LOGAN : Fan Reviews/Reactions (Spoiler Alert)

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Today, we remember that LOGAN was released 2 years ago!





Poignant, bittersweet, but triumphant memories of Hugh Jackman's valedictory in his Wolverine role!

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He will ALWAYS be WOLVERINE to the world!

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Remember the first trailer ?

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And # 2 Trailer --




Sometimes, it is very hard to watch the movie knowing how it ends...but it is worth all the praise that it received from everyone!


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Rough language, but well-expressed sentiment!

[jo]

Please support LOGAN with your vote on this poll! Thanks



www.joblo.com/movie-news/what-is-your-favorite-r-rated-adaptation-of-a-comic-book-or-graphic-novel#

[jo]

Link courtesy of Jackmanslanding --

From thesimplecinephile.com :

The Simple Cinephile
LOGAN: The Duality of Brutality
Emanuel Ruiz
6 days ago


Logan (2017) - source: IMDb
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With a perturbed groan, James wakes up to the clangs and exclamations of an uninvited clamor. He stumbles out of the car, swearing under his breath as he does, to unwelcome guests – someone’s trying to steal his rims again. He tries diplomacy; perhaps these men, crude as they appear, can be reasoned with, firmly yet politely deterred from his path. They laugh, and proceed to pump a few ounces of lead in his chest. With an exasperated sigh – born of general weariness, and the repetitious nature of what he’s about to do – James rises.

Normally, the wounds would’ve healed by now, and he’d have sliced their throats and severed their limbs far sooner. But he’s older now, and nothing works as fast as it used to; a half-hearted stumble will have to suffice. He tries diplomacy once more – no dice. These men don’t know who they’ve chosen to trifle with tonight; had they educated themselves on the weapons that reside between his knuckles, perhaps they would’ve chosen another car. He doesn’t want to bring out the claws again, but they’ve left him no choice.


Logan (2017) – source: IMDb
With 2017’s Logan, a masterful deconstruction of the hero and the mythological foundations on which they’re built, James Mangold and co. delivered unto the world one of cinema’s finest offerings to date in the CBM sub-genre. Hot on the heels of Deadpool‘s record-breaking exercise in R-rated trailblazing, The Wolverine was finally awarded the platform to slice and dice as his creators would have intended. However, there was a catch – Hugh Jackman’s latest foray into the personality of James Howlett would double as his farewell, a reveal that broke hearts and invoked tears around the world. Over the seventeen years and nine feature-length films Jackman had assumed the mantle of Wolverine, the line separating the personalities grew more foggy with each new expedition, until the two men eventually morphed into a shared identity; in other words, Hugh Jackman and The Wolverine are inseparable.

Logan‘s arrival to the silver screen was a touchdown of kaleidoscopic implications; not only would audiences be treated to one hell of a victory lap in Hugh Jackman’s final outing as the snarling meta-human, but they would finally receive a grisly limb-slasher that comic enthusiasts had both come to adore, and primarily associate with the character. However, that doesn’t mean James Mangold’s exercises in jaw-clenching gore are purely theater. While his opus can assuredly be satisfactorily consumed at face value, one simple choice, paramount in thematic relevance, elevates this redemptive odyssey from an eternally re-watchable action romp, to that of a deeply evocative character study, rivalling that of PTA’s There Will Be Blood and Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler.


Logan (2017) – source: IMDb

In a thematic checkmate of subtle brilliance, Mangold does away with the X-Men‘s tendency to glorify Wolverine’s iconic snikt!, and instead opts for demonizing the auditory cue for destruction altogether. Whereas the appearance of Adamantium is generally posed as an avenue for eventual victory, Logan instead posits that its cameos merely delay the inevitable, often inviting further physical decay and misfortune on the characters’ travels to Eden. Such is the tragic poetry of the narrative — while its eventualities are all achieved organically, they all feel predetermined.

For the sake of dispelling analogous opacity, I harken back to Revenge of the Sith, particularly the saga-defining duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan. By that point in the film, the viewer knows what must happen in order for A New Hope to be canonically plausible: the infant Sith must fall to his former mentor, giving way to his transition into the masked menace we all know and loathe. Likewise, every grunt, swear and perforation uttered and executed by Logan inches him even closer to demise. The film opens on a disgruntled has-been living on borrowed time, and its conclusion sees The Reaper cashing in on his negative balance – if you ask me, cinema doesn’t get more Shakespearean than that.

In the wake of Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox – a finalization of which sent the film world spinning and set my Twitter timeline ablaze – it’s tough to know whether or not we may ever see a film quite like Logan again. After all, the almighty Mouse has a proclivity for softening up his properties to maximize potential turnouts; here’s to hoping the future proves me wrong.

And also for the first time, it was beautiful to see Logan humanized as never before! He was the giver in the relationship, no matter the cost.

[jo]

Apr 14, 2019 18:59:50 GMT -5 jo said:

Please support LOGAN with your vote on this poll! Thanks



www.joblo.com/movie-news/what-is-your-favorite-r-rated-adaptation-of-a-comic-book-or-graphic-novel#

LOGAN continues to lead the tally. Thanks for your votes!

If you haven't checked the site - please help in our support votes for LOGAN


Jo

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It's the most heartbreaking moment in the film! Logan, for the first time, is practically incoherent trying to comprehend what happened to his mentor and trying to tell him that it was not him! The scene when he and Laura finally acknowledged their relationship as he lay dying was very sad but in a sense brought on a feeling that Logan was finally at peace. The final scene with Laura inverting the cross to an X was also poignant as we realized this was the end of the line for the saga of Logan ( and remembering all those stories of Wolverine shared with us through the years). But his feeling of helplessness and sense of loss when he saw Charles Xavier lying thus was aimed at any XMen fan's love for these 2 principal characters in the XMen tales.


Jo

[jo]

I stumbled on this REDDIT forum discussion on LOGAN! It is very long, kilometric-long, but the discussions are very good reading, especially for those who felt that LOGAN was very special!

stylecaster.com/best-tour-costumes/


*Even if the movie was 2 years ago, the emotions evoked by the movie are as fresh today!

*Presumably, from the language and manner of speech/writing, most of the discussants were male
...but I was very surprised how many admitted or volunteered that they wiped a tear or two or had been very emotional about the characters and the storyline, with emphasis on the finale.

*Many mentioned how they have observed in their theatres that people lingered after the credits ended.

*Best XMen movie, best Wolverine movie, best cast ever! Somebody said that no one cares about the Oscars...what they were very happy about was how great the movie was!

*Personally, of his 2 successes ( the other being The Greatest Showman) in 2017 - to me, the greater artistic success for Hugh Jackman is this movie and his portrayal as Logan!


Jo

[hughmanity]

I know WE don't need convincing,  but this article makes an excellent case while singing praises of LOGAN

www.salon.com/2019/06/07/dark-phoenix-fails-to-rise-x-men-should-have-gone-out-with-logan-instead/

Jun 9, 2019 1:01:01 GMT -5 jo said:

I stumbled on this REDDIT forum discussion on LOGAN! It is very long, kilometric-long, but the discussions are very good reading, especially for those who felt that LOGAN was very special!

stylecaster.com/best-tour-costumes/


*Even if the movie was 2 years ago, the emotions evoked by the movie are as fresh today!

*Presumably, from the language and manner of speech/writing, most of the discussants were male
...but I was very surprised how many admitted or volunteered that they wiped a tear or two or had been very emotional about the characters and the storyline, with emphasis on the finale.

*Many mentioned how they have observed in their theatres that people lingered after the credits ended.

*Best XMen movie, best Wolverine movie, best cast ever! Somebody said that no one cares about the Oscars...what they were very happy about was how great the movie was!

*Personally, of his 2 successes ( the other being The Greatest Showman) in 2017 - to me, the greater artistic success for Hugh Jackman is this movie and his portrayal as Logan!


Jo

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Thanks, hughmanity


That was written from the heart --

presumably by a grieving fanboy (even if he is a film blogger) … but elated that the saga of the XMen deserved to have ended this way ( via the end-story called LOGAN) just as it had started also from that cage where Wolverine/Logan was first introduced to film fans!

Beautifully written -- may I reproduce it ( sometimes the link disappears from the internet) :

If you want a great finale to the "X-Men" series, skip "Dark Phoenix" and watch "Logan" again


Matthew Rozsa



June 7, 2019 9:00PM (UTC)

"Logan" is the proper finale to the "X-Men" film series. "X-Men: Dark Phoenix," though effectively the last movie to be released in this cinematic universe, is so disappointing that it doesn't deserve that honor. (Technically the last of this crop of "X-Men" movies will be 2020's oft-delayed "The New Mutants," which seems to be more of a standalone story.) Therefore, instead of simply panning "Dark Phoenix," I'm going to make the case that it should be replaced in the hearts and minds of "X-Men" fans with "Logan" as the real finale for this version of the franchise. (I wrote my farewell tribute to the early 21st century "X-Men" movies earlier this week.)

If you're a comic book fan, you will recognize "Dark Phoenix" as an adaptation of "The Dark Phoenix Saga," a famous "X-Men" storyline in which the powers of Jean Grey/Phoenix (Sophie Turner) are amplified by her bonding with a supernatural entity known as the Phoenix Force. Continuing the recent tradition of setting one "X-Men" film in each of the last four decades of the 20th century, this one takes place in 1992 and starts when Grey bonds with the Phoenix Force after absorbing a solar flare into her body. That sets in motion a series of subplots, all of them borrowed from other (not always better) movies.

First there is the infamous 2006 film "X-Men: The Last Stand," of which this movie is practically a remake. Indeed, "Dark Phoenix" director and writer Simon Kinberg was actually a co-writer on "The Last Stand," and this one doesn't deviate from the first story's major plot beats: Jean Grey becomes a quasi-antagonist after her powers grow, she breaks away from the ones she loves, eventually loses control of her powers and ultimately brings every main protagonist to their bittersweet ending. In both movies the key relationships for Phoenix are with a love interest (Tye Sheridan's Scott Summers/Cyclops here, James Marsden's Cyclops and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine in the original), father figure Charles Xavier/Professor X (James McAvoy) and various side characters — some developed, others not so much. This time more attention is paid to the story arcs of Raven Darkhölme/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender), whose love/hate friendship with Professor X can be the high point of an "X-Men" movie when done right. Ororo Munroe/Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver (Evan Peters) receive less attention.

There are also some superficial comparisons to be made between "Dark Phoenix" and a much better superhero film, "Captain Marvel." Both movies are set in the 1990s, but "Captain Marvel" actually has fun with being a period piece and takes advantage of its '90s setting. This was also true of the other three "X-Men" films to follow this decade-by-decade formula — "First Class" with the 1960s, "Days of Future Past" with the 1970s and "Apocalypse" with the 1980s. Similarly, "Captain Marvel" also had shapeshifting aliens, although the Skrull in "Captain Marvel" were better developed because they felt like individuals rather than generic villains, and their storyline included a clever twist. "Dark Phoenix" wastes Jessica Chastain by writing her as a by-the-numbers antagonist named Vuk, who is completely forgettable. There is even an element of "Shazam!" in the opening scene, which gives Jean Grey a backstory similar to that of the "Shazam!" antagonist.

Finally "Captain Marvel" also includes many light and funny moments, while "Dark Phoenix" only achieves semi-solemnity when it's trying to be upbeat. Bleak superhero movies can work, of course, but it has to be because they're attempting something new. "Dark Phoenix" is as far from "new" as a movie can be.




Compare that to "Logan." That was also a bleak film, far more so than "Dark Phoenix." It is set in 2029, making it the last film chronologically in this "X-Men" film universe — and also providing us with one reason why it works better as the proper "X-Men" finale. The ending of "Logan" also works in a bold and poignant way, providing the kind of closure that any story could be proud of.


It brings the series to an extremely tragic conclusion: No mutant has been born in a quarter century and the world is a dystopian hellhole. The cause of a happy and flourishing future for mutants, the one that animated Professor X's life (Patrick Stewart) and caused him to found the X-Men, is in its death throes. The same can be said of Professor X himself, whose once-sage mind has been reduced to a shadow of its former self by the ravages of Alzheimer's disease. Because of his seizures, he occasionally becomes an accidental weapon of mass destruction himself, a fact that we learn caused him to do something terrible to many of the other X-Men.

Logan/Wolverine himself (Hugh Jackman) is also dying. The once-invulnerable man no longer heals as effectively as he used to; he's slower, covered in scars, and relies on alcohol to deal with his constant pain. His caretaker relationship with Professor X is the movie's unsung highlight: We know from their interactions in previous films that Professor X rescued Wolverine from himself and helped him find a purpose, even though the cynical and surly lug never wanted to admit it. That backstory is embedded in Jackman's and Stewart's textured and heartbreaking performances, discernible even to one hasn't seen a single other "X-Men" movie.




Wolverine no longer believes in the cause, but he still loves his teacher and is devoting his final years to helping them both survive, while brooding over the end of his own life and everything he loved. When events conspire to put Wolverine in charge of an 11-year-old girl named Laura (Dafne Keen), he has to learn to become a hero one more time — and to learn how to find purpose in loving, living and eventually dying.

It's a character study to end all character studies, a perfect send-off to this version of the Wolverine character that ties up the underlying story of the "X-Men" series in an equally cathartic way. The bleakness works because it feels earned. In addition to its heart, it is buoyed by an interesting concept — a superhero-movie-as-Western, with visual references to classic Westerns like "Shane" (1953), "The Cowboys" (1972) and "Unforgiven" (1992). There are also dystopian sci-fi elements here, although those are more common in the superhero genre.


The final scenes in both films best illustrates why "Logan" is both a better movie and a more fitting finale than "Dark Phoenix." The last shot of "Dark Phoenix" references an iconic image used throughout the series — so overused that it feels downright uninspired at this point — followed by another image which ties up this immediate story but says nothing deeper about the "X-Men" series as a whole.

"Logan" ends, by contrast, with the mutant children saved by the titular character gathering around his grave. As they leave to head toward an uncertain future, his daughter turns his grave marker on its side to make it an X instead of a cross. This works on several levels: It's a direct visual reference to Wolverine's status as the last of the "X-Men," a deft use of Christian iconography to make a point about the X-Men's larger cause and an emotionally appropriate way of wrapping up the original "X-Men" story (tragically, but with a flicker of hope).

Sadly there will never be a follow up movie to erase "Dark Phoenix" from the canon, like 2014's "X-Men: Days of Future Past" did to "The Last Stand." Thankfully, "Logan" is the final story to occur chronologically within this "X-Men" series, and even if it wasn't, it remains a far more satisfying conclusion to that larger story in every conceivable way. If you want to say a proper goodbye to this series of "X-Men" movies, you're better off spending your time on "Logan" again than "Dark Phoenix" for the first time.


Matthew Rozsa
Matthew Rozsa is a breaking news writer for Salon. He holds an MA in History from Rutgers University-Newark and is ABD in his PhD program in History at Lehigh University. His work has appeared in Mic, Quartz and MSNBC.

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It's amazing how fans want to see the movie for the first time again - to savor the drama and the sadness that seems to be the overriding sentiment. It's also amazing how many ( many, male fans themselves ) who admitted to bawling, not just sniffing, at the sentiment generated during the stunning finale.


It is a tribute to the script written by Mangold et al

It is a tribute to how Mangold directed the film...and even creating a film noir version, recognizing the impact of the storyline and the character development.

It is a tribute to the excellent acting skills of the trio - Jackman/Stewart/Keen!

It is a tribute to how Hugh Jackman carried the XMen franchise and the Wolverine saga on his shoulders over 17 years!



Just a sight of an inverted cross is enough to bring back the sad sentiment all over again!


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