08 Mar 2017 12:37:07
I watched 'Logan' last night and I thought I'd do an alternative review to the one from a few days ago.

The Logan trailer was hands down the best trailer I've seen in years, the soundtrack set the mood, the violence looked appropriate and the 'Wolverine becomes a father figure to a young girl' story is the only one worth telling. My anticipation couldn't have been higher. Sadly, as often happens when you over anticipate something, the film struggles to live up to it.

We'll start with what does work, Hugh Jackman portrays Wolverine as world weary, bitter and vulnerable, its a great antidote to the usual portrayal as an unstoppable killing machine. Patrick Stewart is also very good, he's angry that he's so helpless, he's got a deep remorse for a hinted at tragedy but he's still an idealist at heart, there is one sequence in particular, when he gets to use his powers for something positive again, that is very satisfying. Laura, the young girl who they take in, completes a triumvirate of top performances (she doesn't say much but you can see her character learning as she watches people). The fight scenes are also good, the 'R' rating allows us to see, for the first time, how a bezerker with knives sticking out of his hands would fight but it's here they make the first mistake, frankly they take it too far.

The director hasn't used the 'R' rating to deal with more adult themes, he's used is as a license to indulge in a murder fantasy. Logan tears through legions of meaningless henchman and each one is dispatched in the most graphic way possible, it's violence for the sake of it rather than serving the story and by the end of the film I was completely numb to the latest claw through the head. The approach to swearing is also juvenile, Patrick Stewart in particular seems to think it's hilarious that he's allowed to curse now and let's skim over the flashing scene which serves literally no purpose other than to get a pair of boobs into a superhero movie.

Whilst the three main actors do a great job the supporting cast suffer. Stephen Merchant is terrible as Caliban who, instead of a character, is just a (poorly executed) plot device. Richard E Grant is completely wasted as the mastermind behind the plot and the chief henchman does nothing all film.

I mentioned the story earlier. Wolverine is actually a very shallow character (there's not a lot you can do with 'angry immortal warrior') but over the years he's been most interesting as a surrogate father figure to young girls (think Rogue in the first film or Jubilee and Kitty Pryde in the comics). The heart of the film should be the growing relationship between Laura and Logan and in this area it gets a solid B, there are a number of subtle moments that hint at the changing nature of this relationship but the emotional climax at the end doesn't feel fully earned, we haven't spent enough time seeing the effect they have on each other.

Logan is certainly the best of the Wolverine films and it's probably better than all but the first two X-men films. If your expecting a superhero film for adults it's not that, it's still shallow and gratuitous but if you want to see Wolverine cut loose in the way you've always hoped he would then you'll get a kick out of this.

1.) 13 Mar 2017
13 Mar 2017 03:31:50
Did you really enjoy the first two X-Men movies? I am surprised at that! I am also surprised you think Wolverine is a shallow character, I would take it from that you have not read the comics? He has a lot more to offer than the films ever got into. In fact they cut out huge portions of his story and deliberately made him more shallow in his origin films. That was a mistake for me.

I am glad you agreed on Caliban, who was receiving rave reviews but I never understood that as he was ok like, but nothing special.

2.) 13 Mar 2017
13 Mar 2017 11:15:40
I watched logan over the weekend and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it, I loved the brutality and I thought the story was pretty decent. Loved the references to the comics and professor X was incredible!

agree with both of you on Caliban there was quite literally no point in him being in the film, the only think I didn't like was the "new generation" didn't really get much time to showcase anything that part seemed rushed.

{Ed001's Note - I enjoyed Logan as well. Best of the X-Men films by a mile.}

3.) 15 Mar 2017
15 Mar 2017 08:14:21
I rate the second x-men film as one of the best superhero films of all time (along with spiderman 2 and the dark Knight). I've always thought that wolverine was a good foil for other characters but was boring when he was the focus of the story. Basically I see him as cyclop's sidekick.

{Ed001's Note - the second X-men film? Really? It was dreadful! Mind so was Spidey 2.}