Review of Logan (2017) by Michael M — 17 Nov 2017

From the opening title its clear Logan is a different sort of superhero movie. I don't even mean the R-rated gore and language, I just mean the tone. It shows us a pretty hopeless future and an even more hopeless Logan. This isn't the badass from the other movies, this is a man at the end. That attitude pervades through the whole movie. It's incredible, there are action scenes in this movie but it's definitely not an action movie in the same sense of the other X-Men movies and most other superhero movies in general. It feels more like an independent film, a road trip with some hopeless people who don't really like each other but do care about each other and are stuck together. It actually reminded me a lot of Children of Men in both its plot structure and overall tone. Both movies are about hopeless people reluctantly put on a final mission that will give them a final bit of purpose and refuel their hope. Children of Men is one of my favorite films of all time, but there is one bit of an edge I have to give Logan: the history. The X-Men movie timeline is convoluted as all hell, but the fact remains we have known this character for 17 years now, so right from the get-go he has an advantage over Clive Owen in Children of Men. Strangely though that does give my one big criticism of the movie, which is how it fits in with the rest of the X-Men movies. If you really start thinking about how it fits into the overall timeline it starts to get confusing and depressing. The idea that this is ultimately where the current movie timeline will end up is incredibly depressing. But as a stand-alone movie, it's magnificent.

I don't even know how to address all my praise for this movie. Patrick Stewart gives an amazing performance as a broken down Professor X whose losing his mind, and newcomer Dafne Keen gives a rage-filled powerhouse performance. I think a lot of people are going to compare her to Eleven from Stranger Things, but Eleven's awesome, and to be fair X-23 came first. She's also far more brutal than Eleven, fitting with the whole movie. The R-rating and gratuitous language and violence actually feel organic to the whole thing. For one, it's a much more brutal world now than the world of the past films. Also, most of the violence doesn't feel like much more than the same violence that was occurring just off-screen in the past films. It's just now rather than panning away, the camera stays there.

This is that rare sort of superhero movie that transcends it's genre. It's a powerful roadtrip drama with an indie edge and a couple of characters who just happen to have superpowers. It's brutal, heartbreaking, and often quite moving. The final 10 minutes of the movie are full of the feels, and damn it all if I didn't start tearing up a bit. For comic book fun, it's probably not the best choice. For a character-driven drama with a couple ultra-violent action scenes, it's incredible.