My Favorite Movies- "Logan" (2017)
No matter how many movies I recommend, I am always labeled as the guy who "Hates everything." I'm trying to change that. I know I can come across as a miserable prick, but I'm telling you, I love many movies. Do I have a more critical lens than most? Yes. Does that make me right? Of course not. No matter how often I acknowledge that film is a subjective art form, people will still claim that I believe my opinions are always correct. So I'm starting a new series where I talk about my favorite movies. This is in no particular order. I'm essentially just picking movies out of a hat. But they're movies that I love. People won't believe this, but I've been trying to write a blog about "Logan" for a while. This has nothing to do with the fact that Robbie Fox called "Logan" overrated last night. I swear to god, I had this planned for a while. So let's talk about one of my favorite movies.
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*SPOILERS AHEAD*
I'm pretty superhero movie'd out at this point. The formula has worn too thin for me. Now, of course, every so often, we get something like "The Batman," which restores my faith in superhero cinema, but for the most part, I find most superhero films to be pretty stale at this point. "Logan" existed in that 10-15 year window, the golden age of comic book cinema. There is one massive downside to this film, and that's that it ruined other X-Men movies for me. I enjoyed the first two X-Men movies. But it's hard for me to watch the bloodless, sterile environment that those movies exist in. They're good movies; they just ain't my vibe. "Logan" is my vibe. It's been six years, and I'm still surprised this movie was green-lit. It was a hard R-rated superhero flick. The year before, "Deadpool" proved that R-rated comic book films could be very successful, but that was a comedy. "Logan" is the opposite. It's a dower, depressing superhero film, and god bless James Mangold and Fox for having the balls to make it.
This movie being rated R is not the reason it's good. It enhances the experience. I love the gore, and it's not gratuitous either. Wolverine's superpower is to cut people to pieces, and boy, oh boy, does he slice some dudes up in this movie. The action is slick, but the best thing about "Logan" is how strong the character work is. I mean this as a good thing, but this movie doesn't even feel like it belongs in the same universe as other X-Men films. The character work and emotion in this movie really stick with you. If there was ever a comic book film where the main actors were deserving of awards consideration, it was this one. Patrick Stewart is honest and heartbreaking as Professor X, but Hugh Jackman is flat-out remarkable. This is one of the great character sendoffs and film history, and Jackman is the biggest reason for that. He begins this movie as a completely broken man looking for a purpose. His arc (and ultimate sacrifice) makes this an emotionally resonant film.
This movie is going to age very well. It's such an outlier in the superhero genre. It's technically a part of the Fox X-Men universe, but it stands alone. It's the kind of comic book film you recommend to people who don't like comic book films. This movie gets right what so many movies fail to get right, and that's that you genuinely care about these characters. There are so many quiet, heartbreaking moments. It's a superhero film dealing with grief, death, and old age themes. It was made for adults. The first time I saw it, I remember thinking the film was ALMOST a bit light on the action sequences, then the forest scene happened, and it's one of the most badass sequences ever in a comic book film. It's the version of Wolverine we always wanted to see but never thought we'd get.
Hugh Jackman will reprise his role as Wolverine for "Deadpool 3," and I just shrugged my shoulders at that news. It'll exist in a different universe, and I hope I enjoy it, but it speaks to one of the significant issues that plague comic book movies nowadays- no one ever stays dead anymore. It's hard to take the emotional moments seriously when characters can be resurrected at the drop of a hat. I'm willing to accept that we live in a different age. But at the very least, we'll always have "Logan," a damn near perfect, post-apocalyptic western that just happens to be a masterful sendoff for one of the most iconic characters in all comic book cinema.