This third installment in the Wolverine franchise, Logan, marks Hugh Jackman’s final go at playing this legendary character.
We see the aged Wolverine in the year 2029, where the world has not been kind to our superhero. There hasn’t been in a new mutant born in years, making Logan and the remaining few survivors an endangered species. Charles Xavier, the protector and mutant advocate, has been labelled a “weapon of mass destruction” by the U.S. government because of his inability to control his powers, due to his diminishing mental state. Logan/Wolverine, who now goes by the name, James Howlett, has taken it upon himself to hide and care for Charles Xavier in a water tower somewhere in Mexico. Now, if that wasn’t enough to get you hooked, the adamantium that once made Logan indestructible, is killing him from within. All he really wants, is to keep a low profile as James Howlett and raise enough money working as a limo driver, so that he and Charles X can live the rest of whatever life they have left at sea; away from the world.
Of course, everything changes once Logan comes into contact with a woman who offers him a large sum of money to escort a mysterious young girl named Laura, to the U.S./Canada border. Logan realizes soon enough however, that Laura is no ordinary girl, when as an evil government agency tries to capture her.
What makes Logan so enjoyable? Well, it’s that director James Mangold with co-writers Scott Frank and Michael Green touch upon the X-Men history but ultimately create an indirect sequel not linked to the other timelines. The way I see it, it opens up great possibilities. That, and with the addition of an R rating; that allows the film’s brutal action sequences to be perfectly matched with the hard hitting emotionally driven dialogue, give Charles and Logan an added sense of depth and vulnerability. This has been really lacking in previous superhero films. Finally, the characters are no longer bound by their comic book limitations and as much as I love superhero movies, sometimes you want more than a CGI spectacle and Logan is a welcome and refreshing take in the superhero mythos.
I must admit though, it is a bittersweet victory for me. If this truly turns out to be Hugh Jackman’s last take on Wolverine, it’s just heartbreaking that it has to end when Mongold, Frank, Green and Jackman finally deliver a movie that fans can sink their “ehm” claws into. At least they can walk away from this franchise with their heads held high.
