Jan 01, 2019
I think we need to talk about the X-Men, most specifically Wolverine for a bit. When I was a young child, I loved the X-Men. In fact, my three favorite superheroes had to have been Spider-Man, Batman and, of course, you might have guessed, Wolverine. I think Venom and Beast were a notch below that to close out my top five as a kid. I dressed up as Batman AND as Wolverine as a child. I don't remember dressing up as a Spider-Man, but I may have worn a mask or two. I don't think my fandom of these three heroes shaped my childhood as much as The Simpsons did, which I also grew up loving, but I do have very fond memories of my time spent with these heroes and their stories. Fast-forward to 2000 and the original X-Men movie comes out which, as far as I can remember, is the first Marvel movie to, you know, be any good. There was a 1989 Punisher with Dolph Lundgren that, apparently, was not very good (depending who you ask). A year a later the first Captain America movie came out and it was somehow even worse than the Punisher. At the time DC was killing it with Burton's first Batman film, so Marvel was playing catch-up in terms of quality. So, really, at the time X-Men came out, it was kind of the saving grace for Marvel. It allowed them to successfully transition most, if not all (early-to-mid 2000s Daredevil, Elektra come to mind immediately, of their heroes to commercially and critically successful movies. I'm not saying that without X-Men's success that the MCU would not have existed, but it certainly made it more viable than it was prior to X-Men's release. 2003 saw the release of X2, which was, at the time, one of the best superhero movies ever made. The end for the original X-Men film trilogy, obviously, came with The Last Stand, which wasn't that good. The franchise, after The Last Stand, needed rebooting and, in 2009, came the first Wolverine movie. I remember really hating this movie with a passion. Like I loathed it, I remember being really fucking pissed off at how much of a joke Gambit was made out to be, particularly considering the potential that character had to be really fucking cool. Moving on from that flick, we got X-Men: First Class in 2011 and Days of Future past in 2014, which were both great. On the Wolverine front however, in terms of standalone films, we got The Wolverine in 2013. This brings us to 2017's Logan, the film that brings us together and the film that serves as Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman's final acts as Professor Charles Xavier and Logan/Wolverine, respectively. A lot has been said about this movie, with some even regarding it as one of the finest superhero movies ever made. A movie that defies the typical conventions associated with the genre to create something meaningful, with strong characters you care about and surprising emotional depth. And with that, I must say that this movie is quite unlike every superhero movie I've ever seen. It's not about Thanos killing all life on earth with this Infinity Stones. It's not about the Joker causing chaos in Gotham. It's not about Doctor Octopus causing havoc in New York and Spider-Man protecting its good citizens from a madman. This movie is about one man saving his soul by helping Laura, a girl created from is DNA by this biotechnology company intent on, of course, creating soldiers from scratch, cross the border into Canada to, hopefully, find a safe haven there. It's about Logan's slow deterioration. He still heals, but it's not nearly as effective as it used to be anymore and he's in constant pain, so he's turned to alcohol as a painkiller. His abilities are nowhere near as good as they used to be either. One of the many things that I like about this movie is the fact that Logan carries the weight of everything that has happened to him. Not just in terms of all the battles he's fought, the wars he's been in. I mean the loss of his friends, as him, Xavier and Caliban, officially, are the last X-Men alive. The movie takes place in 2029, 25 years after the birth of the last mutant. The same biotechnology company that is creating these mutant children from scratch are also the ones, whose experiments, responsible for, essentially, exterminating the mutants, as it were. As far as Charles Xavier is concerned, however, much like Logan, his health has deteriorated to the point that he is not the same. You see, Xavier suffers from a form of dementia that, without medication, causes some severe seizures that leaves anyone in the vicinity suffering from temporary paralysis. If it goes on long enough, people could actually die. With that said, there was an incident prior to the film's events where Xavier suffered one of these seizures that injured hundreds and killed seven of the other X-Men. None are ever named and this incident is only talked about in the movie, it is never shown. And that's what I love about this world, the actions of the past have relevance to what we are seeing now, as it should be. The reason I mention that is because it adds to the feeling that this world existed prior to us joining Logan for his last journey. Xavier's last incident forces Logan to hide Xavier in Mexico and having Caliban look after him in this abandoned smelting plant. Logan and Xavier have suffered the consequences of their actions and you can see it in the body language they display and their attitude towards each other. Logan and Xavier have a more antagonistic relationship than they ever have in the past, but that's as a result of the past and I do think the movie does a great job of that. In spite of them not showing you anything of what happened to Logan and Xavier in the time since we last saw them, you know that they've been struggling. Emotionally and physically. This opens the door to explore some different angles to tell a story within the context of a superhero movie. To say that this movie is more like a noir western than it is a superhero movie is kind of an understatement. To the point that the Blu-Ray DVD (that I own) includes a disc where there's a black and white version of the movie. And the film wears its western influences on its sleeves, quite openly. But it uses those influences to craft a new story, something unprecedented in the superhero world. The characters, more than any other film in this genre that I've seen, drive the narrative forward. It's not the action, it's not the special effects. It's the actors and their performances that carry the movie forward. This is a fantastic movie by any standard, it's not JUST a great superhero movie. And that's something that a lot of the films in the MCU fail to achieve. They're great superhero movies, period. And I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that that means that a lot of these movies end up playing it safe in terms of its approach they take to the visual and narrative aspects of their films. That's a major problem the MCU has faced throughout their ten years of existence. Visually and thematically, the MCU have got this homogenized look and feel and, never, has anyone sort of ventured from that. I love Black Panther and it is, quite possibly, the best film in the MCU yet (and one of the best of last year thanks to its thoughtful narrative), but it still fits within that mold that Marvel has created. It doesn't really attempt to explore new avenues to tell a story that are not associated with the genre. There's no real attempts to, truly, transcend the genre like, really, only one film has done. That film is, obviously, The Dark Knight. This movie is the other. And, if I'm being honest, I find that this movie even goes farther than The Dark Knight ever did in terms of pushing the genre past its normal boundaries. It still very much feels like a superhero movie pushed to its extreme, in a good way. But Logan manages to avoid those pitfalls and, essentially, tell sort of a survivalist/road trip/western/noir film, where the characters at its core as the most important tenet to carry its narrative forward. Even The Dark Knight still revolves around the Joker threatening to destroy Gotham and causing untold amounts of destruction, injuring thousands of nameless and, mostly, faceless people. This movie is about two men, Logan and Charles, helping this girl reach a safe haven for mutants, all children like her, across Canada. And, of course, they're also on the run from Alkali Transigen, the company that created Laura from Logan's DNA. There's no threat to the universe, the threat is to Laura and the rest of the mutant children that Alkali was hoping to turn into soldiers, the threat is to Logan's sou; as, again, he's been broken by everything that he's gone through. I love that stripped down approach. It tells personal story, more so than any superhero film ever made. Black Panther is the only thing that comes close. I love Hugh Jackman's portrayal of Logan, he is tremendous here. He is a man who, and this is a trait Wolverine has had throughout the franchise, of now knowing who he is. He, even at this point in his life, hasn't found who he is as a result of how he was created and what he was created for. I think that's a theme that carries heavily throughout the film and something that Logan tells Laura at the end of the film, that she shouldn't be what they made him to be. I do think that Logan struggles with that daily and, again, it's one of the many things in his life that has led him to the point he is in this film, a broken-down, bitter and angry Wolverine. Same thing with Patrick Stewart, who captures the fragility of a 90-year-old Xavier perfectly with his performance. Dafne Keen, as X-23 or Laura, is a great addition to the franchise and her performance as this character doesn't feel forced, because she has the perfect angry face to pull off, quite literally, a mini-Wolverine. She's kind of a badass and some of the best action scenes in the entire film are X-23's. But, at the same time, the movie doesn't forget that she's still an eleven-year-old girl (I wonder if this was a Stranger Things nod) and they do try to showcase that in some of her later interactions with Logan. I suppose we need to talk about the action now and, quite frankly, it is tremendous and brutal. That's the best way to describe it, but in its own context of course, it feels believable, there's nothing cartoonish about it. Its level of violence might be off-putting to some, but I think it helps the world feel more real, feel more threatening. In short, it should be obvious, that I fucking loved this movie. If there is a flaw, and there is one, is that I do think the pacing could have used some tightening up. Other than that, however, this is still a tremendous movie. Easily one of the best movies in the genre and, really, only the second one that manages to transcend the genre's limitations to become something more, something different and unique that has never been seen before in this genre. Is it the best superhero movie I've ever seen? Honestly, I don't know. I'll have to watch The Dark Knight again in order to properly decide, but this is an easy recommendation. Phenomenal movie and a fantastic send-off to a character that we've known and loved for almost 20 years.
As a bit of an side, I imagine this is like a postscript, I have to talk about 20th Century Fox's merger with Disney and what that means for Deadpool and the X-Men film franchise. Look, I've enjoyed most movies in the MCU, but they all do kinda look and feel the same, which I mentioned in this review. And I'm worried that that's what they're gonna do with Deadpool and the X-Men. 20th Century Fox's handling of these franchises, X-Men most specifically, has not been perfect. But I also have to give credit where credit is due, Simon Kinberg and his team have been the only ones to truly take risks on behalf of Marvel. If Disney owned the rights to the Deadpool character from the start, we wouldn't get those two great movies that we got. We would get something resembling that, but far more family-friendly. Family-friendly is fine, but there needs to be something edgier and Deadpool offers that in spades. Logan would be absolutely nerfed and censored by Disney in order for it to ensure a PG-13 rating, completely draining it of its essence. And that's what I'm worried is gonna happen now that these characters, seem, to be reverting back to Marvel. What does that mean for Deadpool? Disney does have Buena Vista and they COULD release the sequels under that banner and still keep it R-rated. But I don't think Disney is gonna wanna do that, I think they're gonna wanna strip Deadpool of his personality and have him fit into the mold that they've created and perfected. I'm not saying it wouldn't be cool to see Deadpool interact with some of the members of the MCU, but if that means completely destroying the character's essence, then I don't care for that. There's enough characters in the X-Men universe for him to interact with. As far as what that means for taking risks, I do not know. Deadpool has already been established as a foul-mouthed and violent mercenary. It's kind of difficult to go back on that if Disney fully takes over. But with a movie like The New Mutants, which hasn't been released yet, and serves as the thirteenth installment of the X-Men franchise, I wonder they don't fuck with that movie. It's a HORROR movie in the superhero genre, I mean that's something fresh and I would wish that Disney would take wild risks like this with its characters, but they don't. Because that's not a guaranteed over half-a-billion worldwide gross. Disney does what is going to earn them the most money and horror isn't gonna make them the most money when compared to, yet, another homogenized entry in the MCU. I don't think any self-respecting fan of the genre wants that. Again, I've enjoyed MANY films in the MCU, but they're all very similar thematically and tonally. I just hope that this doesn't mean the end of risk-taking for superhero genre as a whole. I mean we have the DCEU and I guess there's hope in them using their standalone movies to try some new ideas, but it's something that we're gonna have to wait and see. Oh, and before I end this, I forgot to give props to James Mangold's excellent script and direction. Props to you and everyone involved in the making of this wonderful film.
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