Logan

Set in 2029 (I think) Logan (Hugh Jackman) is a cynical drunk who works as a chauffeur driving drunk teenagers to a casino or the next party destination. The only thing he has in his life is an ailing Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) who Logan takes care of. That is until a nurse asks Logan to take a young girl, Laura (Dafne Keen) to Eden (a safe space for mutants), for a large sum of money. This young girl has claws protruding from her fist, is she Logan’s daughter? Whatever the answer is Logan finds himself right in the heart of whatever this girl is involved in.

When Logan was announced that it was going be released with an R Rating (15 in the UK) the internet was chattering with excitement, maybe we’ll get something different from the usual  repetitive tameness of the marvel canon. Of course, the R rating doesn’t guarantee a better film as it depends on how the stricter rating imposed on the film is used, and director James Mangold makes the most of the more mature rating. Logan is one of the most hardest hitting of all the superhero films as it makes the most of the R rating by making the violence feel real instead of simply being violent for the sake of it.

In addition to the more brutal violence, the examination of Logan as a character is far more in depth. Logan is a bitter, bruised and cynical individual driven to drink whilst performing a tedious chauffeur job on the US-Mexican boarder (it's not played for laughs either). He cares little for his own life let alone others except for Charles Xavier, whose dementia has confined him to a wheelchair. The relationship between Charles Xavier and Logan is a powerful one, and it shows that, beneath Logan’s tough exterior, is a genuine love for his friend.

Perhaps one of the flaws of the film is that, regarding Logan’s relationship with Laura, Logan flicks between being an uncaring, bitter individual to eventual savior is a little to often, adding to the 140 minute running time. That’s not to say Logan’s relationship with Laura is a bad one, it’s integral to getting an emotional reaction from the film (because of Hugh Jackman and Dafne Keen’s fine performances), but there are moments where Logan’s pendulum of care swings side to side throughout the film to the extent it gets repetitive. Despite this the drama is excellent, as are the performances, and vulnerability in Patrick Stewart's moving performance as Charles Xavier is hard to stomach.

Logan is a superhero film not like any of the Marvel films before it, it’s more on a par with Nolan’s Batman franchise with its dark ‘no living with killing theme’ but with sporadic and well timed humour. Logan is a refreshing step in another direction and instead simply getting the R rating for being crude (like Deadpool) Logan got its R Rating because its a much more harder hitting film than any of the Marvel films before it. 

Director James Mangold uses the opportunity to examine darker themes in greater detail and use the stronger violence to make the film feel more real and gritty than other Marvel movies where The Avengers just bat away an endless array of alien villains without a drop of blood. Terrific stuff.

4/5