Sold as Hugh Jackman’s final appearance as Wolverine, “Logan” is Twentieth Century Fox’s third try at a solo adventure for the Canadian hero. Unlike past installments, this movie does not play out like most superhero cinema, drawing more inspiration from Westerns than it does any comic book. The film is a self-contained story that does not promise any sequels or require the audience to see those that came before it.
In 2015, it was said that the movie “Logan” was to be a loose adaptation of Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s comic book miniseries “Old Man Logan.” But this James Mangold-directed movie is hardly like that comic book which many fans expected it to be, and it’s better because of it.
“Logan” ditches the apocalyptic setting of Millar and McNiven’s cynical and iconic book for a depiction of America in 2029, where mutants are as close to extinction as your neighborhood video store. The only things the two stories really share are a lack of Wolverine’s X-Men friends and an abundant supply of bloody violence; neither story should be seen by people who can’t handle the latter.
But if you can handle Hugh Jackman’s claws visibly penetrate through a skull and leave a trail of blood each time, this movie is an absolute must-see.
Wolverine, also known as Logan, is now old and full of scars, gray hairs and booze. His healing factor has begun to fail him, and it makes every encounter the character has much more suspenseful because he’s finally vulnerable. He spends his nights in the streets of Texas, begrudgingly carting around a smorgasbord of rowdy strangers like a mutant Uber driver, in order to pay for medicine and a yacht he wants to use to spend the rest of his days at sea.
The medicine is for his telepathic friend and former mentor of the X-Men, Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who is now suffering from a brain disorder that makes him lose control of his mutant powers. Xavier is locked in a Mexican smelting plant where he rambles like a madman and curses like a sailor. He calls this place home and shares it with Wolverine and the towering albino Caliban (Stephen Merchant), a mutant with the ability to sense and track other mutants.
The three passively live through routines that they all clearly despise but cannot escape, and the closest thing they have to friends are each other. But their isolated routine is broken when a Mexican nurse named Gabriela (Elizabeth Rodriguez) comes to Wolverine in desperate need of help. She needs Wolverine to escort her and a mysterious mute girl, Laura (Dafne Keen), to a supposed safe haven for mutants that is known only as Eden. The two are being chased by some very bad people who want Laura and will spare no one to get her.
“Logan” is a much more politically charged movie than any of the other modern superhero affairs that it shares source material with. Mangold crafts a film that is so clearly about immigration that to not see it, one would have to be blinder than Wolverine’s presumably deceased fellow X-Man Cyclops.
The plot revolves around someone from a marginalized group trying to cross a border in search of a safer life while hunted by the Reavers, a group of ruthless and mechanically enhanced hunters who happen to be xenophobic and white. Their leader is Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook), and he’s a big Wolverine fan. They work for Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant), a surgeon who created Laura and engineered the extinction of Earth’s mutants. Now, he’s after her for not becoming one of his soldiers.
Here, America is positioned as a country that exploits those who are considered “other” and gives them little but pain in return. Mangold does something different than similar narratives by not positioning America as the safe haven that our heroes are trying to get into, instead recognizing the truth of how many minorities in this country are treated. It’s this politically-influenced narrative that helps elevate “Logan” above other modern superhero movies. This is a clear response to the political climate of its time.
The villains are portrayed callously by their respective actors, but they suffer from the common problem of underdeveloped villains in superhero movies. You will hate these guys because of the things they do, but there isn’t much more to them than being robotic, Nazi-like killers who think they’re the good guys.
Sadly, Caliban is also underdeveloped. His biggest moment in the film isn’t anywhere near as satisfying as it should be. We don’t see enough of his struggle to be truly invested in him, and this moment doesn’t have any kind of payoff. His arc feels rushed and too depressing in comparison to the rest of the movie.
The movie’s R rating is not to be taken lightly. Where “Deadpool” felt like it was as eager as a twelve-year-old to show how cool it is to say “fuck” and as eager as Eli Roth to assault you with gore, “Logan” simply presents these things as a part of the world that the characters inhabit. It’s shocking because we aren’t used to seeing these characters like this, but this way of not emphasizing the fact that it can include violence and profanity makes the characters feel like they belong in this distinctly different tone.
Since the first “X-Men” film from 2000, both Xavier and Wolverine have been among the strongest and most enduring of the X-Men. Now they are alone, old, ill and practically begging for a death that will end their suffering. In showing them like this, the film creates sympathy for the protagonists that would be harder to have without the knowledge of their previous relationship and heroic adventures. It also helps that the consequence for failure is not once again the end of the world. Because it’s believable that our heroes may fail and die, we’re more invested in seeing them avoid that fate.
Jackman and Stewart both said this would be the last time we’d see them in these roles, and in that final effort they give their best. Stewart looks like he’s having the most fun he’s ever had now that he can drop an f-bomb, and Jackman really makes you feel every bit of rage and heartbreak that oozes from Wolverine. Not one of his screams of agony feels hammy or overdramatic. If I had any say in the matter, the Wolverine character would retire with them; because it’s very unlikely that we will ever see a better version of this character in a movie better than “Logan.”
But, the X-Men will continue beyond “Logan.” Its box office success guarantees it. In its 17 year existence, the franchise helped push Wolverine into the A-list of superheroes. It’s difficult to imagine a world where another Wolverine-centric film doesn’t play in multiplexes across the world, and if Twentieth Century Fox plans to pass the Wolverine mantle on to another character, they’ve got the perfect substitute in Laura. She’s as vicious as Jackman’s version and she grows more likeable in each interaction with Jackman. Newcomer Keen never feels out of place when sharing the screen with her experienced and accomplished co-stars, and she’s got the youth to carry this franchise for decades longer than Jackman did.