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Logan


Well, how's this for a comic book movie? It's like Peckinpah re-animated. Taking a cue from the altogether different, Deadpool of last year, Logan has been made with the letter R virtually flashing in the corner of the frame. They've gone as far away from the X franchise as possible, even dropping the name Wolverine from the title and suggesting the comics are mostly bullshit. It's a morosely fatalistic film, with a few of the characters seemingly aware of the reaper behind them and slowing down for him to catch up. Oh, and I think it's a peach.

There's a great intro for the third point in the Logan-Xavier triangle, Laura (or X-23). The director, James Mangold, keeps all the initial action hidden, aside from the noise. When we do get to see her in full flow, it's Wolverine on speed - with more blood and gore than previous Marvel films. Pretty ballsy to have a 10 year-old kid deliver a severed head like a bowling ball to the feet of her tormentors.

There are so many things to note in Logan that I'm not sure how to knit them all together. Seeing the legends, Wolverine & Xavier, in unstoppable decline is sad but inevitable, I guess. Huge Action, Patrick Stewart and Dafne Keen (Laura) are all superb. There are few chuckles and any that do occur are played black and bittersweet (Logan and Xavier swearing at each other or bickering in a public toilet). Stephen Merchant's Caliban ('glorified truffle pig') is surprisingly subtle and Richard E. Grant has a few nice moments as nasty doctor Zander Rice. His reaction to Logan telling him he killed his father is just about perfect.

Around the middle of the second act there's an excellently tense sequence where Xavier has a brain degeneration in a hotel. I didn't breathe out until the needle went in. Some immense snail-pace slaughter here too. Nice and confronting.

There's a recurrent motif of Logan waking up. The first shot of the film is him waking up in the back seat of his work limo and I noticed about 3 or 4 more of these where he opens his eyes to a surprise or a new setting. I'm sure this isn't incidental - must have something to do with his impending death (he says at the end - "So this is what if feels like"). The adamantium bullet that he has designs on putting into his own brain kind of foreshadows that his number is up in this film, one way or another.

If there are any negatives, I'd say it got a bit baggy in the middle and the Shane reference is somewhat mug-handed, though poignant.

Oh, and it shares a lot with Mad Max 2 - dystopian landscapes, big vehicles kicking up dust, main character being lifted up a ridge in a makeshift winch.

Right, I reckon that's about all. As far as comic book films go, Logan must rank in the top five, not only for its complete bleakness and contrast to the regular comic film fare, but also because it stands up as a meditation on aging, immortality and hopelessness. And is a lot of fun too. Not many films can carry that off.

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