Movie Review: Logan

By Matthew Huntley

March 13, 2017

Wolverine and mini-wolverine.

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He and another mutant named Caliban (Stephen Merchant), an albino with the ability to track other mutants, essentially squat in an abandoned plant near the Texas-Mexico border. They take turns caring for the ailing Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who has a neurodegenerative disease and unless he gets routine shots of a certain serum, he has a seizure and his brain sends out powerful waves that cause a paralyzing, pulsating environment for anyone in the immediate area. Logan knows this and works as a chauffeur, trying to earn enough funds to buy his boat and take himself and Xavier out to the middle of the ocean. In the meantime, he'll work, drink, smoke cigars and pretend not to care for others even though he does.

But Logan's plans to lay low get disrupted when he's approached by two different individuals with connected but very different agendas. The first is the obviously sinister Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook), a security agent for Transigen, the company responsible for destroying mutants out of fear they couldn't be controlled. In the time since the Westchester incident of Days of Future Past (it is now 2029), Transigen has overseen two different projects in which they've tried to breed their own mutants using preserved mutant DNA, including Logan's, all in an effort to turn them into weapons. The first project, “X-23,” failed and the company found the child mutants it fostered had too many defects.

With the advent of “X-24,” Pierce, who comes equipped with one of those bad guy mechanical claws, is rounding up all the “X-23” children to dispose of them. This is where the second individual who approaches Logan comes into play. Her name is Gabriela (Elizabeth Rodriguez), a former nurse at Transigen. She now watches after a young “X-23” mutant named Laura, played with focused intensity by Dafne Keen and who was bred with Logan's DNA. Needless to say, she also has metal claws and has been genetically engineered to run, jump, flip and strike like a super solider and the movie isn't shy about showing off her abilities or willingness to kill anyone she deems a threat, which is many.

Gabriela beseeches Logan to take Laura north to a place called “Eden,” the supposed sanctuary for the remaining “X-23” kids. Though he initially refuses, run-ins with Pierce and an uncovering of Transigen's dirty laundry force Logan to act. Several bodies later, he, Professor Xavier and Laura are on a road trip from Texas to North Dakota, and so their survival adventure begins.




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The screenplay by Mangold, Scott Frank and Michael Green uses the characters' journey as a platform for all the customary action sequences, but also quieter, more human, er, mutant, scenes. The best of each involves Xavier, who at one point goes too long without taking his serum and thus causes the crippling, vibratory effect I mentioned earlier. The scene happens in a hotel and it's a masterful example of timing and special effects. A more down-to-earth moment takes place when Logan, Xavier and Laura spend the night at farm family's house after helping them round up their horses. During it, Xavier makes a heartfelt confession and we feel the kind of emotion the movie is trying to convey.

Despite these scenes, though, at the end of the day, Logan is still a superhero movie and, as such, adheres to a tried-and-true formula that allows us to guess where it's going. And just because it's exorbitantly violent and gory doesn't mean it's any more admirable than if it wasn't; it just means it more exclusive to adults.

Still, the characters and their plight resonate with us and the relationship that develops between Logan and Laura carries weight. Jackman and Keen take their roles seriously and we empathize with them as they struggle to find peace, and even though it ends on a hopeful note, Mangold, to his credit, never makes this world out to be one we envy. Watching it is like experiencing a war zone, and perhaps Mangold's intention with the R-rating was to incorporate enough extreme violence in order to attack violence in general by showing just how unpleasant it can be.

Is that stretching it? Maybe, but whatever the case, Logan, as a movie, hovers between standard and effectively dark. It's not groundbreaking by any means and we've seen other, better movies like it, but for those who've stuck with Logan throughout the 10 X-Men films in which he's appeared (if only for a few seconds), this last one makes us feel like the character has finally come full circle. And for those who haven't, the film is still visually stimulating and emotional - not to the degree that it's violent, but high enough to be satisfying.


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