Directed by:
James MangoldCinematography:
John MathiesonComposer:
Marco BeltramiCast:
Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Dafne Keen, Stephen Merchant, Richard E. Grant, Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Doris Morgado (more)Plots(1)
In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan's attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces. (20th Century Fox)
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Reviews (21)
I can't resist any part of the mutant universe, including Wolverine's solo movies or the much-derided X-Men: Apocalypse, and even where I'm on the fence about a given film (X-Men: The Last Stand), I can still enjoy it over and over. And yet now, half a day after seeing this film, I cannot imagine that stories from this world will continue to be told. Logan, in a hundred and one ways, serves as the final chapter, the most human and believable one. It is a bloody, uncompromising, and depressing chapter, but precisely because of that, the clear message of the entire X-Men saga resonates much louder than I dared expect. Remembering almost any scene tightens my heart and I nostalgically immerse myself in the times when seventeen years ago, as a teenager unfamiliar with comics, I went to the local cinema for something called X-Men and in an empty cinema first discovered what adamantium is. Hugh Jackman made it happen, and has done so now more responsibly than ever. Except that back then, it was for the first time; this time it's definitely the last.
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“There's no living with a killing. There's no going back from it.” Deadpool (and before it, for example, Kick-Ass) used an R-rating for infantile silliness. Logan is an adult drama with Oscar ambitions (which are overly obvious in places) in which someone occasionally gets their head ripped off. Symbolically, Wolverine, which seventeen years ago was instrumental in getting Hollywood to take comic-book movies seriously, now graphically exemplifies the evolution that the genre has undergone over the intervening years. Only time will tell how much of a game-changing film Logan will be as it closes one phase and opens another (as was the case with westerns such as The Wild Bunch). ___ Despite its sweeping runtime, the film stays much more grounded than other superhero flicks. It tries to win viewers over with a small cast of believable characters with understandable motivations rather than with epic action (the action scenes are not only very raw and “earthy”, which is aided by the low camera position, but unfortunately also rather chaotic). Unlike Nolan’s Batman movies, the narrative is very straightforward, as it stays with the main character’s point of view throughout, which, however, it manages to use to its advantage. ___ Logan is a portrait of a world that has stopped believing in heroes and happy endings. People distrust each other and consider a loaded gun to be the only valid argument. Power is in the hands of corporations involved in the military-industrial complex, for which people (especially poor people) are just another deductible cost item. Jackman’s burnt-out renegade, who no longer cares about anyone or anything, gives a face to this social lethargy (or bad mood, if you prefer). Like Clint Eastwood in more than one role, all he has to do is look irritated and say the words “shit” and “fuck” between his clenched teeth. The film adheres to the slogan that children are our future, but these children are characteristically the offspring of immigrants and, furthermore, mutants (i.e. “others”), which is to say people who are doubly unwanted in today’s America. The promised land, then, is naturally Canada. ___ James Mangold is probably the first director who has been able to fully exploit the potential of superhero narratives to comment not only on the universal battle between good and evil, but also on the times in which we live (again, there is a parallel with westerns, which began to be used for the purpose of commenting on the present sometime in the 1950s, when Shane, which is quoted in Logan, was made). Unlike earlier films such as The Dark Knight Rises and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Logan involves more than just a few allusions to the current political situation; Logan is riddled with social malaise, which is apparent in the melancholic tone and the meditative pace of the narrative (which, however, is always kicked up a gear by the next action sequence). ___ I don’t recall ever experiencing a comic-book movie so intensely, let alone having it resonate within me for so long. Perhaps that’s because of my current mood, or maybe because of this day and age in which such sincere stories about the fact that we have to help each other make sense. In any case, I would not be angry (or surprised) if this uncompromising settling of accounts with the genre became the kind of classic that, for example, Unforgiven is today. 90%
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Definitely the most brutal, raw and darkest comic-book movie ever made. The desert to western vibe is absolutely fantastic, the bad guys are cool, and Wolverine and X23 pair up and tear apart anything that comes to hand. The action is perfect in every way and the quality of the gore is top notch. The scene with the black men in the building is one of the most atmospheric scenes in recent memory and the finale is literally breathtaking. It's a bit of a shame that it's not a very adrenaline-fuelled ride, in places the pace is really more sedate, especially before the finale the director had his foot on the brake, and the humour is also in short supply for a comic-book movie, but the atmosphere and the hard R-rating make up for it perfectly. This year I really don't want to compile a top list, since it's only March and there are already three contenders for the top spot. 90%
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An admirable personal devotion to an iconic figure that far surpasses all those who have been allowed to step out of groped pages and onto the big screen, in the care of a mediocre (at best) executor who rides a comfortable rating and grinds the hero's blood so thoroughly that the path to a readable ending through instant depression is too obvious. The fact that a little girl in a rage blows up a military commando is fine, but the fact that a bitter road movie with a western background leaves me emotionally empty is not. But at least Fox (un)consciously checked off the "The Last of Us" adaptation.
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There are many movies to give audience a chance to understand the character of Wolverine. In general, we all know what Hugh Jackman’s intentions were. Still he was one of the first superheroes to appear in Hollywood in the late 1990s and deserves tremendous respect for it. However, after all these years with Wolverine, I understand very well why the creators wanted to end Wolverine's movie journey. Once and for all. Until this day, I haven’t fully comprehended the films’ right order. True, I never really tried to find out but the movies didn’t make it easy for me either. Fortunately, the premise is very clear in this movie and it is not difficult. Quite the opposite. Hugh Jackman said his goodbyes with style, of course, so you can expect to see a great action ride with a main hero who in this film convinced me why I should never forget him. Thank you, Wolverine, and good bye!
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