Logan – Movie Review

Logan – R
Release Date: Fri 03 Mar 2017

Logan is the first R-rated Wolverine movie in the X-Men franchise, and is designed to be the final to star Hugh Jackman in the role.

The title character is old and tired, living a few years into the future and caring for an ailing Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart.) A young mutant named Laura (Dafne Keen) shows up looking for help, and Logan and Charles must protect her from her pursuers and try to stay alive themselves.

Logan is at its best in the early scenes where it sets up this new situation. Logan being tired and grumpy isn’t particularly new, but Jackman gives is extra gravitas both in his performance and in the portrayal of how damaged his body is. Xavier’s symptoms that resemble Alzheimer’s or some other brain imbalance manifest themselves in seizures that – because of who he is – cause incredible telekinetic damage when they aren’t properly managed by medication.

The violence doesn’t skip a beat gleefully jumping from PG-13 to R for the first time, with Logan putting his signature metal claws through many bloody, nameless baddies in full view of the camera. For a moment, this is satisfying as the claws seem to finally be as deadly as one would expect. Just as quickly, it blends in and becomes just another part of the movie.

The tone of Logan is one of bleakness and desperation. There are a few humorous moments, but it has more in common with The Revenant than the last R-rated X-Men movie, Deadpool. It’s great that Jackman’s iconic version of the character gets a movie with this much weight to go out on, but at nearly two hours and twenty minutes it’s not a movie that begs for repeat theatrical viewings.

Amber, Aaron, Matthew, Cal and I saw it in the theater and had a discussion in the car: