-Men. It's not long before we find out why half of Pierce's team is missing a limb or the other, as in the action sequence that follows, we see just why Laura is such an important character.

Dafne manages to keep Laura interesting and entertaining well into the movie without saying a single word to Logan. She really does a good job of playing an angry kid raised in a lab as a secret science experiment, with lethal mutant powers. Let's face it, amongst all the bloody action scenes and the sadness of the ever-approaching death of legendary characters Professor X and the Wolverine, it's when the badass with the adamantium skeleton has to play father figure to Laura who has more in common with him than he realises.

'Logan' is completely different from all the X-Men movies till date and has a fitting style of direction and tone of story, put together by James Mangold, to be the last movie with Hugh Jackman as the Wolverine. And that's what makes it a good watch all-round. Yes, some may find the gory visuals of the brutality of the technique used by the popular comic book hero to be a bit....excessive. But that's the idea. This is what the character is, in his uncensored, undisguised, honest image. This isn't about the good guy killing the bad guys. It's about the fact that killing, regardless of good guy or bad guy, has a cost, and it always catches up.

I'd definitely recommend this film to all Wolverine fans, not that they need any more incentive to watch this one, and even as a good action film, 'Logan' does well to entertain. I'd rate this movie 9 out of 12 cigars.

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