Reviews Film / Logan

This is the X-men movie we've needed (no spoilers)

The X-Men films have always been a guilty pleasure for me. If I was being objective I'd say none would be above 80% for me (not even the fan favourite, First Class). It's usually the same issues... the stakes are so high they can't possibly fail, they often spend too much time showing off the mutant powers, sometimes the mutant powers are a little cheesy or contrived, splitting screen time among a wide cast of characters means someone is always underdeveloped. A lot of the time the mutant powers are so grandiose they come off as being cheesy, and overly-reliant on CG.

Not here.

It's close, personal, the stakes are real. Logan is trying to run away from his past yet is tied down by it. The fights are brutal, and they need to be. It's a reminder of the brutality that Logan has to sink back into, and the shit he's done in the past isn't PG-13. The fights happen in melee range, and every slash and every bullet is felt.

Laura is played very well... She is innocent and naive half the time, you forget she's a murderous rage ball.

They sprinkle in a few Easter eggs about the past movies without dwelling on them. They hint at a cataclysmic event for mutants without stopping the film to talk about it. There's enough to spark your imagination without bogging the film down. This is the kind of film that X-men Origins should have been. We don't need to save the planet to care. We don't need giant robots or a new world order. No grand philosophical or political ideologies. It's about one man, his personal beliefs, and his personal struggle.

This is the one x-men film I would legitimately call a great movie, no nostalgia or guilty pleasure. 90, maybe 95%.