SPOILER ALERT (But y'all should know that already by now).
My favourite superhero/comic book film of all time.
And one of my favourite films, period.
Logan marks the end of Hugh Jackman's legacy of playing the iconic Wolverine and Patrick Stewart's tenure as Charles Xavier AKA Professor X.
The premise:
It is set in the near future.
Natural born mutants are few and far between.
An aging Logan is slowly being poisoned by the adamantium on his skeleton, his healing factor slowing with his advancing years.
He is working as a limo driver in order to make money to look after Charles Xavier, who's telepathic powers are now considered a huge threat to the public because of the degenerative state of his mind.
Logan is approached by a woman, asking him to take her and a little girl to North Dakota.
When the woman is murdered, the little girl, a young mutant named Laura, is thrown into Logan's care.
Together with Charles, they travel across the country, wreaking havoc, stealing soda, causing major emergencies and cutting the heads off of bad guys.
And that's just Laura.
The goal is Eden. Getting Laura and the other mutant children like her, across the border to a safe haven for children like them.
As well as being the last Wolverine film for Hugh Jackman, it is also the first film in the X-Men universe with an R-Rating and Mary mother of all that is holy, do they lean into that.
Violence? Brutal.
Storyline? Does not pull any punches.
Kids? Jumping off buildings to escape the bad guys.
Language? Children cover your ears.
I'm serious, it is dark as sh*t and I LIIIIVVEEE FOOORRR IIIITTTT!!!
Those who know me should know, the darker the film the better.
Unless it's scary. And yes there is a difference between dark and scary goddammit!!!
But as well as the kick ass action scenes and the pure BEAST that is Hugh Jackman's workout routine, there is actually a very emotional root to this film.
Now if you haven't seen it skip to underneath the second picture because PROPER SPOILER ALERT.
While the humour and bond between Logan and Charles is always good value, it is the slow melting of a bitter Logan by a feral little girl that gets ya right in the feels.
The development of the relationship between Logan and Laura is beautiful.
From the beginning of mutual aggression, mistrust and general feral-ness, to saving each other's lives multiple times and then the acceptance of both of them of the father/daughter bond is honestly wonderful and is one of the reasons this is in the top spot of the only three films that can make me cry.
True story, I saw these three times in the cinema and was in tears increasingly faster each time.
While I could quite happily watch Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman and maybe Hugh Jackman forever, the breakout star and highlight of the film for me was Dafne Keen, the 12 year old who brought X-23 AKA Laura to life.
The character of Laura doesn't speak.
Well not until about 30 minutes before the film ends and even then it is sparingly and mostly in Spanish.
The lack of dialogue doesn't stop Dafne delivering a stunning performance. I know that "semi-feral-child-cloned-from-a-100-year-old-mutant-with-a-drinking-problem-and-raised-in-a-lab" might seem like a challenge but she brought the character to life with ease.
As well as being one of the best child actors - actually scratch that - actors I have ever seen, she also provided me one of my favourite behind the scenes stories ever.
Now, disclaimer, I don't know if this is true but HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER I HOPE IT IS!!!
So the scene when Laura finally speaks, basically starts with Hugh Jackman screaming the F word in her face a bunch of times and then she punches him and starts ranting in perfect Spanish.
So allegedly, Hugh felt a bit bad and went up to Dafne's mother and was like "sorry about the whole swearing in your 12 year olds face thing" and the Mum just laughed and said
"Aww don't worry she just called you a C*nt in Spanish"
BY THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY PLEASE LET THAT BE TRUE!
So yeah.
I love this film a lot.
Couldn't recommend it highly enough.
Go watch it.
Now.
Like right now.
GO!
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