LOGAN : Official Reviews (Spoiler Alert)

[jo]

Nicholas Hoult‏
Verified account
 @nicholashoult 1h
1 hour ago

#Logan is an incredible film, so much heart, brilliant action and superb performances @realhughjackman absolutely smashed it had me in tears

[jo]

Most recent Top Critic review from Rotten Tomatoes, which fouses significantly on why this film is a seminal sendoff film for Hugh's Wolverine career!

Logan Is a Fitting Farewell to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine
The comic-book icon rides into the sunset in grim, R-rated fashion—and it works.


David Sims Mar 1, 2017 Culture
​The Atlantic Daily​


If superhero cinema, in all its brand-focused, cineplex-dominating, sequel-heavy glory, is the definitive genre of Hollywood’s last decade, then surely Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is its biggest icon. The surly, muscle-bound, metal-clawed hero has appeared in countless X-Men films and spinoffs since his debut in 2000; in that time, the comic-book movie has evolved from genre sideshow to a chief pillar of many a film studio’s economy. It might sound trite to call Jackman’s work as Wolverine seminal, but it’s certainly hard to imagine anyone else in the role—a fact that gives Logan, supposedly a sendoff for the character, real oomph.


It also helps that director James Mangold, who also directed Jackman in the previous Wolverine film (2013’s simply titled The Wolverine), secured an R-rating for Logan’s last hosanna, and he makes the most of it. This is a grimly violent movie, filled with vicious stabbings, frequent profanity, and a general sense of fatalism. It’s also quite good, selling itself as a Peckinpah-inspired Western about an old gunslinger riding out on one more doomed quest for glory. It would have been easy for Logan to retread the character’s greatest hits in another epic superhero battle, or to delight in the newly available levels of gore. It opts for something different, and it largely works, giving Jackman a worthy final chapter to hang his claws on.


The dirty little secret few critics dare mention is that Mangold’s last film, The Wolverine, was just as good as Logan, if not better. It somehow married a Fellini-esque journey through the hero’s tortured psyche with a samurai film, keeping its action intimate and character-oriented, and layering in an ensemble of female characters who actually had their own agency. But The Wolverine does undoubtedly go off the rails a little in its third act, which relied more on traditional big-budget superhero nonsense and a CGI monster. Mangold has learned his lesson on that front—Logan is mean, lean, and always keeps its camera close to the ground.


The film is set vaguely in the future, some years after super-powered mutants began to die out (including all of Logan’s pals in the X-Men). Mangold and his co-writers Scott Frank and Michael Green take pains to avoid placing the story in any timeline too specific. This is a possible future, nothing more, making Logan an X-Men story that doesn’t have to worry about what the other 15 cast members of the last movie are up to right now. Logan lives in the Arizona desert with his shifty pal Caliban (Stephen Merchant), a sardonic, chalk-skinned mutant who helps him tend to Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart, also giving a swan-song performance), the former leader of the X-Men, who’s slowly losing his mind.


Logan (he seems to have abandoned the Wolverine moniker for the most part) has also seen better days. The opening scene of the film sees him brutally fight off a gang of carjackers, but while his metal claws still work just fine, his healing powers are much diminished, now supplemented with handfuls of pain pills and healthy gulps of liquor. His final goal is to buy a boat and live out on the ocean with Xavier, but when a little girl named Laura (Dafne Keen) shows up on his doorstep, having escaped from some secret facility and sporting her own metal claws, that plan swiftly goes out the window.


If this is a Western, Logan is very reminiscent of broken-down antiheroes like Clint Eastwood’s William Munny in Unforgiven—a trained killer nursing decades of regret and sorrow, with enough juice for one last mission. Mangold proudly wears his influences on his sleeve; a pivotal scene sees Xavier and Laura watching a clip from George Stevens’s seminal 1953 film Shane, about another grim gunfighter with a mysterious past. Logan prefers hand-to-hand combat, of course, but aside from that he’s quite similar to Alan Ladd’s character in that film, a trained killer who fought for the good guys but didn’t consider himself one of them.


Mangold is an excellent director with a solid, unheralded resume (including the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line and the Sylvester Stallone neo-noir Cop Land). But Jackman and Stewart are, quite simply, why Logan works—they’re why the film doesn’t just feel like a cheap exercise in bloody violence, and why its subversion of typical superhero-movie tropes feels organic (unlike with the X-Men spinoff Deadpool). The actors bring warmth and grouchy humor to the story, barking at each other like the married couple they’ve become, as they go on a road trip north with their young ward in tow.


The story itself is a little all over the place—Logan and company ping-pong from location to location across the country, as the villainous Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook), a metal-armed bounty hunter, chases them in search of Laura. A long digression at the house of a friendly family of civilians feels a little forced; the film’s bloody climax, involving a sniveling scientist (played to the hilt by Richard E. Grant) and another mysterious enemy, slightly overstays its welcome. No matter—anytime things get too out of hand, Jackman and Stewart are there to tether them back to earth, and at no point does a cosmic portal appear in the sky, or a giant purple supervillain start a monologue about magical gems.


If this is Jackman’s final run at the role (comic-book characters do have a way of making surprise comebacks, so I’m wary), it’s a peculiar milestone worth noting—he’s our first superhero actor to officially age out of a role, a testament to the extreme longevity of some of these franchises. Will we get another Logan one day? Quite likely, no matter how foolish a proposition that might be; this is a world with a new Han Solo and a new John McClane, after all. All the more reason to salute Jackman as he rides out into the sunset; that’s Logan’s chief task, and it succeeds splendidly.

[jo]

Another review, filled with heartfelt appreciation of the themes and execution of the film!

Rated A-

www.themonitor.com/entertainment/article_8b14b986-050a-11e7-9f8d-0393147bdc78.html

MOVIE REVIEW: 'Logan,' final and best 'Wolverine' film for Hugh Jackman
BROOKE CORSO | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR 3 hrs ago (0)

While watching “Logan,” the image juxtaposed against all the desert dust and blood and crude isolation was the pristine, marbled pantheon of Marvel’s A-team at the end of 2012’s “The Avengers,” with its immaculate superheroes looking down on the world they are destined to protect. In James Mangold’s film, the follow up to 2013’s “The Wolverine,” its hero’s feet are firmly planted on the ground as his bitter Sisyphean fate finally disintegrates, as devoid of pomp and circumstance as showy elegiacs. In his final round as Wolverine, Jackman’s iconic portrayal ultimately shows the man coming around.

In the year 2029, close enough to be believable but far enough to scope the magnitude of the world’s mutants methodically hunted down or wiped out by genetically modified foodstuffs, there are but a handful left scattershot across North America, all trying to reach safety just beyond the Canadian border. Pursuing them are the Reavers, cyborg bounty hunters for the shadowy biotech corporation Transigen, who have been using mutant DNA to clone a potential race of supersoldiers. Inconveniently, the young creations rebelled against their intended purpose as weapons, and are thus considered useless by the corporation. One escaped child in particular, X-23 (an incredible Dafne Keen), was cloned from Logan’s DNA and is thus a premium target by Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook), the leader of the Reavers and a Wolverine fanboy.


Reminiscent of Mangold’s Johnny Cash-biopic “Walk the Line” (2005), Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” (2008), and Don Siegel’s “The Shootist” (1976), Logan dices up the titular character both literally and figuratively, exposing both the poison in his bones and the poison he consumes: both are steadily killing him either by internal rot or external self-destruction. Wolverine was a brash, cranky, aggressive loner before, but here his isolation is more immersive as he has been forced into hiding outside Juarez, Mexico, after the X-Men were destroyed, along with Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Caliban (Stephen Merchant). No weepy histrionics about the glory days for these men, each trapped in isolation by the foibles of his own body: their routine runs like an exhaustive clockwork revolving around the care of the former professor and guardian of the mutants, who is now shriveled and feeble due to the ravages of dementia. Caliban has become a loyal and attentive caregiver, worried about medicine and supplies, while Charles is locked away in an old silo for his own good — any lapse in pill intake could lead to terrible seizures which lock the surrounding environment in a painful vice grip. Merchant provides his trademark deadpan humor against such stark and miserable circumstances, but he also brings a surprising depth to his role as unsung devotee to a former colossus. Stewart is absolutely incredible as a man smothered by the weight of his past deeds, intended or not, and the guilt of his crimes against humans and mutants alike. He is lucid enough to know about his dementia, and though he longs for respite, even the tiniest bit of joy or peace is met with self-flagellation.


Logan earns money where he can as a limo driver, immersing himself in alcohol in between bachelorette parties, in order to pay for more medicine and put a bit aside for a boat he hopes to buy for him and Charles, an escape for both their own protection and peace of mind. We hear an AM radio broadcast in his car talking about the mutant problem alongside poisoned water and pollution; perhaps Logan just wants to float out to sea while Rome steadily burns like the Creature and Dr. Frankenstein in the Arctic: a Postmodern Prometheus and his creation.

Once X-23 comes into his life, demanding rather than begging for his help, suddenly he has a reason to look outside his own self-pity. To hold her own against such storied actors and their longtime portrayals of iconic characters is an amazing feat, and Dafne Keen is marvelous to behold, whether yelling at Jackman (easily three times her size) in a truck or ravaging Reavers in the scorching Mexico heat or Canadian wilderness.

I always thought Logan was the unrequited romantic of the Marvel universe, just skimming over the Hulk. Everything he cares about either dies or doesn’t return his love, so a child deeply depending on his assistance is quickly repulsed. He’s no good at being the hero, or guardian, or mentor. His dream of home and family has been a dream so long that he can not readily accept the slivers of such a reality, as with the girl (called Laura in place of her product label) or a kind family that offers their food and shelter for the night, dooming themselves to a fate by association. In the scenes with the Munsons (Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal, and Quincy Fouse), we see the love and pride that mutants desire so badly, and which the Essex and Transigen corporations want to destroy.


As Logan is slowly dying, Laura proves to be a conundrum as she represents the future but also a continuation of the identity he is desperately trying to end. He doesn’t want her to kill, as killing leaves a stain on the soul and repercussions long after the battle ends. Mangold’s story (scripted with Scott Frank and Michael Green) is as much about the deification of the superhero as the finality of hero worship by devotees both inside and outside the film (even the main villain confesses he is a big fan of Logan). Is it better to burn out or fade away in this universe in which little or no consequences come after the destruction of cities and the Watchmen enjoying the post-ironic crassness of celebrity culture? Logan rages against his caricature in X-Men comics that Laura hides in her backpack; most of it isn’t real, he tells her. Just “ice cream for bed wetters.” The leotards, the catchphrases, the pantheon …all ashes and dust at the end and the hero’s banquet is easily replaced by a shallow grave in a forest. Maybe that’s why he has fans on both sides of the moral spectrum: for all his rough, vulgar exterior, he has a heart that is torn out each day yet regenerates each night.

[jo]

And from one of the new reviews a t ROTTEN TOMATOES ( where LOGAN is fiercely holding on to its 92% rating aggregate - vs 79% for KONG and 72% for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, main coming competition) - a straightforward 5 of 5 rating!

Review: Logan
Posted by Ali Gray at 21:10 on 09 Mar 2017  Reviews A-Z


There only three things that are certain in life: death, taxes and the fact that someone is hard at work writing a sequel to the X-Men movie you're currently watching. Logan, the third Wolverine standalone movie after X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine, is the exception: it is the last in its series, because Hugh Jackman says so, and not just because they've run out of ways to name Wolverine movies. Buoyed by the success of 15-rated Deadpool and supported by Jackman's desire to leave a lasting legacy for his defining role, Logan is that rare superhero movie that feels like a full stop rather than a comma. Intentionally distanced from the rest of the X-Men universe and its frankly Gordian timelines, Logan stands alone as the best of the series: a bleak, bold and mold-breaking masterpiece of the genre.

Where does Logan fit in X-Men canon? James Mangold doesn't care and neither should you. All you need to know is that it's the future, almost everyone Wolverine ever loved is dead, and everything hurts like hell. Logan is holed up in an old oil refinery, working as a limo driver for horny teens, attempting to save enough money to escape with a decrepit Charles Xavier, now suffering from a degenerative brain disease and seizures capable of levelling a city block. With his healing powers fading and his adamantium bones slowly poisoning him, Logan is lumped with a surrogate child. Forced to go on a road trip, an exhausted and battle-scarred Logan must play the role of protector, even as his will to live slowly ebbs away. Welcome to parenthood, Bub.



Logan is a work of remarkable maturity, relatively speaking of course. Mangold has sand-blasted the X-Men aesthetic, leaving it raw and rusty: Logan's world is one where the apocalypse already happened and nobody noticed - border walls, secret police, mass extinction and genocide. The last X-Men movie had Olivia Munn wearing a swimsuit and swinging around purple energy swords; this movie has Stephen Merchant ironing Professor X's underpants. A deliberate attempt to age up the franchise, Logan asks big questions of its protagonist and drags him through the dirt until it gets its answers. Touchstones here are Westerns like Unforgiven and Shane, movies that never had to worry too much about sequels. The same way you could strip the costumes out of The Dark Knight and still have a brilliant cop movie, take the adamantium out of Logan and you're left with the bones of a compelling Western.


Jackman, unsurprisingly, is totemic in the role. Never forget that this anger-fuelled feral berserker is played by a man whose default mode is 'singing showtunes'. This is a very different Logan than we've seen before; angry in a different way, because he already knows he's playing a zero sum game - he's howling into the void. Kudos to Logan's hair and makeup team, because Wolverine's look - sun-damaged skin, limp, Forest Whitaker eye, hair kitchen-scissored into a Simon Cowell bog-brush - tells the story that Mangold's screenplay needs not specify: that the unkillable man is dying. And you feel his pain: by the movie's end, the film is practically coughing blood. Logan's exhaustion and the futility he feels with his own failing body are palpable - the entire third act is punctuated by blackouts - but Jackman sells every miserable second.



It's a straightforward road movie, a buddy movie of sorts even, but one packed full of grace notes: Xavier calmly taming wild horses loose on a highway; the look on the face of a particular character as he pulls a trigger; Wolverine, reduced to the stakes of a bum, taking a bullet to protect the deposit on his rented car. Patrick Stewart, meanwhile, provides a sage yin to Logan's raging yang, giving his most committed performance as Xavier at the seventh time of asking, bringing the kind of gravitas and pathos we assume he'll also be bringing to his next role as a turd in The Emoji Movie.

Let's not beat around the bush: important characters die in this movie, and that's absolutely a good thing. Wolverine more than anyone knows the value of a long lifespan (17 years running that superhero game) but it's all for nought if there is nothing at stake. Superheroes are routinely resurrected because box-office keeps their heart beating. A sense of finality is a rare thing indeed. Logan, and Jackman, know you can't secure a legacy by leaving a door open. If Fox had any sense, they'd let Logan be the adamantium bullet in the head of the X-Men series, because superhero movies don't get any better than this.

[jo]

Sometimes excellent reviews come from fresh eyes -- a college freshman from CORNELL shares his views on LOGAN for the school newspaper!

cornellsun.com/2017/03/12/logan-cuts-deep/

Logan Cuts Deep
By Zachary Lee

Ever since Bryan Singer’s first X-Men flick in 2000, the ubiquitous desire of hardcore comic book fans everywhere was for a solo Wolverine film, and for one that captured the character’s dark personality, brutal fighting style and vulgar lingo, which many felt could not be done within the confines of a PG-13 rating. Though previous efforts X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine were modest attempts, it was not until the critical and financial success of 2016’s licentious, violent and hedonic Deadpool that the groundwork was set for 20th Century Fox to acquiesce to that desire and grace cinema screens with the R-rated Logan. Although Logan is filled with enough f-bombs and dismembered limbs to satiate even the most ravenous of Quentin Tarantino fans, contrary to popular belief, these aspects are not the sole points of the film’s strengths. To say that Logan is a great Wolverine film purely because of its R-rating would do it a disservice. As superhero films become much more focused on creating cohesive cinematic worlds instead of stand-alone stories, Logan succeeds through its simplistic, emotional and character-driven narrative (carried by the raw talent of its brilliant cast) and serves as a rousing and faithful conclusion to a character whom Hugh Jackman has played for 17 years.
 
In contrast to the brighter palette of previous X-Men films, the world of Logan is bleak, barren, and grim. The film starts in the year 2029, where no new mutants have been born for the past 25 years. The X-men are solely survived by an elderly and decrepit Professor X/Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) who suffers from a neurodegenerative disease that makes him lose control of his telepathic powers, and a grizzled and bitter Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) who is slowly dying due to his reduced healing factor and adamantium skeleton which is slowly poisoning him. Logan spends his days as a limo driver, saving his earnings to buy medication to mitigate Professor X’s dangerous seizures. One day however, Gabriella, a nurse who works for the Transigen Corporation, visits Logan, bringing with her a girl named Laura (Dafne Keen). Gabriella begs Logan to help her and Laura escape from the Reavers, Transigen’s cybernetically-enhanced elite soldiers, while also revealing that Laura was experimented upon by Transigen and shares the same mutant DNA as him.  The film then steps into high gear as Logan, Professor X, and Laura embark on a road trip towards “Eden,” a safe haven for the last of mutant kind, while trying to avoid being attacked by Pierce and the rest of Transigen.


Individuals looking for a reason why Logan is so dark and austere in comparison to the happy ending of X-Men: Days of Future Past will not find an explanation, though director James Mangold subtly drops hints through old radio recordings and brief bits of dialogue. The fact that Logan asks more questions than it gives answers may be frustrating for some, but Mangold chooses to focus on fleshing out the personalities and character traits of the main characters, deliberately making the backstory of the plot a secondary concern. It works to great effect; having grown up with these characters since 2000, it is heartbreaking to see their current dismal state. Mangold pushes the characters to the limit, making them twisted and mangled alterations of their old selves. Professor X is merely a shell of the great mentor and visionary that he once was, and his altruism and tenderness have been replaced with selfishness and astringence. His ramblings, once thought of as revered teachings by his students, are now merely seen as the inane diatribes of an old man. He retains his signature optimism, but even that is viewed as wishful thinking. Although Logan himself is no stranger to affliction, he is as cynical as ever, and is largely a weary creature of habit. Gone are his witty wisecracks and avant-garde leadership skills; he is a lone wolf who self-medicates with booze and cigars. The two are aided by another mutant Caliban (Stephen Merchant) but even he is somber and despondent.
 

Fittingly, in contrast to these characters who have been bogged down by life’s hardships, Laura/X-23 injects a dark, youthful exuberance. Actress Dafne Keen is not given many lines in the film, but she nonetheless proves that actions speak louder than words. She communicates Laura’s ferocity and independence through her guttural shrieks and stoic demeanor, but also retains a childlike curiosity towards the hostile environment around her. It is through Laura’s eyes that we see how broken the world is, yet we are also given hope that mutant kind may thrive once again. Due to Mangold’s conscious focus on Logan, Professor X and Laura, unfortunately, the villains are underdeveloped. The primary antagonist Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant) is given too little screen time, with not enough groundwork set to establish him as a truly threatening antagonist. Donald Pierce is the only member of the Reavers who is given any sort of character development and Boyd Holbrook does the best with what he is given, but at the end of the day, the character comes off as yet another glorified, snide and mordant henchman.
 
Although Mangold chooses to focus mainly on the characters, the pace of the narrative does not suffer as a result. Logan moves at breakneck speed, taking the protagonists from Mexico to Oklahoma City to North Dakota. But brief moments of levity and introspection help rein back the pace. It is refreshing to see the characters interact with one another throughout the duration of their extended road trip, whether it is Professor X scolding Logan or Laura remaining laconic to Logan’s probing questions. Likewise, Mangold layers and weaves social commentary throughout the film, akining mutants to “immigrants” and stressing the fact that America should not reject them but accept them. Respectively, Mangold achieves tonal consistency by channeling the spirit of Western movies, especially in the film’s first act, with the backdrop being set in the acrid and arenaceous Mexico.  Camera angles on Logan’s lethargic movements, hands hanging to the side of him, against the fading sunset, almost painting him as a cowboy (but with claws instead of revolvers).
 
Indeed, when it comes to Logan’s action sequences, Mangold pulls no punches and shows no restraint as he uses the R-rating to full effect. After being teased with a brief sequence in X-Men: Apocalypse, viewers finally see Logan go into full berserker mode on multiple occasions. Hugh Jackman transforms the character into a snarling, unstoppable beast who bludgeons, slashes and hacks his assailants without mercy, with even the most heavily armored and armed soldiers not standing a chance against his adamantium claws. Mangold histrionically focuses on Logan’s frenzied onslaughts, ensuring that fans can gorge themselves on the on-screen carnage with almost vampire-like glee. Impalement, decapitation and skewering are all used with equal measure, always with gory and bloody after effects. Logan himself suffers as well, with gunshots and blade wounds often marring his decaying form. In contrast to Logan’s brawler fight style, Laura is much more agile. She leaps and somersaults through the air with her own claws outstretched, often mowing down many more assailants than Logan himself.
 
Later in the film, Laura pulls out old X-Men comics from her backpack, which Logan berates as mere romanticized accounts of the team’s endeavors, stating “maybe a quarter of it happened, but not like this.” To this, Professor X soberingly replies that Laura “does not need to be reminded of life’s irreverence.” At first Logan is taken aback because he realizes that he has let life’s adversities shape him into a calloused and pessimistic individual. Both he and Professor X realize that though it may be too late to change themselves, hope lies in Laura. It is a heartbreaking and bittersweet revelation, but one that Logan fights for. He does want Laura to be like him; he wants her to be different. As he tells her to overcome her tragic upbringing, Logan is almost speaking to the audience, reminding viewers that they are not a slave to their circumstances or history; there is always an opportunity to start anew and fight for what is right. This compelling message transforms Logan into a timeless, thoughtful and genre-defying epic, and proves that adamantium claws alone are not enough to tell a story that cuts deep.
 
Zachary Lee is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at [e-mail]

[hughmanity]

Another college mention via Jo.  This time my alma mater...always knew its students had good viewpoints! 

Mar 12, 2017 23:18:28 GMT -5 jo said:

Sometimes excellent reviews come from fresh eyes -- a college freshman from CORNELL shares his views on LOGAN for the school newspaper!

cornellsun.com/2017/03/12/logan-cuts-deep/

Logan Cuts Deep
By Zachary Lee

Ever since Bryan Singer’s first X-Men flick in 2000, the ubiquitous desire of hardcore comic book fans everywhere was for a solo Wolverine film, and for one that captured the character’s dark personality, brutal fighting style and vulgar lingo, which many felt could not be done within the confines of a PG-13 rating. Though previous efforts X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine were modest attempts, it was not until the critical and financial success of 2016’s licentious, violent and hedonic Deadpool that the groundwork was set for 20th Century Fox to acquiesce to that desire and grace cinema screens with the R-rated Logan. Although Logan is filled with enough f-bombs and dismembered limbs to satiate even the most ravenous of Quentin Tarantino fans, contrary to popular belief, these aspects are not the sole points of the film’s strengths. To say that Logan is a great Wolverine film purely because of its R-rating would do it a disservice. As superhero films become much more focused on creating cohesive cinematic worlds instead of stand-alone stories, Logan succeeds through its simplistic, emotional and character-driven narrative (carried by the raw talent of its brilliant cast) and serves as a rousing and faithful conclusion to a character whom Hugh Jackman has played for 17 years.
 
In contrast to the brighter palette of previous X-Men films, the world of Logan is bleak, barren, and grim. The film starts in the year 2029, where no new mutants have been born for the past 25 years. The X-men are solely survived by an elderly and decrepit Professor X/Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) who suffers from a neurodegenerative disease that makes him lose control of his telepathic powers, and a grizzled and bitter Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) who is slowly dying due to his reduced healing factor and adamantium skeleton which is slowly poisoning him. Logan spends his days as a limo driver, saving his earnings to buy medication to mitigate Professor X’s dangerous seizures. One day however, Gabriella, a nurse who works for the Transigen Corporation, visits Logan, bringing with her a girl named Laura (Dafne Keen). Gabriella begs Logan to help her and Laura escape from the Reavers, Transigen’s cybernetically-enhanced elite soldiers, while also revealing that Laura was experimented upon by Transigen and shares the same mutant DNA as him.  The film then steps into high gear as Logan, Professor X, and Laura embark on a road trip towards “Eden,” a safe haven for the last of mutant kind, while trying to avoid being attacked by Pierce and the rest of Transigen.


Individuals looking for a reason why Logan is so dark and austere in comparison to the happy ending of X-Men: Days of Future Past will not find an explanation, though director James Mangold subtly drops hints through old radio recordings and brief bits of dialogue. The fact that Logan asks more questions than it gives answers may be frustrating for some, but Mangold chooses to focus on fleshing out the personalities and character traits of the main characters, deliberately making the backstory of the plot a secondary concern. It works to great effect; having grown up with these characters since 2000, it is heartbreaking to see their current dismal state. Mangold pushes the characters to the limit, making them twisted and mangled alterations of their old selves. Professor X is merely a shell of the great mentor and visionary that he once was, and his altruism and tenderness have been replaced with selfishness and astringence. His ramblings, once thought of as revered teachings by his students, are now merely seen as the inane diatribes of an old man. He retains his signature optimism, but even that is viewed as wishful thinking. Although Logan himself is no stranger to affliction, he is as cynical as ever, and is largely a weary creature of habit. Gone are his witty wisecracks and avant-garde leadership skills; he is a lone wolf who self-medicates with booze and cigars. The two are aided by another mutant Caliban (Stephen Merchant) but even he is somber and despondent.
 

Fittingly, in contrast to these characters who have been bogged down by life’s hardships, Laura/X-23 injects a dark, youthful exuberance. Actress Dafne Keen is not given many lines in the film, but she nonetheless proves that actions speak louder than words. She communicates Laura’s ferocity and independence through her guttural shrieks and stoic demeanor, but also retains a childlike curiosity towards the hostile environment around her. It is through Laura’s eyes that we see how broken the world is, yet we are also given hope that mutant kind may thrive once again. Due to Mangold’s conscious focus on Logan, Professor X and Laura, unfortunately, the villains are underdeveloped. The primary antagonist Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant) is given too little screen time, with not enough groundwork set to establish him as a truly threatening antagonist. Donald Pierce is the only member of the Reavers who is given any sort of character development and Boyd Holbrook does the best with what he is given, but at the end of the day, the character comes off as yet another glorified, snide and mordant henchman.
 
Although Mangold chooses to focus mainly on the characters, the pace of the narrative does not suffer as a result. Logan moves at breakneck speed, taking the protagonists from Mexico to Oklahoma City to North Dakota. But brief moments of levity and introspection help rein back the pace. It is refreshing to see the characters interact with one another throughout the duration of their extended road trip, whether it is Professor X scolding Logan or Laura remaining laconic to Logan’s probing questions. Likewise, Mangold layers and weaves social commentary throughout the film, akining mutants to “immigrants” and stressing the fact that America should not reject them but accept them. Respectively, Mangold achieves tonal consistency by channeling the spirit of Western movies, especially in the film’s first act, with the backdrop being set in the acrid and arenaceous Mexico.  Camera angles on Logan’s lethargic movements, hands hanging to the side of him, against the fading sunset, almost painting him as a cowboy (but with claws instead of revolvers).
 
Indeed, when it comes to Logan’s action sequences, Mangold pulls no punches and shows no restraint as he uses the R-rating to full effect. After being teased with a brief sequence in X-Men: Apocalypse, viewers finally see Logan go into full berserker mode on multiple occasions. Hugh Jackman transforms the character into a snarling, unstoppable beast who bludgeons, slashes and hacks his assailants without mercy, with even the most heavily armored and armed soldiers not standing a chance against his adamantium claws. Mangold histrionically focuses on Logan’s frenzied onslaughts, ensuring that fans can gorge themselves on the on-screen carnage with almost vampire-like glee. Impalement, decapitation and skewering are all used with equal measure, always with gory and bloody after effects. Logan himself suffers as well, with gunshots and blade wounds often marring his decaying form. In contrast to Logan’s brawler fight style, Laura is much more agile. She leaps and somersaults through the air with her own claws outstretched, often mowing down many more assailants than Logan himself.
 
Later in the film, Laura pulls out old X-Men comics from her backpack, which Logan berates as mere romanticized accounts of the team’s endeavors, stating “maybe a quarter of it happened, but not like this.” To this, Professor X soberingly replies that Laura “does not need to be reminded of life’s irreverence.” At first Logan is taken aback because he realizes that he has let life’s adversities shape him into a calloused and pessimistic individual. Both he and Professor X realize that though it may be too late to change themselves, hope lies in Laura. It is a heartbreaking and bittersweet revelation, but one that Logan fights for. He does want Laura to be like him; he wants her to be different. As he tells her to overcome her tragic upbringing, Logan is almost speaking to the audience, reminding viewers that they are not a slave to their circumstances or history; there is always an opportunity to start anew and fight for what is right. This compelling message transforms Logan into a timeless, thoughtful and genre-defying epic, and proves that adamantium claws alone are not enough to tell a story that cuts deep.
 
Zachary Lee is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at [e-mail]

[jo]

From another Days of Future Past alumnus --

comicbook.com/marvel/2017/03/13/james-mcavoy-reveals-thoughts-logan-professor-xavier/


LOL - McAvoy's Prof Xavier probably didn't like how his end-story will look like in the future!

[jo]

And from Lefou of the onrushing BEAUTY AND THE BEAST --

Josh Gad‏
Verified account
 @joshgad 22h
22 hours ago

I'm so late to this party but #Logan is astonishing. Congrats to @mang0ld @realhughjackman @stephenmerchant & everyone involved on this gem

I did see Josh as part of the original cast of BOOK OF MORMON! So, he is both a film and a theatre colleague of Hugh!

Jo

[jo]

And from SHOWMAN colleague --

Zac Efron‏
Verified account
 
@zacefron
Follow

Zac Efron Retweeted Hugh Jackman

6 Claws up for @wolverinemovie - the pain- the rage- the love- the battle of eternal life-
Zac Efron

[jo]

Slate.com covers various cultural subjects that are worthy talking-points.

In this culture gabfest ( movies and other subjects of interest) -- there is an 18-minute discussion of LOGAN.

www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/culturegabfest/2017/03/culture_gabfest_on_logan_50_song_memoir_and_the_perils_of_privilege.html

On this week’s Slate Culture Gabfest, the critics discuss Logan, the latest and presumably last movie of the Wolverine series, starring Hugh Jackman as the brooding titular hero. Critics love it, but does it transcend the superhero genre or remains tethered to it?... Next, Slate music critic Carl Wilson joins the conversation to chat about the new Magnetic Fields album 50 Song Memoir and makes the case for why the long, multi-disc anthology is songwriter Stephin Merritt’s best medium. Finally, the gabbers talk about a new essay in the New Republic about “the perils of privilege.” They discuss the meaning of privilege, how the discourse corresponds to the rise of inequality in America, and whether recent accusations of privilege have gotten out of hand.

[jo]

The very long road to becoming a Wolverine fan ( the Hugh Jackman interpretation)!

www.tvovermind.com/movies/logan-hugh-jackman-goes-top

[jo]

Another campus paper gives it high marks ( Actually A+ )

trnonline.org/2017/03/17/franks-takes-on-james-mangolds-logan/

This is the generation which probably fully understands the appeal of Wolverine in the film medium ( and may have strong familiarity with the comicbook depiction), so the review must be both head-oriented and heartfelt!

[jilljack7]

nice movie and it's a full package of action and drama.
for more on upcoming movies get updates at link (which has nothing to do with Logan) removed by ADMIN

If you are genuinely interested in Hugh Jackman, or any other topic here - Welcome.

Be advised you are listed with a warning on numerous "anti-spam" resources.
Advertising, SPAM, etc. are not allowed here. This board is monitored daily.

Your link has been deleted.

I hope you are here for all the right reasons.

ADMIN/GLOBAL MODERATOR

[jilljack7]

logan is full of action for more at link (which has nothing to do with Logan) removed by ADMIN

If you are genuinely interested in Hugh Jackman, or any other topic here - Welcome.

Be advised you are listed with a warning on numerous "anti-spam" resources.
Advertising, SPAM, etc. are not allowed here. This board is monitored daily.

Your link has been deleted.

I hope you are here for all the right reasons.

ADMIN/GLOBAL MODERATOR

[jo]

MUST READ!!


An editorial from comicbookmovie.com on why LOGAN is the best film in the genre, viewed from a filmmaking perspective!

www.comicbookmovie.com/x-men/logan/editorial-his-time-has-come-logan-as-the-crowning-achievement-of-superhero-cinema-a149718

EDITORIAL: His Time Has Come - LOGAN As The Crowning Achievement Of Superhero Cinema

The ultimate proof that the beloved genre finally grew up, that it can be something "more" is here, but what exactly makes LOGAN the best comic book film of all time? SPOILERS AHEAD!

BaltazarOS | 3/18/2017



"Just because someone stumbles, loses their way, doesn’t mean they’re lost forever”.

I believe that the above quotation reflects not only Xavier’s relentless faith in humanity, but also the culmination of Wolverine’s solo outings on the big screen. The conception (or its lack) of Gavin Hood in 2009 should be forgotten by every wise men and the James Mangold’s  first approach to the series left the audience with rather ambivalent feelings. LOGAN has been prepared for a long time – the end of Logan’s story has debuted only a couple of weeks ago. Between 2009 and 2017 the superhero genre changed a lot – a bunch of a-holes conquered the cinemas, Suicide Squad is an Academy Award winner, the not-so-Amazing Spider-Man franchise spectacularly imploded and Deadpool with his satire seemed to be a cure for all the problems and inadequacies of the so called comic book movies which, in the eyes of geeks, played in its own field and majority of criticisms crushed on the arguments that “it’s for fans”, that the covenant requests it.

Since Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight no one has made an outstanding comic-book movie which on its own is just an outstanding movie. That’s when Mangold suddenly strikes the second time – ferociously, vigorously, but also strangely melancholically and tenderly, leading off the shabby genre onto the new, uncharted tracks. LOGAN is the best comic-book film in history and a noteworthy achievement in movie making in general.



It is necessary to start distinguishing two well-known show business definitions: of a movie and film. Both terms are similar, but fundamentally different. One is a production purely entertaining and the other sets broadly defined artistry above pleasing the viewers. Like every definition, both have exceptions, but they perfectly suit the discussed film. LOGAN, is one of the few productions from the genre that seems to naturally levitate to the film term just like Mangold's previous work. The film can be easily qualified as a western with only elements of comic-book movie. Unlike 95% of the comic-book movies which are a comic book adaptation first and secondly, or even thirdly, a genre movie, like The Winter Soldier. The Roots of a western are present throughout almost every frame of LOGAN – from the bar scenes, to the classical horse taming.

On the other hand, the film can be easily colligated with a drama, as a story of dysfunctional family and an attempt of living moral life in unmoral times. Just a third threshold of interpretation is reserved for a comic-book movie, relating adventure of Wolverine, Professor X (it’s telling that almost every one addresses to him with his real name and not the school nickname) and X-23. The end of Logan’s story, besides its emotional baggage of the years spent with Hugh Jackman doesn’t manipulate the viewers in an oafish way. Here, death is a starting point for the plot, an integral part of the story. It’s not a pretext to unite heroes, nor to triumphantly bring them from the other site and save the day. When Xavier, Caliban, the Mason’s entire family and finally Logan, die - it’s definitive and brutally permanent. Mangold knows full well how important it is to ignite the feeling that the viewers see on the movie screen have real consequences. That’s why when the last frame of the film fades to black and from the loudspeakers play Johnny Cash’s The Man Comes Around, it’s hard to hide emotions. Only the best productions are able to engage a viewer so much that he feels the weight of the story, that what has happened will never happen again, that it was also his emotional, personal journey.



Individual ingredients that differ LOGAN from the rest of the genre’s representatives is much more, from the structural to technical issues. It’s telltale on how many ways the Jackman goodbye avoids the traps of other films.

The first one is a fact that comic-booky aureole helps the script, instead of rivaling it. LOGAN loosely adapts the story written by Mark Miller, only borrowing an idea as a reflection for a greater good of the film’s script. OLD MAN LOGAN is written in LOGAN’s DNA, it’s almost impossible to separate these two stories. At the same time, the film stays untrammeled with the direction, contrary to last year’s supposed epic battle of Son Of Krypton and Bat Of Gotham where the source material’s legacy hindered the film maker who was more invested in the fight of The Trinity with Luthor’s creation than the titular Batman v. Superman. On the other side, Age Of Ultron spent a lot of its running time on explaining why the story’s figures are where they currently are and foreshadowing the future that may happen, watering the core of the script down.

On the contrary, Mangold’s film is avoiding introducing characters that may play a role in the future. LOGAN is focused on telling a coherent, finished story. Some of the heroes may show up in the upcoming movies, but their presentation serves a purpose within LOGAN, it’s about now, not future. It’s an art that’s totally messed up at DC (PowerPoint presentation of The Justice League) and bended at Marvel Studios (Thor’s vision). The film spurs a beautiful framing device when Laura shuffles the jerry-built, wooden cross into an X. James’ tomb symbolically shows that this is a place where all unknown mutants repose and that every, even the longest journey comes to an end.


While I’ve started on religion – did you notice that Zack Snyder’s Superman is Christ 2.0? Shooting lasers from his eyes. Being concerned when a bearded man smacks waitress’ butt, but not when he’s using his power and destroys the buildings full of people. I’m sure you didn’t miss the moment when in doubt Clark talks with a priest in a church and the sunlight comes from the Jesus’ face on the stained glass window which occupy the whole background. It’s hard to pass this subtle detail up. And did anyone notice that during the dinner at Mason’s house, there’s a small cross standing behind the main hero? No? A beautiful thing is the fact that the film can be interpret on many layers, even to be content with the literal interpretation. But climbing on the philosophical-religious layer LOGAN shows his true colors. The Howlett’s journey changes into constant temptation to stop, turn back, stay in the bar and drown his sorrows, reject this testing time. His wounds are healing (to some degree) fast on his body, just like stigmas, Logan similar to Christ dies hanged on a tree. Xavier, the daemon of the venture, till the very end preaches the good news of a new, better world, of Eden. Caliban, as a good thief has to suffer due to his sins in the past; albino, just like leper is marginalized. The film can be interpret in another way, discerning the fate weighing heavily on Logan and his friends.

He seems to be doomed from the beginning, in every version of the world which he also created, his loved ones die. Because of his measure, fault or helplessness. Even the bright vision of the future ends up in a tragic way when Xavier during his uncontrolled attack kills his students. Laura, innocent child, from an early age is taught to listen to her animal instincts and her first victim was her mother. Wolverine tried to fix and save the future, but maybe it’s time to give up if the future succumbs to the universal laws of the predestination anyways? The adamantium bullet he’s saving for a rainy day is also a reminder of the events that passed, of the old man’s life experience which may be too heavy for even the strongest, person. Of course all these philosophical divagations can be thrown away, there’s no need to give LOGAN any meaning – the film still has logical sense.



Coming back to the issue of the film’s Eden – it is, but it’s not at the same time. Exactly like comics, where the cue to discover it can be found. In the comics it is a space beyond time, the place not existing, pure escapism. The director presenting the specifically created for the needs of the film comics affords this little digression. He’s trying to form a polemic with many voices that the fans requests an extreme precision in re-creating the comic-book panels, reminding us, that the heroes are not walking costumes, and thinking that Wolverine without his blue-yellow suit in not Wolverine is disrespectful to the core of the character. This w-olverine request the audience to pay attention to this subject, because it shows yet another matter that distinguishes LOGAN from the rest of the comic family. It shows a tone shift, a constant feel of the story. Here diseases and limitations are not swept under the rug as sad things, but they hold a prominent position, hunting the true-born people.

Charles, Caliban, Logan – every and each one of them has limits, none of them can survive on their own, as a desert island. The Reavers try to combine biology with technology, to have something more from the simple 1+1 calculation, Alzheimer and epilepsy overtake the most powerful brain on the planet. But these are not problems that once established fade into darkness, it’s just the opposite! The disease puts the characters into uncomfortable positions. Logan tries to earn enough money to buy drugs for Xavier, asking a question if there’s any good left inside of him. But isn’t that the case in the real world? Aren’t we helpless when a tragedy hits us or our loved once? Or maybe it mobilizes us to search, to do something good? This is just a one of the many examples of LOGAN’s subtle themes, it’s reflection of the real world. In the near future the rigorous law is the rigorous injustice and the new wave of racism and xenophobia that shreds the U.S. to pieces. A yacht and high sea is an idyll and Canada becomes the promised land.


The next sin LOGAN avoids is arguably one of the most common gripes in the genre – the genuine fixation on the moment. There’s an important difference between the moment and “the scene”, but it’s rather hard to catch. In the moment only one shot, sometimes few frames are important, they lead (sometimes through many smaller moments) to the big culmination – Snyder’s Watchmen is the best example of a movie with insane visuals making a great impression in the trailers, or even single clips, but the entire movie hobbles as a finished, 2 hour + long product. The above mentioned Age Of Ultron for all of its bigger than life noise managed to save one single scene on the Barton’s farm which serves as not only a minute of breath from the constant bombarding of the viewers, but also a great occasion to develop complex relations within the Avengers. Sadly, even this movie asked Thor to have a pointless bath in the ground waters.



In contrast, LOGAN has a lot of important scenes and the director lets them resonate with the audience. There’s a scene on a farm as well, but Mangold gave it almost an entire II act of the film – this is the place where Logan and Laura learn what a life looks like, this is the place where Charles will have the best day he didn’t deserve in a long time and this is the place where he dies. There’s a simple message in these farm scenes – a family is everyone’s ground and a more subtle one – this is a place where everyone can be what they really are and a lesson that every moment counts.

Within its thoughtful structure, the film lets itself leave purposeful understatements. We’re not 100% sure if Charles really killed his student or if Laura killed her mother when she was born, but LOGAN gives us enough hints to think so – from the dialogues or the bloody chair which fits more in the Nostormo’s furniture rather than hospital equipment. In an age where modern filmmaking treat everything literally it’s a nice and satisfying change of pace.


The rather obvious is the fact that from PG-13 movies LOGAN differs with its intensity of presented on screen violence. But this brutality is justified – the way the characters die, swear, even that they bleed realistically make a sad situation even worse. There’s something primal and exciting in watching how claws pierce flesh and leave a trail of blood behind. The Adultness of LOGAN shows as well in the portrait of the main character – it lets him show the dark side. He screams and hurts the little girl, argues with the old man, but he’s doing that because he’s weak and tired. Of course, Doctor Strange screams at people as well, throws laptops away and hurt the only person who tries to help him, but it’s just in one scene and then Stephen is fully morally rehabilitated. Since we’re talking about the MCU, the well-known problem of this universe is the abused, quite simple humor, which sometimes serves as a loophole to run from the real problems. There’s no space for slapstick in LOGAN, the humor never cuts the tragedy aspects. 

When James destroys the car with a spade, he’s doing that shortly after entombing Charles. His action is not played only for laughs (although a moment of rest is surely necessary), but because he has failed – he knows already that there will be no boat, that Xavier will never see the broad sea again which he rests next to. He’s angry. When he destroys the car he used to fetch Professor X’s dead body, there’s no time for happy music (by the way – chapeau bas for the composer, Marco Beltrami), camera is not dancing happily. After the attack of fury, he and Laura get in yet another car and drive away. Even the fact that X-23 speaks Spanish knowing that Logan doesn’t know this language during most of the film spotlights her reluctance to communicate with her father, their inability to find common ground, that besides the genes, they are seemingly alien to each other. And, last but not least, there’s one more thing the majority probably won’t notice – most of the film’s scenes were shot in outdoor locations. Why is that important? The reason is simple – in a real forest, car, even house – it’s easy to find flaws, but it's also realistic, so distant from the generated in computers reality. For avoiding the greenscreen like fire, Mangold deserves a huge applause.


LOGAN is a masterpiece. Rejects the old rules of the genre and airs out the stale cinema halls. And he does it with a lot of class. Maybe none of the actors will receive a nomination for prestige film awards, but it doesn’t matter. Not a single person is pulling punches– especially Patrick Stewart who’s shining as Xavier like never before and Hugh Jackman saying goodbye to the role which made him a huge star he is now, making it his best role in his not so short career. But it’s not a film of one or two actors, everyone is important here, there’s a logic behind everyone’s actions. Even the bad guys have a clear motivation, they just take care of themselves and try to survive in a race for supremacy against the mutants. Debuting Dafne Keen, just like Jackman 17 years ago in the first X-Men, who sprints past awful and painful to watch child’s acting proves she's a fully-fledged member of the film crew. I won’t say a thing about LOGAN’s unobjectionable technical site, but some of the shots in the film will last with me for a long time. The old X-Men which started the never-ending process of the genre’s growth ends where the Wolverine’s grave begins, as LOGAN sailed the comic-book adaptations in uncharted waters. Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!

Director - James Mangold
Logan - Hugh Jackman
Charles - Patrick Stewart
Laura - Dafne Keen
Pierce - Boyd Holbrook
Caliban - Stephen Merchant
Gabriela - Elizabeth Rodriguez
Dr. Rice - Richard E. Grant
Kathryn Munson - Elise Neal
Will Munson - Eriq La Salle
Nate Munson - Quincy Fouse

[jo]

Another review that must have FOX execs congratulating themselves for giving LOGAN the greenlight. It looks like it came from another campus paper because of the author's website URL --

www.thepostathens.com/article/2017/03/logan-review-hugh-jackman

03.19.17 / 8:05 pm

Film Review: 'Logan'
Richard Morris

There was a moment, a little more than halfway through Logan — the X-Men franchise's emotional send-off for Hugh Jackman, who has played the role of Wolverine since 2000 — when it occurred to me that this is more than the standard superhero fare that Marvel has spent the last decade perfecting and turning into a several billion dollar industry. It wasn’t during one of the movie’s incredibly tense action sequences, nor was it even at a critical moment in the plot; on the contrary, it was a simple and seemingly nondescript dinner scene between Logan, Charles Xavier, Laura (the young girl featured in the trailers) and a family that offered to let the three stay in their home for the night during their journey north to the Canadian border. Logan, anxious to get the girl north as quickly as possible with an army hot on their trail trying to stop them, is of course, reluctant to accept their offer of food and shelter, but Xavier pleads for the three of them to slow down and enjoy the peaceful company of the family. The dinner sequence itself is devoid of action or any grand emotional apex — it was just a wonderful and poignant moment of characterization, to remind you that regardless of their title of ‘mutant,’ these three at the center of the film are actual people, rather than just merciless killin’ machines. That is not to say that the film does not indulge in the excessive spectacle of violence that has come to define the comic book movie industry, as it is bloodier than any in the genre, save for perhaps Deadpool. But, in taking time in the midst of the intense plot for a scene of quiet character building, Logan proved itself as having ambitions that go beyond raking in nine-digit numbers at the box office.


Set in the year 2029, Logan is centered around its curmudgeonly titular character (Jackman), whose life in the X-Men has been displaced by a job as a chauffeur and a caretaker of the elderly and ailing Xavier (Patrick Stewart). After a nurse at a Mexican hospital that illegally and artificially produces mutants reaches out to Logan to help him save a young girl (Laura, played by Dafne Keen) that she smuggled out of the inhumane conditions, he and Xavier must travel north from Texas to the North Dakota-Canada border to find a supposed safe haven for mutants. The three, however, are relentlessly pursued in their journey by the private army of a powerful corporation, Transigen, that is behind the production of the new mutants.


Directed by James Mangold and co-written by Mangold, Scott Frank and Michael Green, Logan is an incredibly well-crafted film that seamlessly blends aspects of both big budget action and emotionally-jarring drama. Whereas in a lesser film the two may have felt a bit disconnected (see: 2016’s Civil War), the crew members here do a tremendous job of maintaining a consistent tone throughout the movie. The many scenes of intense action (which are all fantastically designed, choreographed and shot) maintain the understanding that there is more at stake than some really cool violence; on the other hand, the movie’s quieter moments have a sense of urgency to them driven by the constant looming threat of Transigen.


As touched on in the opening, the writers put a great deal of effort into fleshing out the three characters central to the plot, and Jackman and Stewart both turn in inspired performances in their final X-Men film. Though the main draw of the movie among general audiences is more than likely its R-rating and elaborate action set pieces, Logan is sure to tug on the heartstrings a few times before its 137-minute runtime is up. A case can be made that the film is missing a single clear antagonist and the motives of the opposition are generally underwritten, but the title makes it very clear — this is a movie about Logan himself (as well as Xavier and the new generation of mutants), and there’s no chance that he will be upstaged by the plans of a scheming bad guy.
Logan, the last breath of the 2000s X-Men franchise that I and so many others grew up watching, can be described as nothing less than a perfect send off for Jackman after seventeen years of tireless, mostly bad-ass duty. I recommend this film to pretty much anyone old enough to get into the theater unless shedding tears makes you insecure about your masculinity, in which case, keep pumpin’ those fifty-pound dumbbells, bro.

Five stars (out of five).
[e-mail]
@namesnot_rick

[jo]

Review written not by a professional critic, not by a fanboy or by a Jackman fan, not by the arts editor of a campus paper, nor by a filmsite, but by a lawyer who viewed it simply as a very good film grounded on the meaning of life!

www.theindianalawyer.com/hammerle-on-logan-kong-skull-island/PARAMS/article/43143

Robert Hammerle
March 22, 2017


“Logan”

“Logan” is a colossally good film on multiple levels. Though R-rated and profoundly violent from beginning to end, it is a heartwarming tale about how an aging, dying man is forced to rediscover the meaning of life.

Recreating a role that he has played in nine films, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is a mutant dancing on the edge of death. He walks with a profound limp and doesn’t heal as quickly when shot by an assailant.

Adding to his trauma, the physical health of his old mentor, Charles Xavier, is far worse than his own. Living in an abandoned silo while cared for by Caliban (Stephen Merchant), a loyal friend from the old days, Logan tries to provide as much medication as possible to keep Xavier from accidently killing himself as a result of his decaying mutant skills.

As always, Patrick Stewart gives a powerful performance as Xavier, once again demonstrating the formidable talent he displayed as a right-wing villain in last year’s overlooked “Green Room.” Though Logan has lost the desire to help anyone, Xavier implores him to protect a young female mutant called Laura. In the process, Logan is forced to overcome his disgust and save her and his old colleague when a sinister underground force appears in the pursuit of Laura.

The entire film functions as an old Western where Logan tries to drive Laura from the Texas/Mexican border to meet young colleagues in North Dakota. Ghastly violence waits around every turn, and you must be warned that you will be watching some very wonderful people get viciously killed by a ruthless small army of amoral pursuers led by Boyd Holbrook as Pierce. Holbrook is supremely hateful, yet you will be mesmerized by his startling performance.

Without question, what makes this film such a hit at the box office comes from the spectacular performance of young Dafne Keen, here playing Laura. A young mutant no older than the age of 12, she is capable of defending herself in a startling fashion, resembling an adolescent female Wolverine. Despite Logan learning that Laura and other children were the subject of ungodly surgical experimentation by a lab run by a Nazi-type doctor played by Richard E. Grant, Laura only asks for Logan’s help in driving her to the Canadian border where other young escapees from this hideous medical institution await.

While I don’t dare go any further and describe where this movie is heading, as noted earlier, it is a very moving story. With the exception of Xavier and Caliban, all of Logan’s friends are long gone. Yet what he discovers in his growing bond with Laura will lift your spirits to a level seldom seen in any film.

I loved this movie. I and many members of the audience sat and watched the final credits as we wiped tears from our cheeks. Saying goodbye is always difficult, even if it pertains to fictional characters appearing for the last time on the big screen.

[jo]

Some of the most heartfelt reviews come from campus paper ( this time, from St. Louis University) - the writer even saw the movie twice :

Home
The University News

March 23, 2017 at 11:45 am

Wolverine’s final bow stuns

Posted by Sean Kelso / Staff Writer

Featuring Hugh Jackman’s final appearance as Wolverine, “Logan” shatters superhero norms and delivers a stunning and personal finale for the beloved character.

Directed by James Mangold, who also helmed 2013’s “The Wolverine,” “Logan” picks up in 2029 and finds Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) in a dystopian future where mutants have been hunted and are now on the brink of extinction.

Logan and Xavier are hiding out on the southwest border between the United States and Mexico, with a fellow mutant survivor, Caliban (Stephen Merchant), trying to avoid their dark pasts and keeping interaction with society to a minimum.

While “Logan” is a departure from the mainstream superhero industry in many regards, it remains reliably faithful to the comic book material, and uses its R rating fully by offering the audience the most violent and visceral Wolverine movie thus far.

The R rating was a big risk for “Logan,” but the confident screenplay and performances guide this film and use the violence, action, and language to further develop this intimate story and environment. As a huge fan of the X-Men franchise, and specifically, the Wolverine character, I found myself overwhelmed by this final installment, as it delivers everything I wanted and more.

After all the events of past X-Men films, “Logan” shows Wolverine and Xavier at their weakest, both displaying stark signs of aging and suffering. Logan is not healing as thoroughly or quickly as he used to, and the senile Charles Xavier suffers extremely dangerous seizures caused by his degenerative brain disorders.
Thus, “Logan” presents itself immediately as a sharp contrast to the modern superhero genre — presenting vulnerable characters tied to humanity, instead of mighty galactic gods.

From the opening, “Logan” flaunts its R rating and gives longtime fans exactly what they wished for, in an intense action set piece that pulls no punches and shows Wolverine’s ever-present anger.

We soon learn that Logan has been working as a limo driver, saving up money to take Charles and himself away from the modern world to live out their final days on a boat at sea.

However, fate brings a dangerous yet mysterious child, Laura, into his life. With the evil Reavers now after Logan for harboring Laura, he and Charles set off with Laura to try and save her from the villains and the corruptness of this world.

Thus “Logan” quickly becomes a family-focused film, centering on the forming bond between Logan, Charles, and Laura as they all try to escape their pasts for a better future.

After two viewings of “Logan,” I cannot speak highly enough about the acting in this film. Seventeen years after his debut, Hugh Jackman brings incredible complexity and depth to Wolverine that bring this story home. Patrick Stewart gives his best performance yet as Xavier, giving us a heartfelt, yet surprisingly comical look at the elder professor. Boyd Holbrook did a great job as one of the villains, Donald Pierce, offering a charismatic character that will keep your eyes glued to the screen. A true standout performance in “Logan” was that of Dafne Keen as Laura.

Keen brought a lovable ferocity to her character, displaying great strength and emotion, especially for a twelve-year-old actress.

“Logan” took great risks by setting itself apart from the status quo, but we are all enriched by its story since it delivers on so many levels. It delves into one of the most iconic superheroes, yet tells a story that resonates on a human level about what it means to live a fulfilling life, and touches beautifully on tough topics like death, loneliness, and love. While it hurts me to imagine a different actor as Wolverine or even Professor X after these seventeen great cinematic years, I cannot imagine a more fulfilling ending than which “Logan” presents.

[hughmanity]

Agreed, Jo. I laugh to myself when I think of how  the RT score would be even higher than it is if these reviews were included!

Mar 23, 2017 21:34:47 GMT -5 jo said:

Some of the most heartfelt reviews come from campus paper ( this time, from St. Louis University) - the writer even saw the movie twice :

[jo]

A different kind of review -- one that views the movie and the characters from a deeply religious point of view! Read it slowly and one can find how profound some of the observations are -- almost like a homily or a preaching. Quite one of deep reflexion!

providencemag.com/2017/03/ode-men-violent-mold-logan-review/

An Ode to Men of a Violent Mold: Logan, a review

Marc LiVecche | March 22, 2017 Follow


While knowing little about the deep history of the Wolverine universe, the X-Man’s two earlier solo films, or comic book adaptations generally, I can nevertheless appreciate that James Mangold’s Logan breaks the mold of the preceding Wolverine films and resets the standards for superhero flicks more broadly. To grasp that much, familiarity isn’t essential. Mangold, and Hugh Jackman—playing the eponymous hero—have made clear that Logan was inspired by several of the great Western films—particularly Unforgiven, The Cowboys, and Shane.
The latter, George Stevens’ 1953 adaptation of a better book by the same name, actually has a cameo in Logan; and is viewed and discussed by two of Logan’s principle characters. It’s a fitting means by which to find our feet. As in Shane, when Alan Ladd rides into a small Wyoming town, all we need to know about Logan the person can be acquired early on. Both men follow the Western’s basic conventions. While we might not know the details, it’s clear each has lived a life intimate with violence, and that, however good they were at it, they are now trying to leave that life behind and to settle into something rather less kinetic, bloody, and ugly.


In Logan, time and mortality have caught up. Logan is harboring an ailing, nonagenarian Dr. X—simply called Charles now—whose profound telepathic powers are increasingly compromised by a neurodegenerative disorder. Regarding Logan, Mangold writes: “As for our hero, well, he’s older now and it’s clear his abilities ain’t what they once were. He’s fading on the inside and his diminished healing factor keeps him in a constant state of chronic pain—hence booze as a painkiller.” Having abandoned his superhero vocation, Logan is intent only on scraping together enough money to purchase a boat so that he and Charles can leave their lives behind. As in any great Western, no such retreat is ever going to happen.


Into Logan’s life comes Laura—an eleven-year-old mutant-clone with the same recuperative powers, enhanced speed and strength, and retractable adamantium claws as Logan. She too is on the run, attempting to outpace a weapons program conglomerate who have created her to be a soldier. She too is seeking a paradise, a rumor found in a comic book of a place in the north called “Eden”. Logan, with Charles serving a bit like his conscience, ultimately agrees to shepherd her, despite his doubts that Eden even exists. They are chased along the way by the malevolent Dr. Rice and his cyborg mercenaries.


Logan’s retirement plans are thereby suspended. It is as it must be. As Shane laments to a little boy who revers him, “A man has to be what he is.  You can’t break the mold.” For Shane and Logan, what they “have to be” are men of violence. But two crucial points follow.

, in neither Shane nor Logan is the violence celebrated. In what is presented as a page from the Logan shooting script, Mangold warns, “If you’re on the make for a hyper choreographed, gravity defying, city-block destroying, CG f**kathon, this ain’t your movie.” Instead, against carnage-as-entertainment, a central meditation of Logan is about the price that violence exacts—not just on those who suffer it, but also, and especially, on those who inflict it. “There’s no going back from the killing,” rues Shane, articulating a theme that runs throughout Logan. “Right or wrong it’s a brand, and the brand sticks.”


Secondly, Logan never suggests that the violence, even for those made in violent molds, is pre-determined. Rather, Logan inhabits a universe in which choices matter, and in which evildoers have a say in shaping them. Throughout the film, Logan tries to avoid the fight, indeed so much so that he is willing to abandon basic responsibilities. At one point, Logan initially refuses Charles’ demand that they stop and help a family in need. “Someone will turn up,” Logan insists, trying to justify his desire to drive on. Charles quietly counters, “Someone has turned up.” Logan concedes. They pull over and they help.

Having done so, the film’s central sequence now unfolds. Charles, Logan, and Laura are invited back to the family’s home for supper. It becomes quickly evident that this is a Christian family. Religious imagery abounds: grace is offered, a cross is prominent in the background over Logan’s shoulder and at the woman’s throat, homecooked food becomes a holy meal. Soon everyone is laughing and sharing stories like old friends. At the evening’s conclusion, having agreed to stay the night, Logan is helping Charles into bed when the old man whispers, “This is the most perfect night I’ve enjoyed in a very long time.”


Rumors of Eden are at the film’s heart. Logan believes he can find it on a boat out to sea, Laura searches for it somewhere north, and in their own perverse way Dr. Rice thinks he can manufacture it through homegrown killing machines. But Charles finds it first, in the simple joys of a family. With Laura sleeping quietly on the floor beside his bed, Charles tells Logan, “This is what life looks like. People who love each other, a home. You should take a moment. Feel it. You still have time.” The final revelation of a dying man, it is a tender, delicate, serenely beautiful reprieve from all the mayhem.


Taken together, these two ideas about violence point to core aspects of Christian thinking about the use of force. Force is always only the form love takes against terrible evil in the last resort when nothing else will protect the innocent, restore justice, and bring about the conditions for peace. By the film’s end, Logan will have taught Laura, and learned himself, the old Chesterton nugget that “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”

By championing such platitudes, Logan suggests Dr. Rice is wrong in his own reflection on why mutants like Laura resisted efforts to train them to be pure killers. “You can’t nurture rage,” he muses. Not true. Logan, and the Westerns that helped inspire it, suggest that violence—force—can in fact be nurtured. We can learn to be angry at the right things and act accordingly. Moreover, such films further insist that love, too, can—and must—be nurtured. Logan’s greatest trial is growing willing to love, despite all the associated risks of heartbreak and loss. In bringing violence and love together, such films follow the just war tradition’s chivalric grounding. Chivalry molded men into composite beings: ferocious to nth degree, and gentle to the nth degree—each manifest in its proper time and, in proper proportions sometimes very hard to see, always qualified by the other.
Logan sugarcoats nothing. But for those with the eyes to see beyond the superhero, it has much to commend regarding the truth and beauty of the Christian witness. Chief among these commendations is the reminder that violence, when catalyzed—and limited—by love for the sake of love, can sometimes be the only thing able to bring about the defeat of evil and provide the conditions for peace. More profoundly, Logan corrects much contemporary Christian misunderstanding regarding self-sacrifice. To be sure, Logan gives his life for the sake of others—this is the kind of sacrifice with which we’re most comfortable. But prior to this, circumstances required that he first had to accept another kind of self-sacrifice—that of shouldering the burden of being a man of violence, despite the peril that being so can wreck on the human soul. Logan’s giving of his life occurs in the context of a fight made necessary by the requirements of justice and love. None of this should be unfamiliar to those who have read a book about a God who flips over tables and who hung on cross.


Before she begins the final leg on her way to Eden, Laura pauses at Logan’s gravesite and uproots the cross placed over it. She turns it to its side and embeds it that way into the soft earth. Of course, on the one hand, the action turns the cross into an “X”—as in X-Men, right? But the image plays out at another level as well. In many services across the Christian landscape this Easter, Sunday morning churchgoers will find the cross uprooted—tiled onto its side and resting on the ground. Such a cross reminds us that the crucifixion is past, He is risen indeed, the work is done. Christ’s redemptive work, hot on the heels of extraordinary violence, does nothing to celebrate the violence. But it does celebrate the fact that one Person was willing to endure it for others. And, perhaps, it notes, with trembling, that another Person was willing to employ it for those same others as well.


As life fades from Logan’s eyes, he takes the time to lock them onto Laura’s. “So this is what it feels like,” he says, with evident joy, before passing. Charles would be pleased. It’s sentiment to be sure—but it isn’t sentimental, because it’s real. Taking all its platitudes together, Logan’s final lesson, to a cynical age no less, might be this: just because something is found in a book, it doesn’t mean it’s not true. Tetelestai!
—
Marc LiVecche is the managing editor of Providence

[jo]

Hugh ( and maybe his Dad, too) has to read this !!

It comes from the newspaper of the students of the oldest university in the world! OXFORD!


www.cherwell.org/2017/04/05/logan-his-heart-is-bigger-than-his-bite/


From someone who dislikes FOX superhero movies, LOGAN was a totally unexpected revelation --

‘Logan’: his heart is bigger than his bite

Charles Britton is impressed with Hugh Jackman’s last hurrah as the most famous X-Man

By Charles Britton -
April 5, 2017




As a self-confessed Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fanboy, I had previously consigned myself to ignoring anything produced by Twentieth Century Fox which did not feature a certain Ryan Reynolds. Imagine my surprise when, after a maligned first attempt and a mediocre sequel, the final Wolverine film surpassed all my expectations and made me reconsider what a superhero film could be. Logan is a fitting conclusion to the tale of the mutant mascot, and though it relishes in gory extravagance, it balances this with a compelling and heart-wrenching story, one which elevates it from a violent romp to an emotional marvel.


The year is 2029 and, since the X-Men have disbanded, the titular Logan has fallen into decrepitude, caring for a similarly ailing Charles Xavier (with Patrick Stewart reprising the role) in an obscure region of Mexico. As Logan’s remaining strength decays, he is pursued by a stranger who pleads with him to take a lone mutant girl to the Canadian border. What ensues is a perilous road trip with a corrupt private organisation bent on weaponizing infant mutants ruthlessly stalking the trio.


To synopsise Logan in such a way is, to some extent, to do it an injustice. The film is steeped in a gritty atmosphere, from the makeup artist’s uncanny ability to make even Hugh Jackman look downright terrible, to the frequent brutal murders, from the dark filters to the close-up shots of people looking tormented every couple of minutes; the tone is oppressive, and makes a pleasant change from the more laid-back attitude of Disney’s MCU.


For all of Logan’s grittiness, however, it still manages to punctuate its story with frequent comic and touching moments. As a testament to Jackman’s nuanced performance, one scene where Logan experiences a taste of family life is particularly noteworthy and was so well-executed that it had me close to tears.
The Wolverine’s swansong is not without its own flaws, however. The villains in the film are uninspired to say the least, serving purely as adequately threatening fodder for Logan to slash his way through and as a catalyst for his character development. Shaky camera angles in some action sequences mar close-quarters combat encounters, muddying the detail. The MCU films handle this better, which is impressive considering how CGI-intensive they are by comparison. Finally, the structure and pacing of the narrative is formulaic and quickly becomes predictable: I learned to expect armoured vehicles to arrive out of nowhere for an obligatory action set-piece if there had been a lull for more than ten minutes.


Undoubtedly, Logan’s greatest quality for me was that, at times, I completely forgot I was watching a superhero film. I was so enchanted by the poignant storytelling that I forgot that this was a film about a man with claws and regenerative abilities tearing up faceless military types. Instead, I was watching a cynical, tortured character develop into a father figure, overcoming all odds to protect those he loves. As the simple title suggests, Logan is the raw, stripped-back tale of a flawed man.


Overall, Logan represents a bold move in superhero cinema. By acknowledging that Jackman’s portrayal of Wolverine inevitably had to end, Logan is allowed to grapple with themes of mortality, ageing, family, and identity. In a world where the MCU’s momentum is guaranteed by seemingly endless contract deals, origin stories, and crossover spectacles, Logan is brave enough to end an era in style. It is an intimate character study which champions the idea of fighting for something, even if that something does not seem real, for the people one loves. With how remarkably that message is presented here, it could not be more potent. In fact, Logan might just be one of the greatest ‘superhero’ films of all time.

Cherwell (newspaper)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Cherwell (pronounced "Charwell") is an independent student newspaper, largely published for students of Oxford University. First published in 1920, it has had an online edition since 1996. Named after the local river, Cherwell is published by OSPL (Oxford Student Publications Ltd.), who also publish the sister publication Isis, the Bang! science magazine, the Industry fashion magazine, and the freshers' magazine Keep Off the Grass. One of the oldest student publications in the UK, it is editorially independent and has been the launching pad for many well known journalistic and business careers. The newspaper has a commercial business team, receives no university funding, and is independent of all other student bodies, although for many years it occupied a building in the garden of the Oxford Union .

Chris Jackman went to Oxford's main academic rival, Cambridge!

[jo]

I still have to see a student review that did not fully appreciate the artistic intent of LOGAN!


patriotnewsonline.com/opinion/reviews/2017/04/14/annas-adventures-logan/

[jo]

An excellent review from the campus of the University of Warwick (Coventry, England) --

theboar.org/2017/04/logan-review/



Unfortunately, most campus reviews are not included in the reckoning by ROTTEN TOMATOES.

Jo

[jo]

As of now there are 262 favorable reviews out of 284 at Rotten Tomatoes or a rating of 92% for LOGAN. Ten more positive reviews, without any intruding unfavorable review will bring up the rating to 93% ( which would place it at only
1 percentage point less than that of The Dark Knight). Iron Man is also at 94 % but its average rating of 7.7 out of 10 is lower than LOGAN'S average rating of 7.9 out of 10 while TDK has an average rating of 8.6 out of 10.


In comparison to current major blockbusters --

*Kong : Skull Island : 77 % simple average at RT/6.5 out of 10 average rating
*Beauty and the Beast : 70% simple average at RT/6.6 out of 10 average rating
*Fast and Furious ( new) : currently at 64% simple average at RT/6.0 out of 10 average rating

[jo]

Let's compare all the movies in the XMen franchise in terms of ratings --


Rating at Rotten Tomatoes/ Liked # at RT/ IMDB average rating/ Metacritic


1.LOGAN/92% with avg rating of 7.9/92% liked /8.5/77 %

2.DAYS Of FUTURE PAST/91% with avg rating of 7.5 of 10/91% liked/8.0/74%

3.FIRST CLASS/86% with avg rating of 7.4 of 10/87% liked/7.8/68%

4.DEADPOOL/84% with avg rating of 6.9 of 10/90% liked/8.1/65%

5.X-MEN 2/82% with 7.5 of 10/85% liked/7.5/68%

6.X-MEN/81% with avg rating of 7.1 of 10/83% liked/7.4/64%

7.THE WOLVERINE/69% with avg rating of 6.3 of 10/69% liked/6.7/60%

8.X-MEN:THE LAST STAND/58% with avg rating of 5.9 of 10/62 liked/6.7/58%

9.X-MEN:AGE OF APOCALYPSE/48% with avg rating of 5.6 of 10/67% liked/7.1/52%

10.X-MEN ORIGINS : WOLVERINE/38% with avg rating of 5.1 of 10/58% liked/6.7/40%



LOGAN is the standout on all aspects that relate to critical impression ( Rotten Tomatoes/Metacritic) as well as audiences impression ( LIKED factor at RT and IMDB rating)!  Hugh Jackman and James Mangold should be very proud!

How ironic that the last film in the WOLVERINE trilogy tops the list, while the first movie in the same trilogy occupies last place on the list!


Jo