LOGAN – Wolverine the breakout star of the X Men universe in his tenth and final appearance – pitched as the Superhero film unlike any other and boy did they deliver that.
Nutshell – A few years after the last X-men movie, and Wolverine a.k.a. Logan, is now pretty ancient doing rubbish work. Hiding in the Southern states to finance the medicine an even older Professor X who is on his last legs, as it were, across the Mexican border. They get embroiled with a young girl who needs their help and a cross country chase ensues. This is less a superhero movie and closer to a Jason Statham or Rambo, Schwarzenegger style fight movie – against the odds and it gets very dark indeed.
Running Time – 135 minutes;
Certificate – 15; yes that is right this is not kids’ entertainment and closer to a Kick Ass movie.
Tagline – ‘His Time Has Come’ and maybe others time has come too (spoilers).
THEGAYUK Factor – Hugh Jackman’s shirt is off an awful lot here and boy is the Aussie hunk looking pumped up and lean in all the right places. Loads of sweaty man on man fight action too as you always get in this genre and it could be the most masculine superhero film ever. No hetero love interest also helps it along here.
Cast – Hugh Jackman who has made Wolverine his own for 18 long years, Patrick Stewart, the hunky Boyd Holbrook, Richard E Grant old Withnail himself on villain duty and Stephen Merchant gets out of the Office and away from Ricky Gervais for a couple of hours in the Marvel universe.
Key Player – Jackman does what he always does and does it well but the real star here is Patrick Stewart. This film requires some serious acting rather than action chops and Stewart is one of the best at sucking every drop of emotion out of a scene.
Budget – $97 million which is cheap for a Marvel tentpole and it made six figures and climbing in its first week so like all superhero films the profits are going to be huge.
Best Bit – 1.50 mins; At last we get some superhero action and it is thrilling and well worth waiting for although short. Always good to see the baddies who are pretty out there here get their comeuppance in creative ways.
Worst Bit – 0.45 mins; This is a very long film (The second longest X-men to date) and it sags a bit in the middle with a drawn out casino segment, garage segment and then a farm segment all with valid individual plot points but it really stretches the movie and makes it pretty episodic.
Little Secret – This is the last film in which Hugh Jackman will play Wolverine. He has cited his age and his skin cancer as factors in him retiring from the role. The first Marvel film to not have an end credit scene and also no Stan Lee cameo. All very different.
Further Viewing – X Men, X 2, The Last Stand, Origins, First Class, Wolverine, Days Of Future Past, Deadpool & Apocalypse the entire clawed heroes canon plus everything else that starts with the Marvel or DC logo plus every 80’s man against the odds fight film.
Any Good – Make no mistake this is brutal stuff with gore a plenty and very adult themes. It is a very entertaining movie and truly thought provoking but with the exception of the last 20 minutes in no way is this a superhero movie as we have come to know them. Therefore alter your expectations accordingly to avoid disappointment and then you will love this for what it is… an out and out drama and a fitting climax to Logan Scissorhand’s story.
Rating – 73% out of 100
