Logan

Rating: 9/10 (4 March 2017)

Logan has already become one of my favorite superhero films... even though it doesn't really look like a superhero movie. It would be more appropriate to describe Logan as a western, or a drama, or a tense thriller which would still work without the fantastic elements, because there's no need for mutant powers to comprehend the desperation of a man tormented by his past and with an uncertain future lacking of any hope... until hope finds him. But, hope of what? Of redemption? Of survival? Or of briefly returning to the brutality and violence from which he attempted to escape? The simple fact that Logan inspires those questionings reveals its narrative deepness and emotional complexity, both of them rarely seen in the occasionally frivolous world of superheroes. Hugh Jackman confirms once more that he was born to play Logan/James Howlett/Wolverine. The benefit of the years (I'm equally talking about the age of the franchise and Jackman's) have allowed him to create a credible and natural evolution of the character throughout 9 films (well, he barely played cameos in X-Men: First Class and X- Men: Apocalypse, but I'm still counting them), and that's a probably unique case in universal cinema (not only in comic adaptations). But Jackman is only one of the brilliant elements of Logan; we also have the excellent screenplay, solidly structured with "classic" elements (the retired hero must return to action; the hero considers his powers a curse, etc.) which feel fresh due to some unexpected inversion of roles and the intentional distancing from the comic archetypes which are becoming routine in this kind of movies; don't misunderstand me: I keep enjoying the films from Marvel Studios, but it's already time to change the recipe a bit... something achieved by Logan with an excellent result. I also liked the fact that the antagonists aren't megalomaniac super-villains with vague plans of planetary conquest (or something like that), but individuals who are "normal" to a certain point representing extreme manifestations of the vices of humanity: intolerance, obsession with control, selfishness. Another thing I liked was the austere vision of the year 2029; instead of exaggerating the futurism and the science fiction, director James Mangold presents us a world which is the same to the one of 2017, but with small visual details supporting the story. In conclusion, Logan isn't a perfect movie, but I enjoyed it very much, and it definitely deserves a very enthusiastic recommendation.