- Joined
- Jun 10, 2003
- Messages
- 26,388
- Real Name
- Josh Steinberg
I saw an IMAX Laser 2D presentation last night.
Without giving away any spoilers, the movie is different in tone and attitude than every other X-Men movie. This is basically a western featuring X-Men characters, rather than being a traditional X-Men movie with western flourishes. At about two hours and twenty minutes, the film is on the longer side, but rather than using its length to pile carnage and climaxes on top of each other, the film instead devotes a large portion of its running time to character moments. Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart, in particular, are given lots of occasions to act and just be the characters they portray. James Mangold's direction here is solid, and he does a great job of holding a particular mood throughout the film. The screenplay is significantly stronger than the one for The Wolverine, and unlike that film, this one does not fall apart in the final act.
It's hard to believe it's been 17 years since the first X-Men movie launched, and the franchise has been hit-or-miss for me in that time (which still hasn't stopped me from watching and collecting all of them). One of my complaints about most of the other films in the series is that we don't get a lot of time with the characters - we often see them in one battle or another, but moments of growth and introspection are far rarer. (X-Men: First Class did a great job of this, in my view.) "Logan" gives us more time with the characters than we've ever had in one sitting before, and it's all the better for it.
If I had one minor complaint, and it's really not about anything the filmmakers did wrong in this movie, but as a general franchise direction:
Without giving away any spoilers, the movie is different in tone and attitude than every other X-Men movie. This is basically a western featuring X-Men characters, rather than being a traditional X-Men movie with western flourishes. At about two hours and twenty minutes, the film is on the longer side, but rather than using its length to pile carnage and climaxes on top of each other, the film instead devotes a large portion of its running time to character moments. Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart, in particular, are given lots of occasions to act and just be the characters they portray. James Mangold's direction here is solid, and he does a great job of holding a particular mood throughout the film. The screenplay is significantly stronger than the one for The Wolverine, and unlike that film, this one does not fall apart in the final act.
It's hard to believe it's been 17 years since the first X-Men movie launched, and the franchise has been hit-or-miss for me in that time (which still hasn't stopped me from watching and collecting all of them). One of my complaints about most of the other films in the series is that we don't get a lot of time with the characters - we often see them in one battle or another, but moments of growth and introspection are far rarer. (X-Men: First Class did a great job of this, in my view.) "Logan" gives us more time with the characters than we've ever had in one sitting before, and it's all the better for it.
If I had one minor complaint, and it's really not about anything the filmmakers did wrong in this movie, but as a general franchise direction:
It's a little disappointing that we never got a Wolverine movie where Logan was fully powered and confident in his abilities throughout the entire film. The X-Men: Origins movie set up the character, but he's not really recognizable as the Wolverine we know and love for most of it. In The Wolverine, he loses his powers for a significant portion of the film, and spends a lot of time contemplating his mortality. In Logan, his powers have almost been exhausted before the film ever begins. "Logan" is a great movie, and tells his story well. But I sure wish that we had gotten one Wolverine solo movie where his powers were just a given, rather than the lack of powers being a driving force in the two most recent of the three films.
