Film Marvel has found its Dark Knight
I know it's been two years since this movie has come up, but if you haven't seen it yet, let me just say: this is not your average superhero movie. In fact, it hardly feels like a superhero movie. Instead, it feels more like a Western, Neo Noir thriller reminiscent of No Country for Old Men, except with superpowers and way more violence.
Hugh Jackman has always been the defining Wolverine, but here he demonstrates Oscar-worthy talent, bringing nuance and grit permitted by the film's darker tone. Creator/Patrick Stewart does fantastic as usual as Professor X in an incredibly sad role for the venerable X-Man as he slowly succumbs to dimentia. Luckily, he also provides some surprisingly Funny Moments to this otherwise gritty tale. Newcomer Dafne Keen is an absolute badass as Laura/X-23 and her fight scenes with Wolverine are a sight to behold.
And speaking of fight scenes, this movie does not hold back. Already earning its R-rating in the opening scene that shows Wolverine is still more than capable of defending himself, the violence in this movie is absolutely brutal! Seriously, there are a lot of impalements and decapitations in this movie, so viewer's discretion advised.
Everything else about this movie is perfect. The storyline is simple yet incredibly easy to get invested in. The characters are nuanced and likable, even the surprisingly charismatic Donald Pierce. As mentioned above, the action sequences are brutally awesome. Even the worldbuilding is incredibly intriguing. And the ending...definitely gonna need some tissues.
The only thing I had against its movie was its other methods of earning its R-rating, aside from the violence. I've read the original Old Man Logan comic, and it does not hold back at all either, so the violence is understandable. However, the overuse of Cluster F-Bombs along with an incredibly unnecessary scene of Fanservice were a little bit off-putting since you could tell they placed them in to ensure this movie isn't for kids.
10/10 Without a doubt one of the best superhero movies to date.
Film 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%.
Film Last ride. You're welcome.
This movie is amazing. It is brutal, violent and R-Rated, but unlike Deadpool, it isn't a Crazy Awesome, CG-based, comedic romp. It's grim, dour, and scary.
In other words, it's the Wolverine movie we needed. It captures the horror of being Wolverine, the horror of fighting Wolverine, and the horror of merely being near a mutant. Essentially, mutants are extinct.
However, what makes it much better is how, despite its brutality and horror, it's a Tear Jerker at its finest, with Logan and Laura becoming almost like a father and daughter. Despite its grim attitude, their parental relationship is both adorable and, at some points, funny.
Not to mention outstanding writing and acting, which makes you genuinely care about the characters. Even the newcomers are extremely easy to care about. The family they spend the night with? You'll care about them. The woman who starts the whole plot? You'll care about her.
Oh, and while nobody else will mention it because it's so tragic, the villains are really, really convincing, and, in the case of Pierce, downright cool at times. They pull off being sinister and realistic at the same time. Nothing like Apocalypse.
10/10. The best X-Men movie. It deserves an Academy Award, even though it likely won't win one.
Film When you like a thing, but everyone else liked it more.
Logan was a good movie. I thought it at the time, I think it now, and if you haven't seen it yet and have even a bit of affection for the often uneven or poorly-aging X-Men films of the turn of the century and haven't checked it out yet, then yes, it's absolutely worth watching.
It works as a story on face value, of comic book characters getting old, struggling through an alien, seemingly-shallow future that's moved on without them and left them feeling unwanted and unwelcome. And it works as a story about individuals banding together against the rapacity and greed of a system that commodifies whatever it can use and heartlessly and thoughtlessly discards what it doesn't. It comments intelligently on how good people can be radicalized when trouble comes into their lives, and on how children sometimes find themselves having to grow up fast when adults fail them.
It's also beautifully shot, with confident direction that always knows what it's doing, conveying mood with every shot, whether sweeping or static, and using its sparse, minimalistic score well.
Heck, it even works well as a commentary on the medium it helped spawn, whether it's the commercialization and sanitization of their adventures or the presence of X-24, a character I read as unflattering commentary on what a very specific subset of the audience wants out of Wolverine: no humanity, no interesting reflections on an interesting life, just a mute asshole who "bub schnikt"s his way through everything in his path, contrasting with the timeworn Logan.
And, as an ending to its franchise, it's just about perfect, giving the characters just the right amount of closure and dignity before the final end.
...But. It also has a nihilistic mean streak I'm much less fond of. The plot twist that Charles Xavier's misfiring, demented brain was responsible for the final deaths and defeat of the X-Men is a bridge too far, and combined with Logan's breaking down, poisoned body, really does make a bunch of earlier films in the franchise feel pretty damn pointless. Worse, there were easy outs the film could have taken to instead direct blame onto the bad guys, such as making it clear that the tainted corn syrup that "turns off" the mutant gene also slowly weakens or destabilizes existing powers. Or making it clear that the egotistical evil scientist was the only one who could do some of the things he does, so that killing him would stop the corn syrup modification and cause his death to solve the problem.
At the same time, they by no means ruin the film. And the last one would arguably go against the point of the story; society's orphans might survive but they don't really win.
Again. It's a really good movie. I just wish what I regard as gaping flaws were talked about more often.