Hello dear reader, well they say all good things come to an end and with a few possible exceptions, which I’ll get to later, Logan marks the end of Hugh Jackman playing the Wolverine and also the last time we will also see Sir Patrick Stewart taking on the mantel of Charles Xavier, or ‘Wheels’ as he’s more affectionately referred to by Mr Pointy Knuckles himself. Back in 2000 Bryan Singer directed what was to be the first of many mutant movies and he set the ball rolling on what has become a very successful franchise. Now, it would be almost unthinkable to try and suggest anyone other than Robert Downey Jr to play Iron Man and the same is true for Logan. Wolverine IS Hugh Jackman and Hugh Jackman IS Wolverine. The two are now permanently linked together and it’s futile to try and think of one without the other. In the same way that Jekyll had his Hyde, Sherlock had his Watson and Ant-Man had his Dec-Man. The Wolverine Jackman combo is now truly set in stone as a pop culture icon that isn’t going to be forgotten about anytime soon. So just think, if it hadn’t have been for a substantial overrun and scheduling conflicts on John Woo’s Mission Impossible II, then the last seventeen years could have looked very different. Yes, though it pains me to say it, if Mr Woo had been able to deliver the aforementioned film on time and on not had to deal with the reshoots Paramount had asked for, then Dougray Scott would have been lighting up the multiplexes across the globe as the man with the mutton chops, spandex suit and a one size fits all tin opener. And, if you don’t know who he is, it’s probably because he wasn’t able to play Wolverine seventeen years ago and has spent most of the last two decades on the periphery of Hollywood A-list, trying very hard to get in…
So back to Logan. It marks the ninth X-Men movie to date, or tenth if you Include Ryan Reynolds Deadpool and apart from Deadpool, Hugh Jackman has been in, popped up or cameoed in (delete where appropriate) every single one of them. To be fair, he was mentioned in Deadpool and, albeit briefly, Ryan Reynolds does walk around in a Wolverine mask for a while but it would seem that the character of Wolverine is inexplicably linked to all things X-Men and you can’t make a movie about mutants without him. The good news is that Logan is not like anything that has come before it and although its directed by the same man who directed the last standalone Wolverine film, which by the way was cunningly titled ‘The Wolverine’, James Mangold has taken the film in a completely different direction to its predecessors. This was been widely regarded as a good thing as the common consensus re ‘The Wolverine’ is that it sucked so much it could and indeed should have been called ‘The Dyson’.
Towards the end of 2016, just as the first trailer for Logan was about to be released, James Mangold tweeted a picture of one of the pages from the Logan screenplay and there, within that one photo, it revealed the tone and direction the movie was set to take. That one page of A4 shows Logan dropping the F-bomb and more importantly, hidden within the exposition there was the following little nugget of information “Basically, if you’re on the make for a hyper choreographed, gravity defying, city-block destroying, CG fuckathon, this ain’t your movie.” So not much of a grey area or wiggle room there then. Thanks to Deadpool and its adult R-rated approach, Logan was going to be allowed to pick up where Wade Wilson had stopped, taking the very violent and foul mouthed baton and running with it at full pelt.
So, what about plot I hear you ask. Well, in its simplest form Logan tells the story of a man who’s worn out. A man who has paid his dues and then some and just wants to live the quiet life, under the radar, not bothering anyone and trying very hard to make sure no one bothers him. Set in the year 2029, we find Charles Xavier being looked after Caliban, played very well by the head shaven Stephen Merchant and Logan working as a limo driver to help pay the bills and medical costs to keep Charles deteriorating mental health and brain quakes under control. In this not so distant future we find a world where new mutants are not being born and the ones that are still alive are being hunted to the point of extinction. Now this causes one of my few niggles with the film Logan. The reason for there not being any new mutants being born is very much one of those ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ explanations. It almost seems like a throwaway line the writers have used to paint themselves back out of the corner they so deftly brushed themselves into. As well as dealing with Charles health problems Logan is having to also negotiate with his own failing health. It would seem that the adamantium that was inserted into his body, all those years ago, has been slowly poisoning him and Logan’s ability to heal has been slowly slipping away. Due to Charles having this brain episodes, which effectively paralyse everyone with the immediate vicinity when they happen, they are having to lay low in a Mexican compound, just south of the border. Everything seems to be going well and then a young girl and her nurse/mother gate crash the story and convince Logan to take them to a safe area, just across the Canadian border.
You may have seen this young girl in the trailers for the film. Clips of her kicking man size butt and basically doing whatever she thinks is necessary to survive have been floating around for a while now. She is pivotal to the story and without giving too much away she is referred to as X-23. Now, what isn’t in any of the promotional material you’ll find out there is that there is also an X-24. It’s a credit to all those involved with the making of the film that they managed to keep X-24 well and truly under their hats. It can’t have been easy but the fact that it was such a closely guarded secret meant it was a nice unexpected surprise when it was first revealed on screen.
And there you have it. After three X-Men (the last of which was pants), three Standalone and three wibbly wobbly timey wimey films (the last of which was double pants with cardigan elbow patches on top) both Hugh Jackman and Sir Patrick of the Stewart are done. Both have said that this is the end for them but the good news is I suspect it won’t be the last time we ever see either of these characters on the silver screen. Xavier already has a younger understudy in the form of James McAvoy waiting in the wings and I’m sure they’ll find some way to incorporate him in future X-Men films and lets all be honest here, there will be future X-Men films! Recasting the Wolverine may prove to be a much tougher proposition altogether though. I mean where do you even start? If it were down to me I’d be calling the respective agents of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kit Harington or if you’re a fan of long shots, possibly even Gwendoline Christie. Whoever the powers that be chose to replace ‘The Wonder from Down Under’ they will have some awfully large shoes to fill and the task of effectively reinventing the wheel and whoever gets the winning ticket they’ll also need some fairly strong shoulders to deal with the weight of expectation thrust upon them. In closing I’ll say this. It can’t be a coincidence that the bulk of this story is about people wanting to cross borders to give themselves a chance at a better and safer life. It can also not be a coincidence that the main antagonist in Logan is called Donald. But fear not ladies and gentleman, if Logan tells us anything it’s that the future is bright and it’s almost certainly not orange…
Twitter Review:
Logan is the send-off Wolverine needs & deserves. Violent & vicious with just a twist of compassion.
#X-23IsTheMagicNumber
Logan is the send-off Wolverine needs & deserves. Violent & vicious with just a twist of compassion.
#X-23IsTheMagicNumber
