Review: Logan

Nearly twenty years ago, we were given the gift of X-Men, not the best superhero movie, but the one that really got the ball rolling. It stared the amazing Patrick Stewart, the equally amazing Ian McKellan, and the Australian national treasure Hugh Jackman. These guys would continue to bless the silver screen as Professor Xavier, Magneto, and Wolverine with some regularity for the next 17 years. But, like all things, it has to come to an end. Let’s get to it.

He's ready for his last ride.

Logan opens to Logan waking up in the back of his limo. No, the Wolverine hasn’t struck it rich and is living it up, that’s his day job now. Driving a limo in Houston. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. He had been awakened by some stupid gangsters that tried to steal his limo’s tires. He tries to talk them down, gets shot and smacked around, and then slaughters the imbeciles with his claws. After that, he goes back to doing his day job, chauffeuring people around, picking up drugs, and chauffeuring some more. We learn on the radio that it’s currently 2029, mutants are pretty much extinct, and the X-Men are a footnote in American history. Wolverine is currently going by his birth name of James Howlett as his alias. So, things aren’t super great. While waiting around for a funeral that a client is attending to end, he’s approached by a woman. She wants to pay the Wolverine for a job. Logan isn’t interested and angrily brushes her off. When she drives by, he notices a little girl in the woman’s back seat, starring at him. Nothing ominous about that.

After work, he picks up some ‘off the books’ pills, and meets another weirdo. This weirdo, Donald Pierce, is looking for the woman, Gabriella, and somethings she stole from him. He’s a Reaver, a group of cybernetically enhanced soldiers. He basically but subtly demands that Logan contact him if he runs into Gabriela again. Nothing ominous about that. Oh, and to prove he’s serious, Pierce hints at knowing about what Logan has hidden out across the border in Mexico.

 Logan, visibly shaken, drives across the border to check on his little secret. In the middle of a desert, in an abandoned factory of some kind, is where the legendary Charles Xavier now resides. He’s suffering from a pretty severe mental disorder, dementia I believe, and spends most of his days in a drug induced delirium. He’s looked after by Logan, and one of the few remaining Mutants, Caliban. They’re trying to keep Charles comfortable, which is made difficult by Charles’ failing health, and the fact that whenever he has a seizure, he fires off telepathic blasts that cripple anyone nearby. Also, not good.

She's got her daddy's primal, uncontrollable rage.

So, in general, everything is not good. Things are made worse by the fact Logan is visibly ageing, and his body isn’t healing like it used to. Two things that should not be happening. He’s trying to get together funds to take Charles off on a boat, to spend his final days, but money is tight. He’s contacted by Gabriella again, who offers him a sizable reward for getting her and her charge, a girl name Laura, across the US to North Dakota, to a place called Eden. He initially refuses, but goes back since the money is really important. Unfortunately, Pierce and his cronies had tracked Gabriela down, killed her and disappeared. Logan pockets the cash, and her cell phone, before leaving.

Upon returning to the compound, Logan and Caliban discover Laura, whom had stowed away in the back of the limo. Charles is overjoyed to see her, claiming Laura is a “New Mutant” the first in ages. Logan is unconvinced. Pierce shows up a few minutes later, demanding Laura. He’s knocked out, by Laura, and Logan forces Caliban to drop him off somewhere. This doesn’t work out, and Pierce returns shortly with a group of Reavers and the Mexican police. They hold Charles at gun point to keep Logan at bay and go after Laura. That’s when the little girl shows her claws, literally. Laura slaughters the group, later joined by Wolverine, and the trio bid a hasty retreat.

Logan reluctantly agrees to take Laura to Eden. They’re able to get a video off of Gabriela’s phone, explaining the situation. Laura was created by Transigen, a genetics company. They used young Mexican girls and DNA acquired from different mutants to breed Mutant soldiers/assassins. Gabriela went along with this for 10 years, but decided to help the children escape when project X-23 was deemed a failure and they began project X-24. She and the children were separated, except for Laura, but all knew to go for Eden. She also claims Laura is Logan’s ‘daughter.’ An oversimplification, but not completely wrong.

Time is cruel. Plain and simple.

They travel through Oklahoma City, where Logan makes a stunning realization. The X-Men comics exist in this universe! He doesn’t really seem to bat an eye at this, shockingly. Oh, and that one of the comic’s Laura brought with has a reference to Eden and the coordinates that they’re going towards. Not good. He’s obviously infuriated by this, but agrees to continue on. He swaps out his broken limo for cash and picks up a new car. While he’s out, the Reavers track them down. They kept Caliban alive, he’s got tracking powers, and are using him to follow the crew. Thankfully, Caliban has been… slow with giving the Reavers’ updates so they can stay a few steps ahead. But, also sort of thankfully, Charles has another stroke. His psychic blasts keep everyone stunned long enough for Charles to kill the assembled Reavers and then get Charles’ his pills. They make a run for it while everyone else is recovering.

While on the road again, they meet up with and help out a local family, the Munsons. Despite Logan’s protests, they have dinner with the family whom also put them up for the night. Logan is pulled away to help Mr. Will Munson with some problems with the local big farming conglomerate. While he was out, Transigen’s top scientist Zander Rice releases a new weapon. In his room, Xavier awakens to Logan standing over him. Xavier admits that this was the best night’s sleep he’s had in years. And that he doesn’t deserve it. They’ve hinted at, but never showed, that the previous year Xavier had his first seizure. The result of which injured several hundred civilians and the death of some unnamed X-Men. Hence why Charles was taken out into the desert. It’s then revealed that he hadn’t been talking with Logan, but Rice’s new weapon, X-24. It’s a clone of Wolverine that they can control remotely. Not good. X-24 mortally wounds Charles, mows down the Munsons, captures Laura, and then murders some locals. Logan and X-24 duke it out. The Mutant Weapon nearly kills Wolverine, as it is younger and stronger, but is stopped by Will, who rams it into a thresher. Caliban kills himself via grenade to remove himself from the equation and hamper Transigen’s efforts to track the two.  Logan and Laura make a run for it. They bury Charles in the woods. Logan freaks out a little, and then passes out.

Props for avoiding the obvious
"I'm too old for this #$%^" joke.

Laura is able to get Logan into a truck and takes him to a local doctor. The doctor tells Logan that he’s dying and that he wants to run some tests to see if he can help Logan. But Logan isn’t interested. He knows what’s killing him. It’s more implied then anything, but Logan is dying because of his Adamantium Skeleton. The metal is poisoning him, and his extreme age is keeping his healing factor from keeping him together anymore. So sad.

Logan tries to convince Laura to give up on Eden, but the little girl refuses. Takes after her sort-of-dad. She also speaks for the first time, demanding that they see this through. She and Logan make it to the coordinates, where they meet up with the other escaped X-23 kids. They’re planning to run to Canada, to start a new life. Logan and Laura say goodbye, bitterly as Howlett’s do. The next day, Logan awakens to see the kids gone, but the Reavers in hot pursuit. Logan gears up for his last ride.

The good. This is without a doubt the best sendoff that Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart’s versions of Logan and Xavier could have asked for. It was a dark, gritty and bittersweet ending to their respective stories. Seeing Charles’, and to a lesser extent Logan, dealing with their respective ages. Rice puts it best in a scene with Caliban, a degenerative brain disease in the most powerful brain in the world. Yeah, that’s a horrible combination. And, the revelation that the X-Men are no more due in part to one of Charles’ seizures, is just heartbreaking. Logan has some great moments too. We see all the scars he’s gathered in the last few years, the fact he has a pretty severe limp, and the fact his claws don’t always extend like he wants to. All little moments, but clear signs that Logan is just barely hanging on. Dafne Keen as Laura/X-23 was pretty darn good to. She’s mute for the firsts 2/3 of the film, which was pretty smart. Child acting is best when viewed in… snippets. Her screams of primal fury do Jackman proud. Stephen Merchant as Caliban was surprisingly interesting too. Caliban is a minor character in the X-Men universe that has the power to track Mutants. Like Logan, he’s over taxed looking after Charles, and while he was never an X-Men, clearly has respect for both former X-Men. So yeah, a great all around main cast.

So it all ends.

The negative is there, but thankfully less glaring then other X-Men films. The villains are cool looking, but are pretty generic. Best exemplified by Pierce, he’s got this awesome robot hand, but really just stands around looking smug for most of the film. Rice is introduced halfway through the film, and has his motivation pretty rushed. He wants to weaponize mutants because evil. He has a history with Logan, as Logan murdered Rice’s father when he escaped the Weapon X facility. That sort of thing. Cool ideas, but they’re not really show off that well. Also, this story has a lot of telling not showing. We’re told about Xavier possibly killing most of the X-Men with his first seizure. We’re told about Mutant’s going the way of the dinosaurs. We’re told how most of the worlds current problems can be traced back to Dr. Rice and his experiments. Dick. All big things, all cool sounding, but not really explored.

Overall, this is an A- movie. It has a stellar cast, decent effects, and a pretty decent plot. The fact that the villains are a little lackluster and that they fell into the trap of tell don’t show do hamper it slightly. I remember reading a comment that sums up the Wolverine movie franchise pretty well. The Wolverine trilogy is the only franchise in history that started with complete, utter horse *#$^ and ended with a quality film. Which is true, this was pretty much the polar opposite of the original X-Men movies. Movie one, X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a painful slog that was soooo bad it killed the Origins film series idea before it even got started. Movie two, Wolverine, was a decent film that gave us a decent story and an impressive Wolverine. And now, Logan is a heck of an ending for Wolverine. Mr. Jackman, Sir Stewart, its’s been an honor. 

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