******Contains Spoilers******
After comparing notes and realizing that I had never seen Logan and Shawn had yet to see Deadpool, we decided to have Marvel movie night. He had endorsed Logan as being one of the best Marvel movies he had seen so I was curious to how good it really was. After all The Wolverine was a big steaming pile of rat crap so I had my doubts about a Wolverine movie being decent. I’m happy to report that he was not wrong, this movie is fantastic. Right from the opening scene you know that this isn’t a Wolverine/X-men movie, it’s more raw, more real, and more gritty. I believe the first words out of my mouth were “Oh !!” . I didn’t expect the violence or the “F-bombs” being dropped. With that said this movie isn’t just Logan running around shanking people like they owe him money. The story is about as far as you can get from a Marvel movie as it’s more focused on the characters as opposed to the typical rock ’em sock ’em action packed super battles. It completely makes you forget that you are watching a “superhero” movie and that’s not a bad thing.
I’ll give you the quick and dirty: It’s 2029 and (Old Man) Logan, far removed from his spandex-wearin’ ,Magneto- punchin’ days, lives near the Mexican border with Caliban and a dementia riddled Professor X. A mysterious woman pleads with Logan to watch over a kid, Laura. Of course, he is not on board with taking care of her but circumstances leave him no choice. Soon, it becomes clear that a secret agency is trying to capture Laura and he is forced to protect her.
Each character is a tragic figure that you can’t help but feel sorry for. Logan, for his addiction problems, Professor X for his brain degrading due to dementia, Caliban for being unable to be in sunlight and living a sheltered existence, and finally Laura for being a kid, losing her initial caretaker and finding herself surrounded by bloodshed. Professor X was particularly sad for me to watch. My grandfather suffered from dementia and towards the end of his life didn’t recognize me. Patrick Stewart did an amazing job with the character, and it was shocking to see this frail version of the Professor. To be honest, it was also shocking to see Logan taking on the role of his caretaker since I’ve always found their relationship to be more on the tense side.
If this indeed was Hugh Jackman’s last ride as Wolverine, it was a good one, as this was hands down the best film out of all the “X” universe movies to date. I cannot recommend this enough. If you haven’t seen it, pick it up at your nearest Redbox or better yet, buy it, it’s worth owning. I recently purchased the blu ray for $10 at Best Buy. It came with the blu ray, the dvd, and a special “noir” edition which is black and white.
Speaking of the Noir edition, I watched it a couple of nights ago out of curiosity. Strangely enough, it works for the most part. There are some interior scenes where it feels too dark and it’s hard to make out what’s happening. It also creates a different feeling for other scenes, namely the farmhouse massacre, which changes the movie to almost a horror flick during that shot. The original film feels like a western due to the “orange-ish” camera filter used, but even without the filter, the old western vibe really comes out in the black and white version. It’s absolutely worth checking out.
Logan: 9.5/10
Logan (noir): 7.5/10