REVIEW — “Logan”

The year is 2029. From the opening of the film, it’s evident that a lot has gone down since the last time we’ve seen Logan and Professor X, who were living in a newfound future. Mutants are almost extinct, due to an incident that is barely explained. Logan, Caliban, and an ailing Professor X are all that are left, and they are spending their remaining days on a remote stretch located near the Mexican Border. Logan has abandoned his title as the Wolverine or any ties he has to the X-Men, and is now working as a limo driver for anyone who will pay him. This is until a mysterious young girl named Laura crosses paths with him, unwillingly throwing Logan back into a life he wishes he could forget and abandon for good. This throws him onto a road trip with Professor X and Laura at his side, as robotic henchmen and scientists are trailing closely behind.

I’ve been an X-Men fan from a very young age, but I’ve always found the films to be a bit problematic. They never have a consistent tone, and I never felt as if they dived as deep into their subject matter as they could have. Logan peaked my interest from the get-go, as it looked to be dealing with much heavier themes and subject matter. Even with those expectations at hand, I wasn’t prepared for how much I’d adore Logan. This truly has done for Wolverine and the X-Men franchise what The Dark Knight did for Batman back in 2008. This is a dark, dreary, melancholy film about humanity, family, hope, love, and fighting to secure those things for the people that you love; making sure that you both experience those things. Even it it’s for a brief moment in time. This is much more than a superhero film, it is a gorgeously contemplative and highly intelligent piece of art that you’d be foolish to miss due to the genre it takes place in.

Hugh Jackman obviously has no troubles when it comes to playing this role, but Logan gives him the opportunity to dig deeper into who Logan really is as a character. He’s weak, he’s weary, and he just wants to make enough money to literally sail off into the sunset without anyone telling him what to do. Dafne Keen’s Laura/X-23 is a perfect motivator for him to find his inevitable humanity underneath the depression and booze that he washes it all down with. Jackman gives a performance that is genuinely one of, if not the best of his career. Patrick Stewart also gives a heartbreaking and immensely impressive performance as Charles Xavier. The two of them continue to have great chemistry with one another. As impressive and heartwarming it is to see these two returning characters, Dafne Keen nearly steals the show here. For a majority of the film, she’s completely silent and act miles around these two veteran actors without saying a single word. It’s truly one of the best child performances I’ve seen in quite sometime, and her chemistry with the two of them is really something special.

Usually the fourth paragraph is where I try to wrap things up and talk about the issues I had with the film I’m reviewing, but this is going to be the rare review where I don’t have a single flaw to talk about. This film is a masterpiece. It’s somehow exhilarating and contemplative all at once. It’s a meditation on finding your humanity, even as a self-proclaimed monster, and finding the person that you’d literally give everything up for in life. Logan is the rare comic-book film that has come along that is actually about something and make you leave the theater with several different emotions, all of which will be strongly felt. I have no issue saying that this is the best X-Men film to date, as well as one of the best comic-book films that I’ve ever seen. Hell, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t on my Top Ten List at the end of the year. Please, see it. Support films like Logan that wish to push the envelope of an established genre. It’s a damn’ special film. 5/5.