Logan (15.)
Directed by James Mangold.
Starring Hugh Jackman, Dafne Keen, Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant and Richard E. Grant. 137 mins
By which they mean Wolverine, the indestructible X-Man with foot long retractable steel claws bursting out of his knuckles, played by Jackman as a cross between Clint Eastwood and Freddy Krueger. This is his third standalone movie; reviewing the previous one, The Wolverine, I remarked that its problem was that this was a 15 certificate character stuck in 12A movies. Not any longer: Fox have been persuaded to really let rip and let no area of flesh go unshredded. It's like an action slasher movie.
The story finds Logan in the year 2029, working as the world's most surly Limousine driver in El Paso and popping over the border to Mexico to look after a dementia suffering Professor X (Stewart) who is being cared for by mutant Caliban (Merchant, rather good.) They are forced to flee when a young mutant girl (Keen) with familiar powers turns up, hunted by legions of government goons.
This is definitely not a superhero movie. Nobody wears shiny costumes, the fate of the Earth is not in the balance, there are no enormous special effects sequences. The characters are the last stragglers from the glory years. It is a sci-fi tinged road movie, gritty and downbeat. There are some similarities with Terminator 2, just in terms of it being a fantasy situation that isn't afraid of real emotions, and the relationship between a killing machine and a kid. Although this time they are both killing machines and it is the older one who is trying to civilise and limit the younger one. You do get a strong sense of Wolverine's feeling of being cursed, of bringing misfortune on everybody he meets. It takes itself very seriously but also has a sharp sense of humour, that is used to make the situations and characters more credible.
Logan is being greeted as the Wolverine film fans have been waiting for, and it is certain a reward for making it through the terrible X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the feisty but muddled The Wolverine. I have to confess that though I enjoyed it a lot, I couldn't quite drum up the regulation level of enthusiasm for it, but maybe that is because I never quite got the big Wolverine obsession . Outside the X-Men ensemble he seems a bit limited: all he can do is not die and slash people and be tormented about his upbringing in an experimental weapons programme. Even though they've made him not so indestructible here, there is still a lack of variety plot wise and the action sequences get a little same-again-sir but in a new location.
Still, if this is to be the end of Jackman's Logan run, the longest big screen relationship (17 years, seven full performances) an actor has had with a superhero character, this is more than respectable way to end it. He performed the part with humility, integrity and skill.
Directed by James Mangold.
Starring Hugh Jackman, Dafne Keen, Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant and Richard E. Grant. 137 mins
By which they mean Wolverine, the indestructible X-Man with foot long retractable steel claws bursting out of his knuckles, played by Jackman as a cross between Clint Eastwood and Freddy Krueger. This is his third standalone movie; reviewing the previous one, The Wolverine, I remarked that its problem was that this was a 15 certificate character stuck in 12A movies. Not any longer: Fox have been persuaded to really let rip and let no area of flesh go unshredded. It's like an action slasher movie.
The story finds Logan in the year 2029, working as the world's most surly Limousine driver in El Paso and popping over the border to Mexico to look after a dementia suffering Professor X (Stewart) who is being cared for by mutant Caliban (Merchant, rather good.) They are forced to flee when a young mutant girl (Keen) with familiar powers turns up, hunted by legions of government goons.
This is definitely not a superhero movie. Nobody wears shiny costumes, the fate of the Earth is not in the balance, there are no enormous special effects sequences. The characters are the last stragglers from the glory years. It is a sci-fi tinged road movie, gritty and downbeat. There are some similarities with Terminator 2, just in terms of it being a fantasy situation that isn't afraid of real emotions, and the relationship between a killing machine and a kid. Although this time they are both killing machines and it is the older one who is trying to civilise and limit the younger one. You do get a strong sense of Wolverine's feeling of being cursed, of bringing misfortune on everybody he meets. It takes itself very seriously but also has a sharp sense of humour, that is used to make the situations and characters more credible.
Logan is being greeted as the Wolverine film fans have been waiting for, and it is certain a reward for making it through the terrible X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the feisty but muddled The Wolverine. I have to confess that though I enjoyed it a lot, I couldn't quite drum up the regulation level of enthusiasm for it, but maybe that is because I never quite got the big Wolverine obsession . Outside the X-Men ensemble he seems a bit limited: all he can do is not die and slash people and be tormented about his upbringing in an experimental weapons programme. Even though they've made him not so indestructible here, there is still a lack of variety plot wise and the action sequences get a little same-again-sir but in a new location.
Still, if this is to be the end of Jackman's Logan run, the longest big screen relationship (17 years, seven full performances) an actor has had with a superhero character, this is more than respectable way to end it. He performed the part with humility, integrity and skill.
