Seventeen years and several films after Fox helped jump-start decent movies adapted from Marvel Comics with the sometimes (but not always) successful X-Men franchise, we now come to the seemingly last chapter in which Hugh Jackman will portray the complicated and animalistic Wolverine. The film opens without preamble or grand sequences in the year 2029 with Wolverine now just known as Logan mostly, making ends meet by being a Lyft-styled limo driver. We do get a brutal reminder that he used to be the best at what he used to do and that what he used to do wasn’t very nice. He roams much of the southwest getting resources for a compound owned by Caliban (Stephen Merchant) where he takes care of former professor turned Alzheimer’s patient Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). Logan himself isn’t doing so hot either as his healing factor is working more slowly than ever and after 200+ years seemingly, his lifestyle has taken a dreadful physical toll.
Logan’s life is complicated though with the arrival of a bionic-armed merc named Pierce (Boyd Holbrook) who is looking for a woman named Gabriela (Elizabeth Rodriguez) possibly trying to contact him soon. Sure enough, Gabrielle does show up eventually, hoping to hire Logan to take her and her daughter Laura (Dafne Keen) out of the country and up north. He initially turns down the job and wants no more of anything resembling an adventurer’s life until Gabrielle offers a crazy amount of money for the job that could help out his friends.
This leads to a turbulent road trip for Logan, Charles, and Laura as they face many dangers along the way. Writer-director James Mangold took the challenge of adapting the initial comic story Old Man Logan by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven, and Dexter Vines into an entirely enjoyable work by adding in crucial dramatic elements of a warrior’s journey without the distraction of many tropes that have worked into comic adaptations of late. Many of the characters of that graphic novel were unavailable for use here due to Fox / Marvel licensing issues, so Mangold and co-writer David James Kelly took the story a different direction.
Along the way, though, he infused the directing philosophy of showing instead of telling which worked very well for John Wick, Mad Max Fury Road and similar fare. A lot of information is conveyed about the world around these characters and how it has affected them. Long-time comic fans are likely more apt to recognize some of these aspects but newcomers can follow what’s taking place rather well. What results is less a standard superhero story and more an intelligently-written drama with western, superhuman and horror elements to it.
Yes, I said horror, both in terms of story and action. What the group runs across are some pretty nasty revelations and dangers. Action wise, though, we get to see fast and furious fight sequences with blood and body parts galore. Comic fans who’ve been clamoring to see Wolverine’s unbridled berserker rage will not be disappointed here as we see him and others help this movie earn that R-rating (thanks likely to the Deadpool filmgoers.) While the cinematography of John Mathieson captures the fights pretty well, what makes them most effective is the excellent development and interaction between these characters in the quiet moments as things progress, particularly with little Laura. Mangold has Dafne Keen portray her with some tenderness and quiet rage that naturally comes to a child who has had as rough life like she has obviously had. At various times it becomes clear only Logan and Charles can help her prepare for any semblance of a normal life in the world. She’s been through a lot of pain but is also very bright and doesn’t always want to be the monster she feels inside herself. Watching this emerging balance makes Laura a very compelling figure to this story instead of just a sidekick of any sort.
Jackman and Stewart, on the other hand, are compelling for entirely different reasons. Both have settled into their roles very well over the years but for this outing, it’s nice to see them bring something a bit extra. It’s akin to seeing Sylvester Stallone invest more into his last couple outings as Rocky Balboa because he wanted to give fans the best of his work to a character he so clearly loved portraying. Stewart gets to channel his boisterous Blunt Talk persona into the role of Charles Xavier and it makes the buddy-movie banter between him and Logan more fun to watch this go around. Jackman is more confident yet sadder here than any previous Wolverine works, knowing this may be his last outing as the hero with the uncertain future. Logan has been thrust into a life aspect he neither asked for nor thought possible after a lifetime of battles, and Jackman conveys the appropriate ranges necessary to make him believable.
Director Mangold proves to be two things necessary to make this film work so well: a good cinematic storyteller and a fan of the Wolverine character both as a person and his mythos. These aspects help lift the Logan movie above being just another comic based film into being a good tale alongside its likely inspirations Lone Wolf & Cub and Road To Perdition. Mangold’s prior film The Wolverine was a decent outing but wasn’t as focused or flowing as Logan is. As a result, he and Hugh Jackman have learned much from that collaboration to give fans the perfect finale for this iteration of the character and intriguing prospects for future installments should Fox choose to proceed with the franchise. Highly recommended.
Grade: A