'Logan' Review: The end of an Era, The birth of a Legend!

9.6/10

In every minute, every frame, every moment, Logan feels like the Wolverine movie Hugh Jackman has been waiting (and training) for the last 17 years to make. Set free of a PG rating, this wildly kinetic film has plenty of gore, action and violence pumping through its veins. But what makes this one of the finest superhero movies ever produced is the big, but somewhat broken heart beating at its core.

Set in a grim near-future where the mutant species is dwindling , we meet an unthinkable incarnation of our favourite enclawed superhero: one who's decidedly past his prime. This is not the near-immortal Wolverine we remember, but Logan (Jackman): a broken, far older man who feels the weight of every wound inflicted upon him. His body tattooed with scars that aren't healing as fast or as well as they used to. It's only his determination to keep the ailing, ageing Professor Charles Xavier (Stewart) safe and alive that never falters.

The film's plot kicks into overdrive when Logan's fate becomes entangled with that of the amazing Laura (Keen), a close-to-feral young girl who brandishes claws and fury as fierce and lethal as Logan's own. As the unlikely trio go on the run, we see echoes of Logan himself in Laura's terrifying rage and the tentative emotional connection she forges with Xavier. It's one of many smart moves on the part of James Mangold, who does double duty as director and co-writer. Bringing Laura into the picture allows him to explore Logan's trauma and regrets.

Logan keeps dragging himself through the world when one suspects all he wants to do is die. Xavier grapples with his own frailty as his once-sharp mind deteriorates and betrays him, again and again. Laura is a tough, tender mess of contradictions: a victim of horrific abuse but also a warrior in the making. Watching them interact (fighting, screaming, arguing, glaring and, once in a while, forgiving) will elicit laughter and tears (lots of tears), in a way that no other superhero film to date has quite managed.

That doesn't mean, however, that Logan is an entirely joyless, sombre affair. Far from it. Mangold threads moments of genuine humour into the proceedings, from casual shoplifting and runaway horses, to an ornery old man who refuses to take his pills.

The fast and furious action beats in Logan are also quite delightful to witness. The violence that's on full, bloody display is dark and gritty, but somehow fitting for this film in which there really are consequences for battles fought and lost. It's only when you see Logan's claws plunging into flesh, shearing cleanly through meat and bone, that you realise just how neutered and family-friendly his earlier outings were and it just makes you love this that little bit more. And it goes without saying that watching Laura gracefully spin and slice her way through oncoming attackers manages to be terribly wrong and wonderfully right at the same time and it doesn't help that she does it all with such style.

To be quite frank, none of this would work without the incredible cast, all of them doing award-worthy work that will, sadly, be overlooked because their characters have such silly things as 'powers'. It's truly unsettling to watch Stewart dig beneath his natural gravitas to find the shaken core of a Professor X who's semi-consciously losing grip of his mind, the best and most dangerous mind in the universe. Keen is a revelation. Grabbing this breakout role by the throat and making it very much her own, she somehow manages to convey Laura's childish fragility and overpowering strength, often in the same breath, she was bloody amazing, great young talent we have there.

And, finally, there's Jackman. He's been training for and playing the role that catapulted him to global stardom for 17 years now, and he brings everything he has to this final outing as Logan. He nails Logan's physical tics, of course: from his grizzled and aged demeanour, to his rattling cough and copious drinking. But Jackman also takes delight in unearthing the dark sadness at the heart of this once invincible, now vulnerable man. There is a hope and purity in Logan that doesn't always show through his wisecracks, but it shines brightly and unexpectedly here (often in the film's saddest moments).

There's only really two minor things (or shall I say people) about the film that for me don't work quite so well. The main antagonists, played by Richard E. Grant and Boyd Holbrook, are largely forgettable (there's not much that defines them outside their nefarious goals).

But this doesn't detract from the fact that Logan is a remarkable achievement. It manages to be several things at once: a bruising action film, a tender family drama and an intimate character study, liberally shaken through with comic-book sensibilities and a Western or two. If Jackman really is hanging up his claws for good, there could be no better way to bid farewell to one of Marvel's most enduring and appealing characters (and the tears flood down my face, one last time)...