Remember the first X-men movie, a bunch of mutants with powers exclusively unique came over to take the world by a storm? By all means it was none other than Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine character that captivated our attention for its rigid and gritty bloody good illustration. Logan is the tenth film in the X-Men series and Jackman has been in nine of them, since 2000 the first movie.
Its 2029. Mutants are all but almost extinct for unknown reasons. The only known survivors stick together like a broken family bonded by mutual grief. Logan is haunted by all the violence and loss he incurred over his unspeakable life time and as in any other Wolverine movie is toying with the idea o "Death" which is not his best friend and had trouble overcoming the idea of "not-dying". He lives in an abandoned warehouse in a desert with Caliban (Stephen Merchant), a mutant whose skills to detect other mutants were used by dark forces. Together, they are the caretaker of Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), whose mind is ill and is now prone to seizures that could paralyze a city or kill thousands. To safeguard his imbalanced and aged mind becomes a challenge and they sort of learn to survive on saving his mind from wandering off. They aren’t exactly a happy trio, and their only hope for the future is to one day live on a boat in an even more isolated area.
"Logan" is a different sort of Wolverine movie, usually its violent yes, but not as much as you would see in Logan. Almost as expected, Logan lives a fairly inferior life some decades into the future. No new mutants have been born in 20 years and, among the last of his kind, Logan now lives in a mining land, drives a Limo and as usual picks a fight almost instantly as we know him over the last few franchises, but the biggest difference here is that the man’s weariness of the violence takes over him with guilt, agility and an unusual sorrow.
Jackman's performance is temptingly physical, with Logan on the verge of dying throughout. He takes a ton of punishment, so very violent and its no surprise why the movie has been rated R. Patrick Stewart has said this will be his last movie in this franchise as well, so it's a fitting finale for both. Logan is a gloomy farewell for its titular character, but it’s also, hopefully, a farewell for this particular phase of Jackman’s career. Again, the film is so much about Logan (Hugh Jackman), Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Laura (Dafne Keen) that making it with more compelling bad guys would've made the film even better, still doesn’t lose its sheer brilliance.
The movie tries its best to be mature enough, through the vibe it’s evident that director Mangold has sparred no hair in giving a proper end to both the characters. There are beautiful moments, too. Mangold’s camera spends most of its time outdoors, soaking up quite astounding locations, and no shortage of them. Performance-wise, the film is on the money too. For both Jackman and Stewart, this is their finest work in these roles throughout, both etched with hurt, and fearful for the future. Richard E Grant is particularly strong too, but it’s Dafne Keen who’s the revelation here. The little one breathes fire as much as Jackman does and even surpasses the anger, its almost as a contest on who can be better.
Verdict : If you are an X Men fan, more importantly a Wolverine maniac, this will definitely delight you, even more make it memorable to see the best of the series go off on a winning note.
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