Logan the Personal

Rating: 8/10 (30 March 2017)

Let me start by saying that "Logan" is my first favorite movie from 2017. And let me continue by saying that you should not read this review if you have not seen the film yet as it will be full of spoilers to an extent where the normal message up there is not enough and I would like to put special emphasis on this. Now lets go: James Mangold returns from the 2013 film "Wolverine" here and I think he did a really good job as this film never drags despite a runtime of over 2 hours and 15 minutes. It's probably still not my favorite from him ("Walk the Line"), but this should not take away anything from his effort. You will not really see too many familiar faces in this one except Jackman and Stewart. As for Stewart, there is one quote from him about mortality and this is a theme that fits the entire movie. Everybody keeps dying here, the good guys, the bad guys and the longer it goes the more you wonder if Logan will get out of it alive. The wolf has gone gray and he only has two friends left with whom he is arguing all the time. For example what I just said also applies to an innocent family of Black people and the dad is a perfect example of how hate towards the mutants is fueled, even if you cannot blame Jackman's character really for anything that happened to this family. It's all humans causing it with their decisions.
This film has many parallels to other quality films like Léon The Professional (check my review title), Mad Max, Children of Men and this reminded me repeatedly of the child soldiers from the James Cameron television show "Dark Angel", a personal favorite. The "Logan" title cannot be coincidence right? Holbrook also reminded me a bit of Ames White with the Nazi-resembling race references, but if you know DA, you will see the similarities in general. Anyway, for fans of this series, it's probably the closest we're ever getting of a Dark Angel film with Cameron focusing on all these Avatar sequels right now. Now back to "Logan": If there is anything negative to say about this film, then maybe that the child soldier reference was not always working, but still this one also provided really touching scenes at the very end of the film and honestly the X grave was a stroke of genius and a perfect final shot. Also kinda fitting and cool that he can only be killed by his alternate self. It was a sad ending, but also an uplifting one with the next generation of mutants (and with the girl Wolverine left us) going out into the world. Johnny Cash song during the credits doesn't hurt either. Oh yeah and the pain from Stewart's character's brain was done so well you could feel it even in the theater. It is certainly a pretty depressing movie, but this also makes it really authentic I believe. There are very rare moments of situational comedy in there, like the fat kid being too fat to run and gets caught, but it's nowhere near the surface. This film delivers in 10 other areas much more than in comedy.
I think I have only seen the very first X-Men film apart from this one here, so even as somebody who is not a fan of the series (but likes superhero movies), it's easy to appreciate this one. Huge fans will probably love it. I think it is impressive how this series is still going so strong after 20 years almost and it was the perfect decision back then to cast the entirely unknown Hugh Jackman for the part as he is a vital ingredient why this film was such a triumph, with critics as well as audiences. I like him a lot and I am certainly biased, but it's hard to disagree with his craft after seeing this movie. Will there be another? Unlikely. I just hope that the fate of Wolverine's character does not go in hand with the fate of Jackman's as you keep reading so frequently about his fight with skin cancer. "Logan" also includes a great deal of action which was among the more forgettable parts for me, but there's enough people who like it, so it's all good. And after all with this runtime, people like me also get a great deal of character development and drama besides the special effects. So there are more reasons to see this film than I could actually mention here. You totally do not want to miss out. Check it out now!