SO IT is for the Wolverine—and the swan song of Hugh Jackman—in“Logan,” a worthy and final farewell salute to the X-Man and the
X-Universe of super powered mutants.
Jackman wanted his insanely crazy clawed mutant to go out with a BANG and he certainly does as this elder statesman of the X mutants is the last of his kind.
Positioned in a dystopian world somewhere between now and 2053, all of the Marvel Comics’ X-Men, including Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Storm and Jean Grey from the previous X-Men movies are all dead, leaving the Wolverine less than heroic now, living with 90-year-old Professor Xavier, who is but a shell of a man, the once most powerful mutant of them all, now battling dementia.
Not a good thing for the most powerful mental giant on Earth.
Residing (if you can call it that) near the US/Mexican border, Logan spends his days fretting about his weakening superpowers of invulnerability and healing factor which is wearing out and sometimes just doesn’t work, and every time he “pops” his Adamantium metal claws, he is under excruciating physical pain.
Basically, he’s a grizzled old guy who is a drunk, living in the past.
Certainly a far cry from the leadership role Logan assumed with the X-Men in “Days of Future Past” in 2014 where nothing short of a decapitation would stop him.
Now he drives a limo for food money and
Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) is hiding out from his own warped mind and sleeps inside the rusted metal shell of an abandoned water tower. “Logan” will also be Sir Patrick’s final performance as the wheelchair-bound, bald-headed mutant.
In this future world, there is no X-Mansion in upstate New York and no more students.
Say goodbye to the fancy jet airplane and those really cool skin-tight leather uniforms.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen!
You can imagine that everything would just barely keep going on until Logan can save up enough spare cash to rent a house boat so both he and old man Xavier can spend their days waiting for the final sunset in which they eventually kick over and die—except—fate throws in the addition of Laura Kinney, an actual mutant, the first in nearly two decades, who goes by the code name X-23—and just so happens she has metal claws all her own and a really nasty attitude towards authority figures.
Laura is on the run from the “Reavers,” themselves a far-away off-shoot of the villainous Brotherhood of Evil Mutants formed decades earlier (at the end of “X-Men First Class” in 2011) and she arrives on the doorstep of Professor X and Logan as her only hope.
This little 12-year-old is one of many youngsters who have been experimented on by the US government. Who else?
And because of these horrific experiments, she is cursed/granted the same powers and healing abilities as Logan.
As Laura sits alone in her medical prison cell, she pops her right Adamantium claws and slices deep into her left arm—only to see it
instantly grow back.
Cut from the same cloth, so to speak, Logan rushes to her aid when the Reavers, led by Dr. Rice (Richard E. Grant) and his own metal-enhanced mutant Alexander Pierce (Boyd Holbrook) come zooming down a dusty, dirty road with more than 15 gunmen in tow.
They are all there just in time for little Laura to drop her Mickey Mouse backpack, snarl and pop her claws.
And all hell breaks loose.
Dealing with Wolverine—sorry, I meant to say Logan—even at his worst is one thing, but handling two Wolverines at once proves much too much for the Reavers, as Logan throws the physical shell of Prof. X into the back of his limo, Laura leaps in the front seat and it’s off to the races a la “Mad Max.”
Filmed on location in rural New Mexico, this is just a taste of the action adventure conjured up by Director James Mangold (who brought in a solid “The Wolverine” in 2013) from a screenplay by both Mangold and Scott Frank and yes, we can say without question that this is the end for Hugh Jackman in this role.
But it doesn’t mean the end of the Wolverine, as 20th Century Fox which owns the rights to all of the X-Universe characters it purchased from Marvel more than 30 years ago, is no doubt casting their nets far and wide to find a replacement for Logan.
Hey—if replacement actors works for both Spiderman and James Bond, why not?
Yet the Logan we have today is nothing like his bland movie forerunners and this film is extremely gory and brutal.
No parent should allow any child younger than 16 to see this film; just because it’s about comic book originated, superpowered mutants, parents should not give children the right to see Logan which is extremely violent.
Truly, Jackman has looked better—beefier in “Days of Future Past” where he existed on nothing more than steamed chicken for six weeks prior to filming—and forced himself through an exercise regimen that would challenge even the fittest Olympian.
In “Logan,” Jackman’s lead character is frankly just worn out and needs more than a week at the Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa, Cebu to put himself together.
He himself is a bag of bones and just watching this guy take off his shirt is an exercise in massive pain. You too will wince when you see all of the body scars. Life has not been kind.
Now Logan has to fight off the Reavers who are frantic to have X-23 back under their control.
It’s a battle to the death; and you can see the bleak, physical toll taken on Jackman’s
mutant alter ego.
Logan offers some great individual performances. Stewart is and always shall be Professor Xavier even when he looks as though he is at “Death’s Door” and newcomer Dafne Keen steals the show as X-23—but it is Hugh Jackman that we now bid adieu as the Wolverine.
After portraying this single character stretching more than 25 years, it’s a bit sad to see him go out and yes, he is great, even at the end.
Just keep the kiddies home and away.