Logan

Do you remember the controversy when Hugh Jackman was cast as Wolverine? Because that was a real thing. Though almost no one outside Australia knew who Jackman was before the original X-Men film, many comic book fans noted that the statuesque Jackman lacked the short and stocky physique they had seen for years. Over a decade and a half later, audiences were appropriate sad and nostalgic to see Jackman put on the claws one more time for Logan, this time with an R-rating, a depressing atmosphere, and almost no mutants. The result? The most critically acclaimed film starring Wolverine and a gigantic box office haul. But was everyone just impressed by the new dynamic or is there true greatness in Logan? Today we find out.

It's the future and things are terrible. Mutant-kind is all but wiped out and Logan, Caliban, and Professor X are hiding out in the Mexican desert to keep the Professor's unstable and powerful mind away from the masses. This quiet existence is upended however when a woman arrives with a young girl with Logan's powers and a powerful anti-mutant corporation on their trail. Now Logan and company make a desperate run to the Canadian border to save the young mutant's life.

Logan may be the first movie within the superhero genre to earn the "one and done" stamp. Not because it's terrible, but because this is the most emotionally draining superhero film I've ever seen (in a good way not the Batman v Superman way). Like other films of its ilk, Logan earns its R-rating for two big reasons. The first is surface level elements like bloody violence and adult language (I literally think Jackman's first like is F***). The second is adult themes which in Logan's is all about impending death, coming to terms with your legacy, and trying to do good things in a hopeless world.

The film does an excellent job at building the film's world via small exposition dumps and actions to let the audience know right away that this isn't not the bloody romp they might've expected. The film's first twenty to thirty minutes barely include two pages of dialogue and yet we already know everything we need to know. Wolverine's healing factor and health is failing, Professor X is losing his mental functions, and every other character we may have liked from the X-Men ceases to exist.

With everything so hopeless the stage is perfectly set for Laura Kinney or X-23 to arrive and present one last shot for Logan and Charles to make a difference, even if it's just the life of one girl. Likewise the film has a lot of unexpected political relevance since Laura is the victim of an evil corporation that's attempting to cross the border and find a safe haven. It's hard to tell if this is intentional, but these elements hit a lot harder than they would have even a year ago. 

Laura is also an excellent addition for her no holds barred brutal fight work which plays out like a stabby version of Black Widow, an excellent mix of agility and ferocity to match the lumbering feral rage of Jackman's Wolverine when they both enter the fray. So many of Wolverine's action scenes have been boring, but James Mangold and company use Laura's abilities and Logan's diminishing powers to deliver some wonderfully gruesome action scenes. Leave it to the final film to deliver the best claw based combat scenes in the entire series.

The script also gives the heavy hitters, Jackman and Patrick Stewart, a chance to flex their acting muscles and find some new depths. Jackman has always portrayed Wolverine as something of an aloof and tortured loner but the pain and cynicism present in this performance are at a whole other level. Matching him step for step is Stewart who manages to portray mental decay as the heart-breaking tragedy it is, not something to be played for laughs.

A lot of writers are going to look to this film as a "revolution or deconstruction for the superhero genre," but that's not really going on. This is an actor his audience getting to say goodbye to the character that's defined his career in the most poignant and effective way possible. The depressing elements of this movie exist because watching things end is depressing. 

If there is a flaw in the film, it's the length. I wouldn't say that any scene needs to be cut, each one serves a distinctive purpose from a storytelling point of view, but a couple of them go on longer than necessary at the expense of pacing. It's less obvious in character-stuff films like The Avengers, but when you've got three central characters that always stick together you start to feel it.

It's an exceptionally minor complaint though. Logan is a perfect send-off for Jackman and his incarnation of Wolverine with more depth, darkness, and thematic resonance that it had any right to have. A must see for X-Men fans.