Spoiler-Free Logan Review

Posted on March 5, 2017 by Gryffin

Logan is one of the first movies this year that I was really excited about. Wolverine is always a great character to watch, in part because Hugh Jackman is wonderful at playing the character. Wolverine is one of the only characters lucky enough to have the same actor for 17 years across several timelines of his character. It is kind of fitting, when you think of Wolverine’s god-like lifespan, that he is the same although the cast around him changes. Logan was a storyline I never knew that I wanted to see.

It seemed like the original teasers for the movie planned on doing the Old Man Logan storyline from the comic written by Steve McNiven and Mark Miller. More recent trailers and just a few moments into the movie make it clear that this is not the case. They mention the year in the movie, which seems too soon to have been during Old Man Logan. The world is a very different place during Old Man Logan, and it seems clear that they are still in a world remarkably similar to ours. You can read more about the Old Man Logan storyline at the link above.

Part of why I was anticipating seeing Logan was because it was introducing a very young female superhero. X-men has fairly consistently been full of strong, well developed female characters. If you asked me to list the first ten female superheroes that came to mind, half of them would be X-men. Jean Grey, Storm, Mystique, Rogue, Negasonic Teenage Warhead (thank you Deadpool) and Kitty Pryde are some of the female X-men that I think of first. Though they only call her by her given name in the movie, X-23 is one of the toughest characters on the planet. She has a lot of the same powers that Wolverine has. She is difficult to damage and has amazing strength. You rarely get to see superheroes this young, and you rarely get to see young ladies who can take care of themselves. Children are usually meant to be protected in movies, especially little girls. I was excited to see this awesome little badass fight, and I wasn’t disappointed. I was surprised by the way the filmmakers helped you to relate to Logan as he and Charles aged. The focus on the father-son style relationship between Logan and Charles was a wonderful surprise. I expected an action packed super hero movie; the time spent focusing on the realities of life that eventually affect us all made them come to life in a deeper way. As our family members get older, we need more and more care for them. Sometimes we recruit others that we trust to help care for our family when we cannot be there. We listen to our elders as they sometimes begin to speak in ways that do not make sense. It is frustrating to watch as our elderly become unable to tell family members apart, or as they begin to forget us altogether. As you age, you may begin to experience a loss of control of your body or your mind, or both. For many baby boomers, they are beginning to feel the effects of aging while caring for their even more elderly parents as well. The caretakers for these elders have to be responsible for ensuring they take medicine on schedule, and that they actually take it properly even when the patients don’t want the treatments. I believe the emotions revolving around end of life care are incredibly complex. Watching someone you love age into end of life makes you nostalgic for a time that cannot come back. They do not want to be weak and be taken care of, but they need help, and you do it because you want them to be safe and comfortable. Some days make you wish you didn’t have to do these things for your loved one, which makes you feel like the worst person in the world. You are close to them, so you see their pain, and you empathize with them, making you want to do anything to make their day better. My favorite scenes in the movie revolved around this family dynamic. I didn’t want the movie to progress because it was like holding on to a loved one when you know the end is inevitable, whether it happens in a few days, or a few years, you try to stretch out every moment you have to spend with them. Logan also broaches the topic of genetic manipulation. It has been a theme through the entire Wolverine and Captain America franchises. Someone is trying to create the super soldier; they are engineering the men and women who are going to defend our country, or fight our wars. Where is the line between how genetic engineering helps and when it is wrong? The same argument can be made about automation. Both are brought up in the film, and I believe the filmmakers intended people to discuss the realities of these things and how they affect our lives. The movie did feel a little disjointed. I felt the bad guys in the movie did not have a very developed character. I’m not sure I even got his name. There is a definite separation in the middle of this movie where it turns into the action movie we all expected. It’s interesting to see that the X-Men live in a world where comics exist. People still read about the adventures of Wolverine and the other X-Men; still idolize the same superheroes, still know the stories we know, except in their world it is all some sort of elaborate exaggeration. Logan talks about the decisions we have daily to complete our own lives, keeping ourselves and our families safe versus doing what is right on a different level. Many of the recent X-Men and Marvel movies broach the topic of how to define what is right and wrong, and where an individual’s responsibility lies. I think the characters in this film help you to explore multiple sides to this question and will spark further discussion. I definitely recommend seeing Logan. It was the only action movie I have ever seen that made me think so much about my own life. The director, cast and crew created a film that not only tells a story, but also instigates debate and discussion about several real life issues including genetic manipulation of our food sources, death with dignity, mortality and morality. Many of us already knew that Hugh Jackman said this was his last appearance as Wolverine. After 17 years of seeing him as Logan, this film was an appropriate send-off for a character many of us have spent the majority of our lives following through his adventures. The lack of an extra scene after the credits puts a finality to the film, closing the book on Professor Xavier and his X-Men, passing the torch to a new, very young group of mutants who may yet change the world.

Spoiler-Free Logan Review

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