Director: James Mangold
Distributor: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Duration: 137 minutes
Logan (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
The X-Men movies have been submitted to either really good responses, or very negative ones for not following the source material to the letter. Nonetheless, there’s one spin-off series, revolving around one of the most loved X-Men, Wolverine, that’s been subject to a lot of praise, if not mostly by the acting performances of Hugh Jackman, who is the perfect match for the original comic book figure. Sadly, even though the first movie might have been the most lukewarm of the two that were already out, the time has come to end the series with a bang, and we can only say that this trilogy improved with each passing movie, with the last one becoming not shy of a masterpiece.
Somewhat more of a decade in the future, in 2029, it seems our planet doesn’t show that many mutant influences anymore, which means that the X-Men are also a thing of the past, and Logan (Hugh Jackman), a. k. a. Wolverine, is now reduced to a limousine driver. Having lost his regenerative powers, or at least most of them during the second movie, he is now an aging pile of misery, who clearly doesn’t have that much hope left for his life. Sheltering the slightly demented Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), together with Caliban (Stephen Merchant), Logan is saving up money to buy a boat and leave his miserable life behind, while taking Charles with him. Sadly, his already troubled life is about to become a lot more troublesome when he is approached by Gabriela (Elizabeth Rodriguez), who pleads for his help. First refusing to help the woman that clearly knows that he is ‘the’ Wolverine, he soon turns around and finds himself bringing the little girl that Gabriela had with her to his ‘hideout’ in Mexico. Laura (Dafne Keen), the little girl, soon exposes her mutant powers, which are identical to the powers that Logan has lost over a decade ago.
Logan, Charles and Laura find themselves being chased by an organization who created mutants in order to turn them into mindless weapons, doing their masters’ bidding. Sadly, for those performing the experiments, the sheltered children soon develop their own wills, refuse to cooperate and before long, the project is shut down, with the termination of all the children’s lives. Some escape, including Laura, and they agree to meet on an fixed location, one which Logan now has to hurry to, before all hope is lost.
Logan is the third installment of a series of movies that started in 2009, with the second movie being released in 2013. One thing is immediately clear, namely that the pacing is fairly slow, just like the previous two movies, but also that its atmosphere is a lot heavier. You’ll be treated to a very intense, slow, yet action packed, movie that is destined to bring an end to a great character one way or another. While we will save you the notion if this movie will end happily or not, we can say that this movie is an emotional rollercoaster for fans of the X-Men, the Wolverine trilogy, the comic books and superheroes alike.
Acting performances are pretty much phenomenal in this movie, even though it has to be said that while Patrick Stewart always lands a great performance, it’s Hugh Jackman and the very young, but extremely talented Dafne Keen who steal the show in this emotional trip through Logan’s somewhat miserable existence. Stephen Merchant sadly doesn’t receive that much screen time, while he puts down a fun portrait of Caliban, a mutant that hasn’t been shown in any of the other movies, making him somewhat of a missed opportunity to explore the character further. Those playing the opposition also put down convincible acting performances.
This Blu-ray edition of Logan comes with a reasonable amount of extra content, spanning around 90 minutes. Most of it will be rather standard, as it’s pretty much a stretched out ‘making of’ sequence; with some deleted scenes, theatrical trailers and audio commentaries thrown into the mix. Nonetheless, it’s quite fun to see how this last installment of the series was handled and what the thoughts of those in charge of the production were.
Conclusion
Logan is a great, yet heavy ending to a superhero trilogy. We truly feel sad this masterpiece is the last of a series, but in many ways it’s best to go out with a bang, rather than unnecessarily dragging out an experience, dulling down the quality. If you loved the first movies, or simply are enamored by the superhero bad-boy Wolverine, this movie is certainly a must-see. We can even go so far as to say that in the superhero genre, this movie deserves a fairly undisputed top spot.
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