While the X-Men films, produced by Fox, have been a great deal of enjoyment for me, the Wolverine trilogy, featuring everybody’s favorite snarling mutant with claws, has definitely been a mixed bag. The first film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, was just a flaming mess of a flick (with the less said about it the better), while the second, The Wolverine, had a vastly superior story that took Wolverine to Japan. Logan, the third film in the series--and supposedly the final appearance of Hugh Jackman as the title character--dares to be much different, showing the always-grumpy mutant now as an old man who’s caring for an even older Charles Xavier (Patrick Steward, who’s great here) at a hideaway along the US/Mexican boarder.
Xavier is suffering from a mind degenerating disease, which causes him to lose control of himself--normally that would be a sad enough scenario, watching a once-proud man devolve into a mindless rambler, but Xavier has always been armed with super psychic powers, and so whenever he loses control, he creates what best can be described as mind-quakes that threaten to kill and destroy everything around him. Wolverine keeps Xavier safely ensconced in an abandoned factory, watched over by Caliban (Stephen Merchant, who’s also very good here), another mutant who has a strong aversion to sunlight.
Logan is working as a limo driver to raise the money to buy a boat--which doesn’t make much sense, considering how Xavier is prone to inadvertently tearing buildings apart, the last place you’d want to be with him is out on the open ocean in a boat. But their Odd Couple domestic bliss is spoiled by the arrival of young Laura (Dafne Keen, who’s marvelous), who is the first mutant--armed with her own claws and super healing ability, just like Logan--that’s been born in over twenty years. Oh, and she’s being hunted by an evil corporation that’s hired armed mercenaries who go around openly running roughshod over everybody, killing and torturing with impunity, until they find her.
What works in Logan is the performances, including Hugh Jackman’s. The cast is superb overall. Patrick Steward looks like he’s having a ball playing Xavier in such an unconventional manner, and as well he should, because he’s been given a meaty part to play. And Dafne Keen, all of eleven, perfectly imbues her mini-Wolverine with characteristics from Jackman--a good example of this is the hysterically cute scenes where she’s sitting next to Jackman and they both have that same trademark scowl.
What doesn’t work is the frigging script, which relies on so many tropes that the writers shouldn’t have even bothered writing one. One of the most annoying tropes here is the mute character who magically starts speaking late in the film’s running time. Another problem was the fact that Logan’s powers are diminishing--just like what we’ve seen previously in The Wolverine, only there it was played to much better effect. But reusing this plot device once more gives Logan this annoying ’been there, done that’ quality from the get-go. And it also doesn’t help that Logan, Xavier and even Caliban all constantly snipe and whine at each other, making the movie feel at times like it should have been called Grumpy Old Mutants .
And Logan is not very proactive; he never really takes charge, instead following a stupid plan that’s been taken from a comic book (shown in the movie) by leading Laura and a group of other mutant children to what will eventually be their slaughter (it’s established in this very film that boarders don’t stop the bad guys, so Laura and her friends are screwed regardless of what country they cross into). Logan is not as bad as X-Men Origins: Wolverine--far from it, but it's not as good as it should be. At one point in the film Charles mutters about what a disappointment Logan turned out to be. I know what he meant, because I could say the same thing about this movie. --SF
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