Logan is the third, last and finally excellent standalone Wolverine movie that we were repeatedly promised and denied. Logan is the tenth X-Men film and arguably the best since the first in the franchise (maybe even better than the first). The Walking Dead is such a popular show because unlike the French and the Japanese, Americans are unable to meditate well about life and death without action and violence otherwise it turns schmaltzy and trite. Logan is a gritty piece about a disillusioned, decaying man without resources and hope who survives the anguish, monotonous and faded routine of a world with no miracles/God, not for himself, but for the few people that he loves.
Logan makes a great visual companion piece to After the Storm since both films are polar opposites, but deal with the same issues. The X-Men franchise is rather hopeful-even if you feel like a freak, and you don’t belong, you are actually special and part of God’s plan for humanity, and there is a community for you. Logan is set in 2029, a drab world without mutants, and the few mutants that do exist are preparing to exit and are a danger, not a gift to the world, which is now filled with thieves, criminals and drunken louts. Logan turns the comfort provided by the X-Men franchise on its head in an emotionally and visually desolate and resonant way. Many reviewers compare it to Westerns, but I also got a film noir vibe with the mysterious woman wanting help that sucks the hero into her vortex of drama. There is also a Mad Max: Fury Road/Children of Road dystopian world quality to Logan.
Logan is really a film about the powerlessness of the sandwich generation. The sandwich generation is no longer filled with hope about the future, is an independent contractor with no benefits or steady salary, has no time to rest and sleeps between jobs, and when not working, is caring for aging relatives and/or kids. Logan is the most honest film about economic anxiety, the anger at the impossibility of achieving the American dream and corporate/government exploitation and corruption. People are running to the Canadian border right now. Have you heard of Henrietta Lacks? I noticed the references to Juarez and women disappearing, water wars, GMO vs organic. Without the action sequences, Logan could be a documentary.
Logan also felt like the meta comic book movie reprise to M. Night Shylaman’s Unbreakable. Comic books or any stories are not accurate representations of what happens. They are commercial products, but all stories contain a shred of truth and reveal a glimpse of hope. Comic book authors are the God of the X-Men universe so while the forces of corporate and government are arrayed against the mutants, God does not make mistakes and will make a way where there is no way.
Logan features the finest performances by Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart. Logan almost makes the deeply flawed prior X-Men installments worth it to imbue the character history, nostalgia and feeling referenced in their depictions of these well-known characters. So good!
In 2014, when I was watching X-Men: Days of Future Past, a teenage girl was drooling over Hugh Jackman because duh, but I was thinking that people have been watching him since X-Men was released in 2000, she will have to go to the back of the line. I have actually been willing to give up my place in line because Jackman as Wolverine has been too bulgy and veiny, but in Logan, with his immortality on the decline, even an aging, limping, ailing, messy, dusty Wolverine had me muttering, “Look at his fine old ass.” Glad that I did not give up my spot on line. Back of the line, whippersnapper.
In the past, I begged friends to remind me in the future, how I will want to see the next Wolverine movie, but I never like them so warn me not to go. I’m glad that I didn’t listen to myself. I am absolutely thrilled that I saw Logan in the theater and may even watch it again.