There Should Have Been Oscar Nominations

Rating: 10/10 (25 March 2019)

Continuing my plan to watch every Hugh Jackman movie in order, I come to his last appearance as Logan/Wolverine in James Mangold's Logan (2017)
Plot In A Paragraph: In 2029, mutants are nearly extinct, an elderly and weary Logan leads a quiet life. But when Laura, a mutant child pursued by scientists, comes to him for help, he is reluctantly drawn in to his old life, as he attempts to get her to safety.
I love this movie. Heartbreakingly sad, so I do not watch it often, but every time I do, I love it. Personally, I think Jackman and Patrick Stewart should have been nominated for Oscars here, I was hoping for a nod for the movie and Mangold too, but it's sole nomination was in the adapted screenplay category.
Comic book movies, are a gamble if they're rated R. Which is why Jackman took a massive pay cut to make sure that this movie was rated R. It was Mangold who revealed he took a salary cut because he wanted to do an R-rated movie, he said the studio were not happy with the R Rating Jackman and Mangold wanted, so Jackman offered to drop his salary, to ensure they got to make the movie they wanted. And I'm glad he did. How many A-List stars would do that, these days??
Jackman was involved in this movie from the beginning. In December 2013, he said he was on the phone to Mangold talking about ideas for the final movie. Mangold later revealed "Hugh and I have been friends for twenty years now, and he was there every step of the way. For Hugh and I, the first goal was to construct something more intimate. Hugh often brought up Shane and Unforgiven and The Wrestler as examples. I used those references, then I pitched to both Hugh and the studio that I had an idea for an extremely bloody Little Miss Sunshine."
You can see the parallels with both Unforgiven and The Wrestler, whilst the characters are even shown watching the movie Shane. It's influence is all over it.
I have watched Hugh Jackman grow as an actor during this look back at his filmography. He has added layers of depth and films like Prisoners (for which he should have gotten an Oscar nomination) and Les Miserables (which he was rightly Oscar Nominated) have challenged audiences perceptions of him. Yet, in playing a character he has returned to over the years, he has now given his finest performance, a complex mix of regrets and self-doubt that reveals a Logan we have never seen before. Patrick Stewart is heartbreaking and has never been better. Newcomer Dafne Keen is all passion and truthfully, I would actually watch a spin-off movie/TV series if the filmmakers choose to go in that direction.
Is Logan more powerful because of what the superhero genre has delivered over the last decade or so?? Does it seem such a classic because it doesn't feel like a modern superhero movie??
There is no denying the modern superhero movie is mostly CGI, particularly in the finale acts which are almost entirely an end of the world, apocalyptic scenario filled with loads of destruction and plenty of explosions, but no real danger to the heroes. Logan has stakes that feel very real, brillint fight choreography instead of just computer-generated effects. Most importantly, Logan has characters you care about. It's not just a great superhero movie, it's a great movie in general. And don't get me wrong. I love a good popcorn superhero movie as much as the next guy, but Logan shows how deep one can go in the genre, if they just approach it in a different way.
Logan grossed $227 million at the domestic box office, to end 2017 as the 11th highest grossing movie of the year.