With “Logan,” Hugh Jackman makes his (supposedly) final
appearance as Logan, a k a Wolverine, a character he’s played to perfection for
17 years and across nine “X-Men” films. The third solo outing for Wolverine,
this sad, stirring film focuses on the humanity and emotion of its story,
making “Logan” a gory and surprisingly affecting elegy for the franchise’s most
beloved character.
The film
picks up in 2029, a not-too-distant future where nearly all of mutant-kind has
been wiped out. Logan has aged considerably since we last saw him: he’s
greying, his healing abilities are slower, and his eyesight is fading.
Sometimes his claws don’t snap out with a “snikt” the
way they used to. More than anything, this is a man who just wants a place to
rest his weary adamantium-plated bones.
We soon
learn that Logan is also caring for an ailing Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick
Stewart). The Professor is battling dementia and dangerous seizures that, when
affecting the most powerful brain on the planet, become a threat to the lives
of anyone unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. The pair have shacked up with
an albino mutant — whose abilities allow him to easily track other mutants —
called Caliban (Stephen Merchant), who helps tend to Charles when Logan’s away.
Logan is working as a limo driver, hoping to raise enough money for he and Charles to leave everything behind for a life at sea.
In their scenes together, Jackman and Stewart convey a lifetime of history — both
good and bad — between the two men.
But Logan’s
plans to walk off into the sunset are interrupted by a mysterious woman
(Elizabeth Rodriguez) who’s tracked him down to plead for help. She has with
her a young girl, Laura (newcomer Dafne Keen making
an indelible first impression), who demonstrates some remarkably familiar
mutant abilities. The woman asks Logan to take Laura under his protection and
shepherd the girl to North Dakota and onward to safety across the Canadian
border — the “save the last of a dying breed” mission gives off a bit of a
“Children of Men” vibe. Once Logan reluctantly agrees, they’re immediately
pursued by Laura’s creator, Dr. Rice (Richard E. Grant) and a militarized force
led by a robot-handed mercenary (Boyd Holbrook), who think nothing of
butchering anyone who stands in the way of reclaiming their property.
“Logan” is
uncharacteristically intimate and character-driven for a superhero film (at
least the type that have become prevalent over the last several years), but I’m
not going to pay it the backhanded compliment of saying it “transcends the
material.” Anyone who’s ever read comics knows they come in all genres and
tones. But for all its super-powered antics, “Logan” stays resolutely human-sized.
The
decidedly adult tone is set immediately, as the film opens with Logan dealing
swiftly and gruesomely with a band of violent carjackers. The brutality is
shocking (prepare yourself for an overabundance of skull stabbings, plus more
eviscerations and impromptu amputations than you can shake a stick at). It’s
less juvenile than “Deadpool,” last year’s R-rated
superhero blockbuster that gave studios the green light to give their comic
book adaptations a bit more bite.
This change
taps into what made Wolverine’s appearance in the previous “X-Men” movies feel
so patently false. Wolverine’s weapons are retractable blades meant to slice
and dice. This is what he does. Not for nothing, but the character’s victims
have a lot in common with those of Freddy Krueger, and no one’s expecting that
guy’s films to maintain a PG-13 rating. The violence depicted in “Logan” is
wince-inducing, savage, and very bloody. The violence he inflicts actually has
consequences, and that makes all the difference.
Director James
Mangold tosses in a number of references to the classic 1953 western “Shane.”
The connections to that film are more of a loose, thematic throughline
than anything else. It’s a story of a killer disillusioned with a life of
killing, seeking a way to leave it behind but finding it impossible; there’s no
going back from all that death.
All of the “X-Men”
movies have a bit of a tragic air about them, centering the way they do around individuals who seek a place for themselves in a
world that would rather see them destroyed. “Logan” presents a decaying vision
of America: it’s a country that’s irreparably broken. There’s no world-ending
plot to foil, just a planet that’s become a darker, more brutal place; one its
characters can’t fight, but can only hope to escape from. It’s grim and almost
unrelentingly bleak, though the many exciting, well-staged action sequences
keep things from getting too morose. The film ends with a lovely final image,
putting a nice period on its story of a man built to be a weapon, who managed
to find his humanity in a world so harsh it left a bruise.
Check back on Friday for additional film coverage, including a review of the documentary “Kedi.”
This article appears in Mar 1-7, 2017.
