Old man Logan

Rating: 8/10 (4 March 2017)

In a future time line, mooted as 2029, Wolverine of X-Men fame is working as an Ubersque limo driver on the U.S-Mexico border. Charles Xavier is suffering from a degenerative brain disorder, and is under the care of the mutant Caliban, the X-Men are defunct and mutants are now a rarity. Suddenly a young girl known only as Laura enters Wolverine's life, and a road movie ensues where Wolverine must reach Eden, somewhere in North Dakota.
It is with a little sadness that I approached Logan, The X-Men movies have been a curio for me ever since I saw the first instalment back somewhere in the 2000s. The subtext with The X-Men about mutants living on the fringes, which has it's roots in the social activism of the 60's, with characters such as Magneto realising his superhuman strength at the hands of The Third Reich, always hinted at something far greater then the sum of their parts in comic book and movie form. That being said, even in it's movie form it has aimed high, hiring talent of the likes of: Ian Mckellen, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammar, Patrick Stewart, Oscar Isaac, Jennifer Lawrence, James Mcavoy, Michael Fassbender and going for broke with an unknown in Hugh Jackman. The X-Men has always attempted to be distinct, somehow merging a sense of theatre with its superhero dynamics. While this has not always been successful, sometimes the attempt is worthy enough of an appreciative pat on the back.
In Logan we have something of a crescendo for everything that was great about The X- Men universe: we have the theatre, we have the tragedy and we have the pathos all amp-ed up in a strange Hollywood blockbuster with a weirdly indie spirit. Logan has been spoken about by the actor Hugh Jackman as being the culmination of his career as Wolverine, "this" he exclaims in many interviews, "is the movie about Wolverine that I wanted to make", and it is not difficult to see why he feels that way. Playing an immortal super hero, part man, part metal, part feral beast, it goes without saying that his character has always stood out in the movies, comics and cartoon series as the most engrossing, dynamic and captivating of the X-Men team. A character worthy of his own story line, but always beholden to a greater story arc involving Professor Xavier and Magneto and sometimes Storm, Mystique or any number of the bit players. The previous Wolverine movie, set partly in Japan gave us a taster of a fully formed Wolverine movie, giving us glimpses of a man living on the fringes. Ultimately he is then given a new lease of life through his adventures in Japan, thus kick starting a more hopeful Days of Future Past narrative. Logan dispenses with this narrative, whilst it has been mentioned by the director that Logan (the movie) exists in that time frame (so we can assume this is the culmination of Days of Future Past), we can also approach Logan as a stand alone movie, existing on it's own terms and ready to make it's own sacrifices, and boy do they make some sacrifices.
This is what truly sets Logan apart from many other movies of it's ilk. Drawing inspiration from movies such as Unforgiven and Shane we see here a level of violence unheard of in a superhero movie. Super hero movies have a tendency to play it safe to the PG-13 crowd, with every act of violence skilfully manipulated for a younger audience. In Logan we see something different, we see Wolverine going full-tilt bastard on a bunch of Gov OPs slashing and maiming his way by any means necessary, along with child mutants ready and willing to fight their cause. Logan is so committed to showing the violence, and placing the violence within it's context that every bullet, and blade has a visual and emotional heft to it.
In Avengers: Civil War we have a story line built around the concept of collateral damage, and the consequences of super heroic endeavours. Logan, without needing to come across as moralistic answers this question with a full on caps lock, DEATH is the ultimate endgame to these actions. If the net result of the actions of a super hero is collateral damage, then ultimately the net result of 'collateral damage' is destruction of the psyche; just like soldiers returning from war who suffer from shell shock and paralysis or criminals who eventually confess their crimes. Logan tells us that super heroes eventually waste away on the inside, and never has this been more perfectly conveyed then to see both Wolverine and Charles Xavier wasting away, not by the hands of their arch enemy Magneto, but at the simple hands of old age and world weary fatigue.
In Logan there is a wilful sense of an end to this series, not so much an end to The X-Men, but if anyone has been paying attention to The X-Men over the last few entries it has become plainly apparent that the X-Men seem to be getting younger (real young), whilst the audience who saw The X-Men the first time round are undoubtedly getting older . Logan addresses this, acknowledging that ultimately, even our most immortal and impenetrable hero will remain all too human, and this is not a fact to be reconciled with, but merely a fact: our heroes die, our leaders are fallible and ultimately our children inherit the earth.
The X-Men has always had this mantra somewhere at the heart of it's story telling, but never has it been more brutally realised then in Logan.