By Chris Edwards.
After an early fight scene, it quickly becomes apparent that this is a very different Wolverine and X-Men film. Hugh Jackman’s Logan naturally comes out on top of a frivolous and particularly violent scrap, but his mutant powers aren’t working quite like they used to: his wounds take longer to heal and pus oozes from his knuckles when he protracts his knife-like claws. The character is a completely new animal – which is ironic because he looks like a dwindling Mel Gibson.
And what a shame it is that he appears to be reaching the end of the road, just as director James Mangold and Fox finally seem to have found a winning formula, producing not just the best Wolverine and X-Men film, but one that will also appeal to people who don’t go to Comic Con.
After an early fight scene, it quickly becomes apparent that this is a very different Wolverine and X-Men film. Hugh Jackman’s Logan naturally comes out on top of a frivolous and particularly violent scrap, but his mutant powers aren’t working quite like they used to: his wounds take longer to heal and pus oozes from his knuckles when he protracts his knife-like claws. The character is a completely new animal – which is ironic because he looks like a dwindling Mel Gibson.
And what a shame it is that he appears to be reaching the end of the road, just as director James Mangold and Fox finally seem to have found a winning formula, producing not just the best Wolverine and X-Men film, but one that will also appeal to people who don’t go to Comic Con.
One of the most human superhero stories to date.
In the not-so-distant future, this decisively battered Logan cares for Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who is also deteriorating in his old age (he isn’t the safest person to be around when he starts having telepathic seizures). With the two of them no longer in their prime – and the majority of mutants gone – the film is both aesthetically and narratively more grounded than your typical comic book blockbuster. There aren’t any CGI monstrosities here, just good old Logan slashing and stabbing in a slightly more violent manner than usual.
It’s also one of the most human superhero stories to date, as Logan contemplates mortality and faces the moral dilemma of helping a young girl named Laura (brilliantly played by Dafne Keen), a mutant with Wolverine-like abilities who’s being chased by a sinister corporation. The lack of characters with special powers feels like a deliberate move to distance the film from not just the rest of the series, but also the entire genre.
At one point there is even the suggestion that the events of the previous Wolverine and X-Men films might not have happened, referring to them as fiction, the sort of thing you’d find in, say, a comic book. That places Logan as a highly satisfying standalone story, set in an alternative universe where Patrick Stewart is allowed to swear.
Logan is out 1st March; get times and tickets here.
It’s also one of the most human superhero stories to date, as Logan contemplates mortality and faces the moral dilemma of helping a young girl named Laura (brilliantly played by Dafne Keen), a mutant with Wolverine-like abilities who’s being chased by a sinister corporation. The lack of characters with special powers feels like a deliberate move to distance the film from not just the rest of the series, but also the entire genre.
At one point there is even the suggestion that the events of the previous Wolverine and X-Men films might not have happened, referring to them as fiction, the sort of thing you’d find in, say, a comic book. That places Logan as a highly satisfying standalone story, set in an alternative universe where Patrick Stewart is allowed to swear.
Logan is out 1st March; get times and tickets here.
