Logan review – a fitting and bittersweet end to a beloved character

‘A world weary Logan reluctantly helps a dying Charles Xavier to save a young girl being hunted.’

After seventeen years and nine films of playing the adamantium clad superhero, and arguably the most popular of all the X-Men, Hugh Jackman returns for the final Wolverine film Logan, and to the role that has defined his career for almost twenty years. Directed once again by James Magnold, the story is set in 2029, in a world where no new mutants have been born for decades and are almost extinct.

A depressed Wolverine, who’s healing powers aren’t what they once were and is starting to look his age. He’s living by the Mexico border making ends meet as a limousine driver, while also looking after an ailing Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). Things change when a mysterious eleven-year-old girl called Laura (Dafne Keen), with similar traits to Logan, drops into their lives. From then on, they soon find themselves on the run from evil company Transigen, headed up by Dr Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant), who will stop at nothing to recapture Laura.

After the terrible X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and the much improved but still flawed The Wolverine (2013), it is safe to say that Logan is the Wolverine film we’ve been waiting for. As a swansong, it is both a fitting and bittersweet send off to this beloved character. Hitting all the right beats to give us an entertaining, but also emotionally raw film. It’s unlike any other superhero film you’ve seen, and certainly doesn’t follow the traditional formula we’ve come to expect from our average comic book movie.

It’s a smaller and more thoughtful exploration into these characters, and in particular, a more in-depth and interesting look at Logan and Charles’ dynamic. A far more personal and grounded film, with no world-ending stakes, or big climatic battle with CGI armies and sky beams, which makes a refreshing change of pace for an X-Men movie. It’s essentially a story about a man struggling to go on living, and then slowly rediscovering some resemblance of purpose.

With this comes a far slower pace and sombre tone, with the general mood having more in common with last year’s Hell or High Water (2016) than any other superhero movie. It tackles more serious issues, and overall is a more mature approach to the Wolverine character, and therefore offers something fresh and original and nothing we’ve ever seen before in Logan: a deeper look into his long-lived and damaged psyche, which has always been glossed over in the other films, in expense of action and spectacle.

In that case, those expecting a more traditional X-Men film, won’t find it in Logan, but that’s not to say there aren’t some excellent and well executed action scenes, which are actually enhanced because of the more character based focus. Thanks to the likes of Deadpool (2016), which paved the way, Logan also offers our first R-rated Wolverine movie, with all the blood, dismembered limbs, and f-bombs you could hope for in a film about a rage-filled man with metal claws that come out of his hands.

This is how Wolverine was meant to be seen. He’s a dark and gritty character who’s experienced a hard life, numerous wars, and has been used as a lab rat. He’s a man who wouldn’t show any restraint, and we finally get that with this film, where we can see the true, consequences of his berserker rage, with him and his claws soaked in blood; it certainly gives the action scenes more grit and realism over some of the other softer films in the past, and offers a very visceral experience.

For Jackman, this is a character he’s been playing for nearly two decades, and even after all this time he’s still able to bring something fresh to the table, continuing to make him an engaging, compelling and layered character we can all care for. He clearly still loves and respects Wolverine, and at no time does it feel like he’s taking the role for granted or sleepwalking through his performance.

Even in the lesser films, he was always the best thing about them, and Logan is no different as he proves as committed as ever in portraying this popular character, and giving him a proper send off. Stewart also gives an excellent performance as the elderly Professor X, and the chemistry between him and Jackman is fantastic, where some of the best parts of the film are just them together talking. They portray this really authentic and believable friendship that is both strained and strong at the same time.

A world weary Logan reluctantly helps a dying Charles Xavier to save a young girl being hunted., and she comfortably holds her own alongside her more seasoned co-stars. She doesn’t talk much throughout the film but does a brilliant job of conveying a range of emotions with just her face and body language, and what potentially could have been one of the weaker elements of the film, turns out be one of its strengths. If there’s one flaw with the film it has to be the poorly fleshed out villains in the form of Richard E. Grant’s Zander and Boyd Holbrook’s Donald Pierce, who are good but obviously overshadowed by the screenplay’s focus on the protagonists

‘Logan is the solo Wolverine film we all wanted, and is an excellent yet bittersweet end to Jackman’s tenure as this beloved character.’

It’s original and different when compared to what’s come before in the world of X-Men, and for that it should be applauded. With great performances across the board, and engaging, character driven set pieces, we get to say a sad goodbye to Jackman’s Wolverine and see him finish on a high. I can’t imagine anyone else filling his shoes anytime soon but until then we can enjoy what will be one of his best films.’