We have already run two reviews for Logan (#1, #2), so a third positive one would be a bit redundant. So instead of critiquing its virtues and flaws, I will simply illustrate what I loved about the film upon finally seeing it last night. I will do my best to keep spoilers to a minimum, but consider this a MINOR SPOILERS warning regardless.
I need to see it at least a couple more times, but Logan might be my favorite Wolverine movie. I hesitate to also call it my favorite X-Men film, primarily because it really isn’t an X-Men movie at all. Sure, it contains Wolverine and Professor X, as well as Caliban (who showed up in last year’s X-Men: Apocalypse). Beyond their presence and a few references to the events of past films, however, it’s just not that kind of movie. There are familiar elements here and there, but this isn’t a big mutant-vs.-mutant tale of good and evil. It’s mostly just a character-based chase film that happens to contain a few mutant characters.
When we first meet Logan (Hugh Jackman), he is a broken shelf of his former self. With this tale taking place in 2029, our beloved protagonist is now around 197 years old and a most of that ridiculously long life has been filled with nothing but pain and misery. Sure, he had a lot of good years with his friends and family, the X-Men, but 15 years or so as part of a loving team is little more than a blip on the radar of a life that spans almost two centuries. To be Logan is to be alone and in pain.
When we meet him again here, it’s clear that he is ready to die. Part of that has to do with the fact that his healing factor is waning due to his ever-growing age, but I suspect most of it has to do with him finally having lost too much. He has lost Kayla Silverfox. He has lost Jean Grey and the rest of the X-Men. He has likely even lost his evil bastard of a half-brother, Sabretooth. All he has now is a withering Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and well of sorrow within that he constantly drowns with liquor. It’s a miserable existence and Jackman’s performance fully showcases every last bit of it.
When Laura Kinney/X-23 (Dafne Keen) shows up on his doorstep, looking for help, he’s no longer willing to give it. He’s lost so much that he cannot bear the thought of letting anyone else into his life. In fact, were it not for the need to care for Charles, he likely would have killed himself already. He even has a special bullet to do the job. This is a grim and dour film that does not pull its punches when it comes to the dark abyss that is Logan’s psyche. He’s self-destructive and suicidal and Jackman (along with director James Mangold) is not afraid to bring those aspect to the forefront. As dark and twisted as it is to say it, I love that.
I love that the never-ending traumas of Logan’s life have finally worn him down. I love that Charles Xavier’s hope for humanity and mutantkind have now been replaced with nothing but anger, sadness, and regret. I love that everyone who attempts to intervene in the events in the film and stand up for what is right comes to a brutal and unfortunate ending. I love the oppressive tone of this near-future society that feels all too familiar to our world at this very moment. This is darkness and pessimism within a superhero construct done right and I will forever love the film for that.
Some will cry foul that this is just too depressing a follow-up to the happy epilogue that the original X-Men actors and characters were given at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past. While they have a point to a certain degree, I think they are also missing the point of this franchise and its source material. X-Men has never been about happy endings. It is the tale of the marginalized and the ostracized. The hate and oppressed. We might want to see this allegory for the insurmountable racism and prejudice that infects our world come to a happy, serene ending, but that flies in the face of reality. The fight against such inhuman transgressions is never-ending and, all too often, each new landmark in that battle brings forth a new tragedy.
You will not get a happy ending from this movie. The finale moments offer up a glimmer of hope for the future, like all films in the series before it, but never has the core message been more clear. Humanity sucks and man’s inhumanity to man is the reason why. It’s not just the oppression of mutants on display here that illustrates this. We are also treated to scenes of more traditional real-life oppression, be it of minorities or of the poor. I love the film for that.
If you’re beginning to worry that this is nothing more than a never-ending dirge of depressing outlooks on the lives of these characters and its allegorical take on our society, fear not. You still get your action and a fair amount of humor. Just as this film is packed with dark themes and observations, it is also packed with loads of violence and harrowing action sequences. There isn’t really anything here on the scale of the big FX-filled set pieces of the majority of the other X-Men films, but that’s fine. Such sequences would not fit this tale. Instead of shoehorning in a big FX villain at the end just to satisfy today’s blockbuster standards, like The Wolverine did, this movie is allowed to come to its rightful conclusion in its own lower key way.
I love that this is a tale about the sins of the father passed down to the next generation. I love that this is a tale about how you cannot run away from your true nature, only aim it in a positive direction. I love that it is a tale of redemption not for your own generation, but for the ones that will follow you. We cannot ever fully fix our world in our lifetime, but we can continue to battle against all transgressions to create a better world for our children and future generations. Logan knows this and delivers it all, sometimes messily and other times beautifully, within a loose superhero construct. I love that. I also love that we have been able to say goodbye to some of these characters, especially Jackman’s Wolverine, with a damn good movie. Congrats, Hugh. You did it.
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