Review: Logan Is The Best There Is At What He Does...
- Mar 2, 2017
- 2 min read
...And what he does isn't very nice. Logan isn't just the best film in the X-Men franchise, it isn't just the best Marvel film, it isn't just the best superhero film, Logan is a modern classic, a film deeper than it first appears and one that will outlast all the others.
An ageing Logan (Hugh Jackman) tries to keep to himself, scraping together funds to buy a boat and travel the seas along with Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). But when young girl Laura (Dafne Keen) is suddenly thrust upon them, a vicious cycle of blood and violence begins, a cycle that can only end one way,
Hugh Jackman has been playing Wolverine for 17 years, as long as Patrick Stewart has been Professor X but never have either of them gotten to flex their acting chops within the genre films. Logan changes all of that. It's a smaller film, one tightly focused on characters and themes rather than the grandiose villains and colourful heroes of the past. And, for their final performances, they are magnificent. Each of them bring weight and meaning, building up the characters they have inhabited for so long and injecting the film with a human element the likes of which comic book movies haven't seen before. Dafne Keen, in her first cinematic role, is equally excellent, bringing her character across through a combination of silence and rage.
And rage has a part to play here. Wolverine isn't exactly a family friendly hero, to say the least, and 20cm adamantium claws tend to leave more than a little splatter. Every limb that can be removed, will be removed and it's spectacular, though I can't help but feel it's more than a little gratuitous. The action in Logan, much like the characters, isn't grand and sweeping, it's dark and harsh and bloody and has a toll on the players, both physically and mentally.
Logan is the best film of 2017, so far at least, and is a refreshing take on the genre. In a world where mature superhero movies involve a man dressed as a rodent fighting an evil clown, Logan is a much needed breath of fresh air, injecting some much needed humanity into an otherwise stagnant genre. Definitely check this one out.
Comments