Logan Review

What feels like a lifetime ago, it was announced that the new Wolverine spin off movie was to be directed by Darren Aronofsky, it eventually didn't come to anything as Aronofsky ended up stepping aside. However the thought that came to everyone's mind was Darren Aronofsky, him of Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler, what could have interested him in a comic book character like Wolverine? Years later, and James Mangold's Logan answers that question.

Set many years into the future, Logan sees Logan (Hugh Jackman) now old and haggard, he's still a physically imposing person but he's clearly wearing the weight of all his life's scars. Logan lives with Charles (Patrick Stewart) in a derelict waste site of a home with fellow mutant Caliban (Stephen Merchant). Charles, now in his 90s, is beginning to deteriorate, and with a brain as powerful as his this proves potentially catastrophic. Logan plans to get away with Charles but things are then complicated when a young mutant a lot like Logan enters their life in the form of Laura (newcomer Dafne Keen).

The greatest strength of Logan is that it doesn't feel like it is has to fit in with anything that has come before it nor anything that may follow on after this, it feels like an entirely self contained film, and yes it wouldn't carry anywhere near as much weight if we hadn't seen these actors in so many of these films prior to this, but it's never straining to tie everything together and the ambiguity in its references to greater things that may have happened only ever add to the films strength.

Once the character of Laura is introduced the film essentially becomes a road movie as Logan, Charles and Laura travel across the country to reach a safe place with the bad guys hot on their tails. It's this road movie sensibility where James Mangold's skills really become apparent. Mangold feels like he is connected to the classic american model, his remake of 3:10 to Yuma remains one of the best westerns in modern times, and here he adopts and re purposes similar practices to exceptional results. In previous films Logan has been akin to the masterless samurai, and here Mangold compares him to Shane from the 1953 classic which features heavily in the film. Logan is a man of violent practices who just so happens to help those who might need it, often reluctantly. But the film offers the view that maybe he's never been entirely comfortable in this role, 'there's no living with the killing' being quoted from Shane.

In the past, the reason many have commented on for us not having the definitive Wolverine film was that we've never been able to see the full violent rage that is enshrined into his character, opting for a 15 certificate over the usually targeted 12a, it has finally given the necessary leeway for the character to breathe. It is an unflinchingly and spectacularly violent film, but it never feels unnecessary or exploitative, there is pain and there is suffering and it is never depicted as anything other than that. It is also impressively nihilistic, in one particular scene at a farmhouse it is genuinely shocking and upsetting, but it importantly never threatens to derail the film.

The reductive quality of people isolating comic book films from other films is that more often than not the performances are tragically overlooked. On the antagonist front in Logan it is a little underwhelming, yes this film is more interested in Logan's internal battles but Richard E Grant's Dr. Rice is unfortunately a cardboard cut out evil doctor character, and whilst Boyd Holbrook's Donald Pierce is initially engaging he's sadly sidetracked towards the end to make room for a physically more daunting foe that is introduced to Logan. However on the good guy side of things, this films takes it to another level. Dafne Keen is exceptional as Laura, mute for at least two thirds of the film she provides a stunning physical performance both in her body language and facial expressions in the quieter moments and an immense fierceness when she's cutting up baddies when it all kicks off. If the academy are going to look for a performance in a comic book film to nominate, one hopes that they have long enough memories to recognise Sir Patrick Stewart for his exceptional performance, its a serious and sensitive portrayal of an old man approaching the final period of his life, he's often angry and he carries the weight of something awful he's done that he frustratingly can't remember, often there are moments you forget the source material, his performance would be equally at home in a Still Alice like drama.

There really is only one man this film is about though and that is Hugh Jackman. Now it is impossible to separate the actor from this character, yet 17 years ago few would believe that an Australian unknown more commonly associated with musicals would turn out to be the perfect choice. He's been in some good films as Wolverine such as X2 and Days of Future Past and some not so good such as X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: The Last Stand. The title of this film says so much, he's not wolverine anymore he's just Logan, and Jackman carries the weight of all the films prior to this, yet it strips away everything that made those films about Wolverine, here his healing factor is a curse not a superpower. Logan has lived for so long and lost so much along the way, he's a man who just want's to lay down and die, but he cant fight the good in him, and if he's going to die he's going to die for something worthwhile. It might have been possible to picture someone other than Jackman in the role before this film, but now its an inconceivable task, because Jackman has experienced everything with Logan and we've seen what it's done to him, they're enshrined forever now, and what Jackman does with his performance here
is the definitive version no matter what follows.

If this film does anything, hopefully it will be to allow more filmmakers to tell the stories about these characters that they want to tell. Approach them with maturity and treat them as films rather than just comic book films, because as the results show here, something really special can be produced.

(High 4 Stars)