Owen Johnson
Connector Staff
When it comes to the X-Men movies, the formula seems to be that of every trilogy they do, there is one good one and two not as good ones. In the first trilogy that movie was “X2,” in the prequel trilogy it was “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” and with the Wolverine centric movies, “Logan” is that movie.
Set several decades after the last time Logan (Hugh Jackman) has been seen, mutants have all but vanished. Logan and Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) find themselves as guardians for a young mutant girl named Laura (Dafne Keen), whom they must help reach a potential safe haven for mutants.
Starting off, the progression of everything is handled very well. There is no exposition dump where all of the details about what has been happening in between this movie and the last movie, but enough details are given where the audience would be able to figure out what happened. On top of that, both Logan and Xavier’s characters have aged believably, and it is not stretch to see these guys as older version of the characters from previous films.
With the exception of the villains who are a bit underdeveloped, every other major character is well written, and all of the characters are well portrayed by their actors. Jackman and Stewart give their best performances of the X-Men franchise in this movie, and Keen does a good portrayal of her character Laura.
The movie fluctuates with who it wants the villain to be. At the beginning, the villain that is established named Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook) seems like he is the main antagonist, until it is revealed he is just a henchman for a man named Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant). Rice comes out of nowhere half way through the movie, and due to that it feels like there is never a consistent villain for the heroes to worry about.
The R rating of the movie definitely fits with the kind of character Wolverine is and works with the established tone of the movie, though it does feel like it is going overboard at some points. For the most part, the blood, gore, and cursing that earned the movie its R rating all fits. There are a few cases where it feels like the amount of gore becomes superfluous in order to just have it because an R rated movie can.
That being said, the action that is in the movie is probably the best that there has been in the whole series. It feels very raw and real, it is well choreographed, and the characters’ age and power is shown through their fighting.
The movie is very slow but in a good way. It is slow moving as it is less of a typical super hero action movie like all of the other X-Men movies have been, and there is more of a focus on Logan’s character. There is constant story and character progression so that it never feels boring, and when the action scenes do come around they feel well deserved.
“Logan” is far from perfect, but when it comes to ending a long running series, it does its best and its successes greatly outweigh its flaws.
Final Grade: B+
