X-emplary!

Rating: 9/10 (18 March 2017)

I was inspired by this film. I don't say that lightly. Most films I like are merely entertaining, but this one was something special. After hearing it compared to The Last of Us, I was ready to write off this critically acclaimed flick as a pretentious gloom fest with nothing important to say other than "isn't it entertaining how screwed up the world can be?" But after watching and completely losing myself in this movie, I really felt the weight of what I was seeing.
Lots of F-bombs, gory bloodbath sliced meat special effects, and general depravity gives this movie a punch that the character of Logan can thrive in. Hugh Jackman is a boss, and the little girl is just as savage. Patrick Stewart is heart-wrenching to watch as he reprises his role as the Professor, a lovably sad character who drags his heels at every shred of humanity left in the cruel cold indifferent world this story is set in. I found myself feeling for these characters like I never thought I would watching the other vapid adaptations of the X-men stories. I felt the characters were connected to previous iterations built in previous installments to the continuity. I saw the cynicism of James McAvoy's young Professor in "Days of Future Past" biting at the fray of this aged broken old man as he struggled to keep hold of everything he'd learned to value through the chronology of films. I felt the weight of all Logan's failures pressing down on the tired, broken old man Logan has become.
There are a few really cool concepts utilized as plot mechanisms; but the real meat of this story are the themes: Getting old... living through life, enduring failures, growing sick and tired of the fight and the grind to survive, being too tired to take care of loved ones...
We see the question posed which no one asks and the unsought answer bids us to. What is it that makes life worth all the suffering? The answer is a subtle theme that grows to culmination throughout this film.
We watch Logan gradually deteriorate, his health and will to go on fading, and we see him lose the ability to enjoy anything good. But if you lose yourself in that sadness you can easily miss the message of this movie, and come away grieving your own mortality. Yes, this movie is THAT potent. Unless you're a soulless monster with a complete lack of empathy, this movie will affect you.
Almost Star Wars-esque, "Logan" left me contemplating the concept of generations. It's the idea that even if I lose everything I've loved, even if I waste my final days sulking in my own misery, unable to bear the things I've done and the people I've failed... there's a final hope in the next generation. Even if you lose it all, you can still impart everything you've learned to cherish to the next generation, so they can have their time. We can teach love in a degenerative world ripe with hatred and indifference, even when we've come to that final resting place, having lost our own strength to love.
This is a powerful movie. I won't say it's changed me, but I will say it got me thinking about my priorities in life as of late. It's one of those movies. I didn't cry, but I know people who did, and it hit them hard. I was definitely more grateful for everything I take for granted when the credits started rolling.
It's not a flawless movie. There are times where I found myself bored and my mind wandering, mostly when the situation gets predictable. But the movie powers past its more tedious moments with quiet humanity and visceral action sequences, well shot, very well edited, and well-written... despite a nuclear holocaust of colorful vocabulary. The score isn't particularly memorable. I recall a couple big moments when I was wishing there were more of an impacting melody present, but the thought was a vapor in the midst of mastery.
This movie is a masterpiece at its very best, and a compelling watch at its worst. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Even when it lost me, I was thinking about the ideas at hand. The film challenged my philosophical resolve and was a sobering experience. This is the very best you can get out of a work of fiction. "Logan" is truly exemplary art.