"Logan" review

An experiment gone horribly, horribly right.

Roughly one year ago I made the audacious claim that I not only prefer the cinematic interpretation of the "X-Men" franchise to their comic book counterparts but went as far as to praise the series as an experimental success over the undeniably bold and astonishing “Marvel Cinematic Universe.”

I realize that my comments as presented in that original piece may have been a bit overzealous and understating of Marvel’s herculean challenges and successes but my general admiration for the franchise’s isolation of its more unique mutation premise from the grander landscape of "Marvel" mythology, requiring stories to be a little bit less formulaic and more branching, remains boundless and it would appear that Twentieth Century Fox themselves are even aware to some extent that the only way that they can hope to successfully compete with the MCU is by being as different from it as possible.

“Deadpool’s” success opened the mainstream door to traditional superhero franchises breaking away from the typically broad crowd pleasing mold of blockbusters produced by the genre. “Logan” however tests that limit of what to expect from these films to the absolute extreme.

Set in a future in which the mutant birthrate has plummeted, Hugh Jackman reprises his role as Wolverine for one final time, as he comes to the reluctant aid of a girl named Laura, who shares his abilities, and finds himself at the center of a conspiracy that could determine the future of mutant-kind, all the while struggling with his age finally catching up to him and diminishing the performance of his iconic healing factor.

Director James Mangold returns to the franchise after his work on 2013’s “The Wolverine” and similarly to his ability to craft Logan’s search for newfound purpose into an enjoyable modern day samurai film, his sensibilities this time are applied toward that of a modernized western, which comes as no surprise from the director of the 2007 remake of “3:10 to Yuma.”

Despite the comparatively higher levels of grit brought in for “The Wolverine” however, the film was still clearly held hostage by a studio keeping an eye trained on their bottom line via broader appeal. Any hang-ups that film had to work around were clearly tossed away immediately by the time of “Logan’s” release because this one doesn’t pull a single punch.

Mangold’s excellent eye for action is front and center while the impact of its title character doing what he does best is freed from the constraints of a PG-13 rating, making every single action sequence a grizzly affair that almost turns “Logan” into an outright horror film at times.

Flying blood splatter and limb dismemberment are practically par for the course whenever the claws are popped and it would almost be glorious if weren’t so damn gruesome. Then again, that dissonance between conceptual escapism and the disturbing reality of it all is the very thing that “Logan” revels in.

The violence of the film is harsh and unflinching but never gratuitous; it draws attention to the harsh reality that the characters find themselves in regardless of where their moralities lie, which touches on the biggest success of the film as well as the very thing that may make it a hard sell.

“Logan” is quite possibly the most grounded and deconstructive comic book film to ever be made, even compared to properties with more grounded concepts, such as “The Dark Knight.” It doesn’t just focus on the negative toll that these superhero adventures can take on the people that live through them but nails home the reality that they probably would’ve faced if they were normal civilians.

With nothing left to fight for, Wolverine is left practically homeless, with few friends and a crappy job while forming a reluctant father-son bond with a slowly growing senile Charles Xavier (reprised by Patrick Stewart), whose deteriorating mental health has manifested in his psychic powers going dangerously haywire.

Their relationship is not dissimilar to an actual adult that has to serve as a loved one’s geriatric caretaker and seeing men that have done such great things end up in such undignified yet highly relatable circumstances can almost be depressing to sit through. That’s before the actual stakes of the conflict come to fruition, which are outright gut wrenching to watch not merely because of the losses involved but because of just how resonant the whole thing becomes.

Between the franchise’s iconic leads being simultaneously at each other’s throats for the most human of reasons while grappling with their own inevitable mortality and a breakout performance by Daphne Keen as Laura who has to convey a lot of drama from the perspective of a damaged and confused child with little dialogue, “Logan” would have been a solidly crafted action drama in and of itself but with the added weight and context of a 17 year old continuity on the precipice of major overhaul signaling this as the end of things as we know them, it’s shell shocking, almost too much so at times.

With the exception of a bit of drag in the third act of the film leading to an action climax that feels a bit more mundane than the rest of the film, “Logan” tells a bleak but beautiful story about a man accepting that the inevitability of death doesn’t mean that life is meaningless and that there’s a very big difference between living life and merely existing, all wrapped up as an astounding pay off to a running continuity that could very conceivably be the first R rated movie of some of the kids that have grown up with the franchise.

That same weight that pushes it into greatness however does also make it something that isn’t the easiest of watches for the best reasons possible, making “Logan” one of the best superhero movies ever made that I’m not entirely sure if I can sit through again for at least a while.

8 Snikt effects out of 10