Hello degenerates,
heathens, weirdos, deviants, rebels, and defected Imperial officers. I am
the Rock Otaku, and I’m here to show you worlds such as hard rock, metal, punk,
alternative rock, movies, TV, anime, video games, and anything that makes us
scream, shout, and go into Berserker Rage.
Today, I review a
movie that I’ve recently seen that both fits my interests alongside my
standards of high-octane, high-caliber blockbusters: Logan (2017)
Before I get to my
thoughts on the movie including a few spoilers, let me state my thoughts on the
X-Men movie franchise as a whole. While
it has been there throughout most of my live, from 2000’s X-Men to today’s
movie, I really wasn’t a devout follower until I decided to check out The Wolverine in theaters, the one where
Logan aka. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is being haunted by the death of Jean Grey and
goes to Japan because he saved a soldier, who’d live to become rich and
powerful in the present, during the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. While I thought that was okay, and better if
you have a deep understanding of the series and what happened beforehand, it
wasn’t until X-Men: Days of Future Past
that I became a fan. Yes, the movie
where the first trilogy’s characters interact with their First Class counterparts, including a scene where young Charles
Xavier (James MacAvoy) interacts with his older counterpart (Patrick Stewart)
though Wolverine’s Shadowcat-based time traveling (and yes, that’s Ellen Page
as Kitty Pryde), is where I became a fan.
And I did check out First Class
sometime afterwards as well as the all-mighty X2: X-Men United before I saw X-Men
Apocalypse in theaters (as well as a certain movie about a certain
red-wearing, katana-wielding, gun-toting, Ryan Reynolds-portrayed merc with a
mouth), which I found to be alright (despite a funny line by Jubilee about how
the third movie is always the worst, which applies to The Last Stand and probably this one). And before you ask, the reason for the
delayed X-Men fandom is because I was more of a Spider-Man kid when it came to
Marvel Movies (until they barely used Venom then rebooted the entire series
TWICE), and that was before the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But here’s the
multi-million dollar question: Do I want to see Fox return the rights to the
Marvel characters back to Disney so we can see the X-Men and Fantastic Four
series represented in the same universe as the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy,
Kamar-Taj, and even Spider-Man? Yes and
no. Yes for Fantastic Four because Fox
really doesn’t know how to use that property, and there’s a lot of material
there to ensure that the MCU doesn’t lose steam, such as Latveria and its
ruler, Doctor Doom, as well as everything from the powers cosmic to seeing a
true movie version of Galactus. Also
because some of the X-Men and their ideas might work alongside Iron Man,
Captain America, and other heroes. But
no because I’m sure Disney would commit seppuku before releasing R-rated movies
under the Marvel brand due to their tendencies to cling to their safe, clean,
PC image (even more so for the latter, thanks to recent news and events). Because Fox has the rights to two characters
who work better and are more interesting, engaging, and true to character when
their films have the dreaded R-rating: Deadpool and Wolverine. And the latter just has his go round with
today’s movie: Logan.
Logan follows the titular
character in a timeline (that may or may not be the First Class or original timelines) where mutants are almost
extinct, his healing factor is no longer as effective, so he’s aging and definitely
past his prime, and the only mutants alongside him left are Charles Xavier
(Patrick Stewart again) and Caliban (Stephen Merchant), and he’s taking care of
the former. Plus the year is 2029, and
it looks like modern day. Despite this,
due to unforeseen circumstances, he’s entrusted with the care of a little girl
name Laura (Dafne Keen) who’s revealed to be a lot like him, from being a
mutant to the use of Adamantium claws similar to his own. And her goal is to get to a place north of
the U.S./Mexico border (in a time-period where Trump’s plan for a wall may have
failed) that could get her on her path with fellow young genetically-engineered
new mutants to Canada away from a corporation bent on using them for war. Now he’s on the run and trying to take care
of not just the ailing Professor X, who may have…
…killed all the X-Men
around the same time the corporation behind Laura’s existence, being a sperm
donated daughter of Wolverine himself and X-23 from the comics, was also behind
for the extinction of mutants by having the mutant gene used in commercial
products and food, normalizing it, and is developing a clone of Wolverine,
codenamed X-24, that would be the perfect killing machine. And Wolverine and Laura develop a
father-daughter relationship along the way.
And before I go into any other spoilers, let’s get to some of the good and
bad (if there is any) of this movie.
First, the acting is
superb, from Hugh Jackman’s arguably last round as Logan/Wolverine to newcomer
Dafne Keen as Laura/X-23. Both are
fantastic, the experience is seen in Jackman, playing his iconic character as
embittered, weary, and almost dying, with a sense of anger and loss that clouds
his judgement, emotions, and thought process, with a moment where someone close
to him dies, he’s on the verge of tears, and he is so caught up in emotion that
he outright destroys the car he’s using.
The latter is also amazing, from her expressions, actions, stunts when
in berserker mode, and the fact that she’s playing this little girl who only
know strife and conflict for most of her life and is starting to learn to live
a normal life alongside her peers, who were also made to kill when they didn’t want
to. And the fact that she’s acting this
great alongside Jackman AND Patrick Stewart, who arguably has the most tragic
performance here due to how low Xavier has become, is nothing short of
triumphant. And the rest of the cast
here is great, with Boyd Holbrook as Pierce, a mercenary with a robotic hand,
Stephen Merchant as Caliban, who can sniff out mutants but cannot be out in the
sun, and Richard E. Grant as Dr. Rice being the right mix of despicable and
classy, with his desires to overcome and control mutants. And while the villains aren’t as strong as Magneto,
Mystique, or even Bolivar Trask, they get the job done extremely well and set
the stage for probably the greatest strength about this movie.
It’s violent. Really, really violent. And the opening fight scene, where punks are
messing with Logan’s limousine before he starts to turn them into corpses with
missing body parts and gushing blood and gore (blood in gore in a WOLVERINE
movie is a reason to check this out), despite receiving some damage that takes
a while to heal, proves that. It’s also
loaded with a lot of vulgar language, so if the s and f-words are offensive to
you and you don’t let your kids hear them, you may not want to let them see
this. All of this setting up a bleak,
hostile, and anyone-can-die scenario the characters live in, with a heightened
sense of realism to boot versus the other X-Men movies (despite having mutants,
cyborgs, and advanced genetic engineering existing in this universe). Hell, I’d compare this, despite the swearing
and blood, to The Dark Knight, as they both feel like high-quality action-drama
movies featuring nuanced acting, heavy themes, strong depth, and dark scenarios
that just happen to star and feature comic book characters and elements. And the violence and swearing don’t stop with
Logan, Laura cuts through adult men like butter, having a high kill count here,
and Charles tends to say “F*** off, Logan” at points. Also, the film is both critical of the more
optimistic view of the world that’s in comic books (with X-Men comics actually
existing in this timeline, which Logan dismisses throughout the film despite
having heroic qualities that shine at the end) and a great character study of a
comic book character with less-than-admirable qualities being past his prime,
living in a harsher environment, and losing the people he loved both before and
during his journey.
But to ensure strong
action, there’s a lot of fast-paced action in this movie. All of this including several showcases of Logan’s
and Laura’s mutant abilities (the ones that work) such as his claws and how
they can be used to stab people, make them lost limbs, and what would happen if
one got cut up multiple times and even a tense scene where Charles has a seizure
and causes immense pain for the mutants still alive and everyone else to stand
still completely in the movie, with the aftermath being feelings of paralysis
or death in the victims. And there’s
also a scene where the mutant kids get to show their powers and cause even more
mayhem and really cool shots and moments.
Plus the visual
effects are good, with some CG blood but the claws on both Logan and Laura are
extremely well done, looking as if they’re a part of them rather than CG
enhancements (like in several shots of that crappy X-Men Origins movie). That
also adds to the action, where the hits feel real, visceral, and outright
disturbing at points, with body parts flying off, decapitations, and several
other bloody moments. And the robotic
arm on Pierce wasn’t too bad.
But if there’s one
aspect that gives this movie teeth rather than the blood and swearing, it’s the
tone and the movie’s ability to pull your heartstrings. It’s all due to the setup: Logan is alone,
among the last of his kind, both as a mutant (maybe) and a member of the X-Men
(definitely). His only connection left
is Charles, and the once-powerful Professor X is now an old man who’s losing
it, from his seizures to his loss of grace and dignity (living in a collapsed
water tower at first, speaking nonsense at first, and swearing. And then this girl comes into Logan’s life,
turns out to be the equivalent to his daughter, and is now trying to help her
get to safety, away from a sinister corporation and its hired guns wanting her
to go down the path of her father before he became a hero. And during this trip, nothing seems to give
him hope, optimism, or a sense that things will go their way. Things get worse, a family that helped them
out after he helps them are wiped out by a new threat created by the villains, and
people die, including certain characters.
And it becomes depressing when you realize that you have grown up with
these characters, they have been around since the very beginning, and now we’re
seeing them in their final days. And
yes, I did tear up when certain moments, especially at the end after a fight
scene that was both awesome and brutal, and I when I think about it, I’m on the
verge of crying. It’s that sad, since
the connection to these characters, especially for most of you reading, as you’ll
consider the actors that have played these characters, and the versions of the
characters resulting from that, to be your definitive versions of them, is very
strong, even after you grow to love the new characters here. This is one heartbreaking movie, and the end
is probably a reason to bring a Kleenex box and a Haagen-Dazs carton to the
movies when you see it. If not, then
that’s your loss if you start seeing your fellow moviegoers bawling like a
teenage girl after she broke up with her boyfriend and you don’t know why.
And all of this makes
me question why James Mangold was underused as a director on his first go with Wolverine. Why?
Because this is one of his best efforts as a director I’ve seen (and
since it was just The Wolverine and
this flick, it’s that strong), and he’s probably a great director to handle an
R-rated character drama with bloody action.
The story is well told, with intense moments driven by what we know and
learn about the characters, the circumstances, and has moments where the movie
slows down and focuses on the characters themselves rather than delve into
high-school philosophy like a certain movie franchise that’s trying to compete
with Marvel and serve as the dark and gritty alternative when it’s mostly
joyless. This is how you do dark and
gritty: FOCUS ON THE CHARACTERS! The
Dark Knight may have speeches on philosophy and human understanding, but it was
used as a way of showing character rather than what the director and hack
writer thinks.
Sorry about the
DC-shredding tangent, I also feel that the movie is also well done. The music doesn’t have many amazing lines,
but Marco Beltrami doesn’t make it suck or disappear into the background. Also you’re never going to top this:
You just can’t, it’s
been proven because the music to these movies have been serviceable at
best. They just won’t hire composers
that’ll top this piece of superhero-music mastery. The editing is also great, the cinematography
adds to the raw power, and the sound work is fantastic, emphasizing every
single punch, kick, gunshot, slice, and kill.
In short, Logan is a
superhero classic that deserves to be seen by probably everyone. This has been confirmed to be the last ride
for Hugh Jackman as his iconic character and Patrick Stewart at Professor X,
and that’s a reason to see this. You’ll
get your last ride with these two iconic characters before Fox focuses all
their efforts on Deadpool and whatever version of the X-Men they have for the
next film. And this also feels like a
final story for the veteran characters as well, giving them a strong way to end
on. And the fact that for his final run,
we get probably the Wolverine movie we’ve been waiting for, bloody, violent,
vulgar, and brutal, and it’s going to be the one that will bring out our tears
makes it better for us as a fandom. And
I also have to give this film kudos for being its own thing in a Hollywood run
on creating cinematic universes in the wake of trying a staple of comic book
storytelling, interconnected continuity, on the big screen to success. It’s rare to have genre films do this in
these days. And finally, it’s definitely
a sign that Dafne Keen is bound to become a star. I give this movie my highest of
recommendations regardless of any nitpicks on the strength of the main
narrative alone.
Final Score: 10/10 (A
must see for Wolverine fans).
Until next time, this
is the Rock Otaku. Live Loud, Play Hard, and thanks for the action, Logan.
All used references
are done under the rules of fair use and are owned by their original
creators.
No comments:
Post a Comment