{"id":24725,"date":"2017-03-20T07:29:29","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T11:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=24725"},"modified":"2017-03-20T07:33:30","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T11:33:30","slug":"logan-2017-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/20\/logan-2017-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Logan (2017)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Logan, the public\u2019s beloved Wolverine, has aged and isn\u2019t doing so great.\u00a0 As he holds onto life for some reason and is looking for a reason to be.\u00a0 His later life is not filled with action, something he seems to have settled into.\u00a0 That is until a woman comes asking for his help and a chain of events leads to him having to help a young girl in desperate need of guidance and assistance.<\/p>\n

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Logan is not along the lines of the other Wolverine films or even of the X-Men cinematic universe.\u00a0 Director James Mangold creates here an ending for the Wolverine most have come to love on film in his version of things.\u00a0 Logan is a writing collaboration between Mangold, Scott Frank, and Michael Green, based on a story by Mangold and in turn based on the characters created by John Romita Sr., Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Herb Trimpe, Craig Kyle, and Christopher Yost.\u00a0 Their writing does include some fan service, but not annoyingly so.\u00a0 They do have nods and winks for the fans in there, but Logan is its own thing using familiar characters and storylines.\u00a0 The film is built in a way that is reminiscent of a western with touches of action movies and of course sci-fi given that there are mutants.\u00a0 What the writing team and director create here is a great film, with a good storyline, and fitting ending for Hugh Jackman has Wolverine.\u00a0 Their story, the way they tell it, hits all the right notes for this reviewer who may not be a huge X-Men fangirl, but who did some digging for backgrounds and some research as the films came out.\u00a0 It must be noted that as someone who has not really like the X-Men movies that came out in recent years.\u00a0 This film has its own tone, its own feel while keeping a few of the characters we know and setting them in a bleak future for mutants where they try to survive and maybe, perhaps, even be more than shadows.<\/p>\n

The cast here brings up just a few of the usual suspects and a slew of new people.\u00a0 Of course, Hugh Jackman is the lead as Logan\/Wolverine and he brings an interesting side of him to the plate here.\u00a0 He shows some cracks, more than usual; he is aging and looks like he may be a bit lost at times.\u00a0 This adds to the character, to the persona of Logan.\u00a0 His interpretation here adds a few layers to his already developed character, giving him a more vulnerable side, a side that makes him more human.\u00a0 How Jackman allows Logan to age in this, which of course is decided by the script and direction, shows that he is deeply involved in this character that he has been embodying for so long.\u00a0 He creates an aging version of himself that is unsure of where to go from there and shows it while still being a protector and fighter.\u00a0 Playing a fantastic X23, or Laura, is Dafne Keen who gives a performance here that makes her shine in scenes she shares with Jackman and Patrick Stewart.\u00a0 This girl is talented and gives her all in scenes that are emotionally and physically demanding.\u00a0 This young lady will be one to watch.\u00a0 Of course, rounding out a big part of the runtime is Patrick Stewart playing an aging and ailing Professor X whom here is afflicted with what could be a cross between dementia, Alzheimer\u2019s, and a mutant\u2019s version of a brain degenerative disease.\u00a0 His portrayal is full of subtle and not so subtle nuances, showing that he truly understands the aging process and what it is doing to the magnificent mind of Charles Xavier.\u00a0 Outside of these three, Eric LaSalle gives a great performance as a man that helps them along the way and Boyd Holbrook plays a mostly worthy and rather despicable villain lifted from the comics and adapted to the film\u2019s tone and need as Pierce.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s western feel does not only come for the story and how the characters evolve but also from its look and its sounds.\u00a0 The cinematography here by John Mathieson gives the film a look that fits with old school westerns even though the settings are modern\/futuristic, the way scenes are framed and shot remind of old westerns and of how they feel, how they show the characters.\u00a0 The film keeps a very unified look throughout even though the settings and scenes vary.\u00a0 The music by Marco Beltrami fits these images and this feeling quite well throughout adding to everything and never distracting from what is shown.<\/p>\n

Of course, the film also has the usual art direction, makeup effects, visual effects, etc, which are all good and well done, but is more important here is the feeling of the film, if it gives a good final hoorah to Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, which it does and does very well.\u00a0 The film feels right, it fixes some of the past issues (albeit not all of them) with the way he\u2019s been portrayed in the previous entries, and it creates an aging version of him as well as Professor X which are satisfying as well as where they go with things for them.\u00a0 The film also brings up new character with fairly well developed background that could possibly be taken in its territory and its own series of film almost completely independent of the original films.\u00a0 This one is probably the most satisfying X-Men film without feeling like it\u2019s from the X-Men comics if that even makes sense.\u00a0 It\u2019s a solid entry in the series and a solid stand-alone film that could fairly easily be watched by someone with no background on the characters.\u00a0 Logan is a solid ending for its title character and could easily be a high point for the X-Men series or a solid high to end on.<\/p>\n