James Mangold has the odd capacity to take films that are based in generic and comfortable genres and lifting them to a level where they almost mystically feel new. Walk the Line isn’t the most original, but Mangold and his actors squeezed an inspired and wonderfully romantic movie out of the skeleton of a typical script. The same thing is found in 3:10 to Yuma, a literal remake that felt like a shot in the arm for the Western genre and contains the second best performances of this century for both Christian Bale (his crowning American Psycho being the first) and Russell Crowe (The Nice Guys #1). Mangold even made something out of The Wolverine, which script wise is bad, but direction wise feels solid enough to hold together it’s rampant tonal shifts. Logan, Mangold’s second foray into the Wolverine character is the best movie out of all of those, a violent, exploitative adventure into the dark-side of the mutants, all spiced up with Mangold’s trademark style. The comparisons to The Last of Us and other Westerns in the the discussion of the film are sound, but as usual Mangold sure doesn’t let it get predictable or anything in between. Logan is a full blooded world of a movie. “Full blooded world” isn’t something that you typically hear to describe a film but it is the perfect description to use here. The one thing that has been missing from years of entertaining but not euphoric X-Men movies is a sense of reality other than the comic like one of the comics and, while that works well with adaptation, there wasn’t much moving the characters into something that resembled a world that we as an audience could believe. The same is with the Marvel movies. As spectacular as all these get, there’s a lack of unabashed reality. Those films are amazing fantasies. The DCEU are horrible fantasies. Logan is a fantastic reality. The obvious difference between Logan and it’s contemporaries would be the fact that comes brandishing an “R” rating, which actually makes a huge difference. Explicit content in a film, when used correctly can make the world of that film ever more tangible. The cutting of Wolverine’s action in the previous X-Men films made for a disconnect with the audience as we watched each director who took charge try and make the bloodless claws work. They did, for the most part due to creativity, but there was always a lacking sense to the character because he never truly was going to be fully realized, despite Jackman being always damn amazing as the titular character (he’s the best he ever was in Logan). In Logan, that is not the case. From minute one the atmosphere of the mutantless society that Logan, Professor X, Caliban, and a mysterious girl named Laura end up in is solidified in a blaze of bloody glory and as when the claws come out, so do the guts. Worldbuilding violence aside, this is a movie about Wolverine running with the Professor and Laura from some very powerful members of Logan’s past, and if you know what’s coming, the violence and action on the way shouldn’t surprise you. Logan has the best action of any recent superhero film. It makes easy work out of the action letting everything linger long enough to register as brutal and brazen but being fast enough to let you feel it. This is controlled chaos ever so ready to explode, and when it does (which is thankfully multiple times) Mangold seems to let everything let loose. There’s a second act battle with a particularly familiar and powerful figure that just kills it in the action department and then goes ahead and kills it (no pun intended) in the gore department too. Jackman, is always effortlessly this character, but here him having played it for 17 years does a lot for the character up on screen. Jackman is Logan, and it’s hard to believe anyone will find themselves topping his firm grasp of character. Patrick Stewart is put in much the same position. Stewart, a great stage actor, has for years brought his bravado to Charles Xavier, and Logan stretches him more than the other films ever did. It’s a difficult new performance but Stewart almost seems to strut in and show everyone how it’s done. The kindness of his character has persisted on for a long time and is present in Logan. Laura, played by Dafne Keen doesn’t speak for most of the movie and still creates a dynamic with the two older mutants. When she is finally able to speak, her actions compared to her voice and stature become an instantly funny, surprisingly fulfilling reveal. There’s more to Laura than meets the eye and she’s probably the most badass little kid put to screen. Yet, in all this effort seems somewhat misguided. James Mangold has taken a genre that we love (Fury Road and The Last of Us being evidence) and made something exceptional with it. He’s one of the greatest living action directors we have and one the greatest dramatists and Logan is his crown jewel so far. See it before you can’t. I give Logan a 9.5 out of 10.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |