Logan (2017) Review

I’ve not done a review for over a week after going away for a few days I was going to review all of the Resident Evil series but after seeing Logan I had to review it. There’s many comic book films coming out and have come out in the last decade so does this one stack up? I was lucky I had just enough time to get it watched at the cinema so here are my thoughts.

Director: James Mangold

Writers: James Mangold (story by), Scott Frank (screenplay) | 2 more credits »

Stars: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen

Budget: $97,000,000 (estimated)

Run Time: 137 minutes

There’s a very famous and fantastic Wolverine arc called Old Man Logan set in the future it sees Wolverine head on a road trip with Hawkeye. When Logan was announced and people found out it’d be set in the future it was an automatic thought of many that it’d be a film version of Old Man Logan. This sprung several massive questions due to different studios holding the rights to different characters, how could Wolverine be on scene with Old Man Logan villain The Hulk? How could they replace Hawkeye?

Turns out none of that mattered as it’s a story set in the future that’s totally different to Old Man Logan. In this one set in the future but the world’s not at an end like the comic, we meet Logan being a loser and a drunk. There’s the usual people messing with the wrong person which shows us Logan kicking ass when someone tries to steal his car.

Logan’s only purpose in life it seems is to get drunk and to buy drugs for Professor X to keep his deteriorating mind from exploding and killing thousands of people. He does this with the help of Caliban, who can track mutants. There’s been no more mutants born and rather than them being the future it seems they are a blip instead.

Enter Laura a mutant just like Wolverine, she seeks protection and escorting along with her “Mother” across the border to Canada after escaping from a research lab. Logan takes the job but things go wrong and he ends up with Laura. Logan being Logan wants nothing to do with her but eventually Pro X makes him help her out.

They’re then confronted by the villain who wants her back Pierce, he’s a bit of a tosspot and we get to see just how crazy Laura can be when he tries to take her. After this the film becomes a bit of a road trip movie with a lot of violence thrown in as well as some humour to ease the tension of the story.

Everything leads to Wolverine becoming exactly the person Laura saw him being in the comics. The last half hour or so is off the charts for straight up brutal fighting with Laura and Wolverine spiking people in the face, head, neck, knees and everything it’s quite simply beautiful.

The Good

• The acting, Jackman and Stewart play their parts brilliantly and Pro X swearing never gets old!
• This film is perfectly written, the broken down old man once again becoming the hero is a storyline that’s been done before but never like this. It’s more like a western combined with a road movie. If it wasn’t comic book based it’d be considered for an Oscar.
• Laura AKA X-23, this is Dafne Keen’s first film and although her speaking is very limited her expressions, movement and everything is perfect for the character she’s playing.

• The fighting is epic, Deadpool started a trend for R-Rated comic films and when it comes to the fight scenes there’s only Watchmen that comes close to this. The brutality and blood is on another level and exactly how it should be.
• I loved the ending as well, everything felt right at the end of the film but I can’t say what it is without spoiling things.
• The scene that introduces what Laura really is is quite simple but also amazing.
• There’s a part of the film where Laura, Logan and Pro X meet up with a family and get to be normal. This is such a well worked and beautiful thing in amongst the violence although you always think it can’t last.
• Logan fights an enemy that I won’t reveal on here and twice these fights are probably the most brutal I’ve ever seen in any main stream film comic book or not.

The Bad

• There’s only one thing I can think of that I didn’t like and that was Pierce, sure he’s more of a glorified hencemen but I think they could have had someone better here.
• Does the fact this is most likely the last Wolverine film with Hugh Jackman in count as a bad point?

I’ve seen comic films that I’ve enjoyed more but not many, for me the only ones I enjoyed watching more or to the same level were Watchmen, Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool and Dredd. However none of those are as well written and played out as this one but they have other aspects that Logan doesn’t to bring them level. It has everything you could want violence, story, great characters, emotional scenes and it all ends exactly how it should do.

Overall Rating – 9.5/10