Logan

Rating: 8/10 (3 March 2017)

"Logan" is the answer to all of my Marvel movie prayers. Let me start by listing my problems with the other comic book films: firstly the lack of real stakes or sense of vulnerability for the characters. While the stakes are almost cartoonishly high in other Marvel movies, considering they are literally saving the world, what they fail to do is truly make us feel as if the main characters could be killed at all. Whenever anything bad happens to these characters, they seem to immediately bounce back, such as with Nick Fury, who was shot multiple times and came back later in the movie, and James Rhode, who fell from the sky, yet is now recovering. In "Logan", they aren't messing around. Not only are characters beat up, bruised, guilt-filled, and slowly deteriorating, but many important characters are killed, usually at the most unexpected moments. The gore is also realistic and often genuinely disturbing. Secondly, the visuals. I'm not saying that most Marvel movies have bad special effects, and I'm not even saying that the cinematography is bad, per se, it's just so... bland. The color palette is dull, and most everything (besides for some action scenes) is shot in the most boring and predictable way, with no real distinct visual style. In "Logan", the cinematography has a very dusty and rugged feel to it. Also, the scenes in which Professor X has his fits after not taking his medicine, in which he essentially freezes everyone, not allowing them to move, genuinely feel tense and uncomfortable due to their shaky and claustrophobic camera- work, and you can feel Logan's struggle to move. Finally, the music. Again, nothing really very wrong with the music in other Marvel films, just nothing that ever stands out as unique or interesting. Music isn't often used in this film, but when it is, it heightens the emotion of each scene, whether it be heartfelt and genuine or intense.
On top of this, it has the best action scenes in any Marvel movie, with fantastic choreography and cinematography that doesn't rely at all on shaky cam or over editing, but rather clear, energetic, and hard hitting camera-work. The depiction of the future in the film is also subtly delivered through visuals that are relevant to the themes of government and upper class exploitation of minorities and others who can easily be taken advantage of for the most benefit. For instance, self driving cargo trucks are shown at one part nearly hitting people that are trying to get their horses off of the road, and large crop-harvesting machines are shown in the background of a poor man's farm. And, of course, the characters. Logan is a lonely alcoholic who is hiding on the border with Caribana, a mutant whose skin burns in the sun and who once helped to round up the original mutants, and with Professor X, who now requires medication in order to not accidentally kill himself and those around him. These are the only two people he still cares about after the death of all of the other mutants. He is working as a limo driver and saving up to buy a boat so he can sail away into the ocean with these two people and stop having to worry about being hunted by the government. The opening scene tells us that this is a man who has killed many and doesn't want to kill anymore, but is too often forced into situations where he has to. He has profound guilt for his murder, regardless of whether the people he killed were "bad" or "good". Logan is almost without hope, unlike Charles Xavier, who seems to believe there are still other mutants. To Logan's surprise, there is a young mutant girl named Laura who has just escaped a government facility where they have been attempting to modify and condition her to be an unempathetic killing machine for her entire life. A nurse approaches Logan with help, and while he is very reluctant because of the danger that will come with protecting this girl, he is eventually forced into it, and his empathy and conscience take over.
"Logan" is a dark, dark movie. The light at the end of the tunnel seems to shrink more and more throughout the movie, but what is important is that it always exists, despite the terrible ordeals these characters go through. After all is said and done, there is still a small ray of light peering into the blackness of their reality, and that is what these characters seem to constantly be chasing.