Since the release of Iron Man in 2008, we have seen an explosion in superhero movies. Every year, we get a few more, whether it was Sony making Spider-Man movies just to keep the rights to him or DC’s recent attempts to compete with the Marvel’s dynasty of movies.
This recent renaissance of superhero movies has made me more interested in the comics, to the point where I now consider myself to be somewhat of a comic book nerd. Well, not in the traditional sense. I don’t buy and read comic books, but I do look up videos of the major story lines on YouTube.
At first, I was shocked by how detailed and in depth some of the stories were. As I watched and learned more, I realized that most of the movies coming out were adapting existing comic book story lines. So when I heard about the last Wolverine movie, and how it was going to be an adaptation of the Old Man Logan story line, I was thrilled.
In comic books and in the X-men movies, Wolverine or Logan was mostly there to just hack and slash at whoever or whatever was thrown at him. He was a killer, he had been made for this purpose through the weapon X program. In all of his comic book appearances and most of his movie appearances (with the exception of a couple of his solo movies) he lacked character. He was near invincible with his adamantium skeleton and healing factor. His reason to exist was unclear, and so were his motives.
The Old Man Logan story line changed that. No longer was he invincible, his healing factor was drastically reduced, and sometimes injuries never fully healed. ‘Logan’ draws on this and uses it to create a compelling story. In the movie, Logan is more experienced, more wary. He tries to stay out of fights if at all possible.
That being said, ‘Logan’ does not shy away from violence and earns its R rating in the opening scene alone when (spoiler alert) some would-be thieves push him just a little bit too far. His reduced healing factor and old age is readily apparent when he has trouble fully unleashing one of his claws and cleaning himself up after the fight.
While the fight scenes were great, they were not the best part of the movie in my opinion. For me the best part was seeing Wolverine more or less be human. Like I said earlier, in most of the movies Logan has just been there to kill things, to attack and destroy anything in his way. ‘Logan’ gives him character for the first time ever. We see him start to care about people; he shows emotion, we understand his motives, and why he tries to be an outcast.
And it’s not just with him either. Patrick Stewart’s Professor X has what is probably the most memorable part of the movie to me: a speech about himself and what he deserves. It gives them all character and motivation. The only thing I can compare it to are moments in TV shows like Mike’s “no half measures” speech in ‘Breaking Bad’ or Tyrion’s speech at the end of his trial in Game of Thrones.
These are the things that stick with me for a while after I watch a show or a movie. Sure, all of the action sequences and fights are cool and fun to watch, but at the end of the day if you can make me care about a fictional character, whether it is in a book or TV show or a movie, then you have done your job, which is exactly what ‘Logan’ did.
8/10
