For an actor to play a role for that long a period in the movies is unusual, certainly in the fantasy/action genre. We're on our sixth James Bond, our sixth Batman, our third Superman, our third Spider-Man. (Speaking officially, anyway.) But Hugh Jackman has been *the* Wolverine for more than a decade and a half, with appearances large and small in nine movies. This latest, Logan, released today, has been publicly touted as his final turn as the iconic character.
So - are we ready to say fare-thee-well?
While it is, technically, a superhero movie, it is a very, very different one. It's a bleak, somber tale, set some years after the epilogue in Days of Future Past, which, without giving too much away, reveals that the happy ending implied by DoFP does not last. Logan - now aging, tired, and slowly being poisoned by the adamantium in his system, is working as a limo driver while he cares for an infirm Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), when he finds himself forced to care for a young mutant named Laura (Dafne Keen) with a remarkably familiar 'gift'. Pursued by the forces of a ruthless genetic corporation, Logan finds himself on the run, with his two charges in tow.
The movie alludes heavily to the classic western Shane, and those allusions are apt. This is not a film about good versus evil or saving the world, nor is it a CGI-heavy, colorful spandex outing, either. It's an intimate story about a fading warrior trying to find a toehold in a world into which he no longer fits, while caring for a revered father figure who has become enfeebled and petulant. Like many of the film heroes of yore, this is in truth a character study more than anything else. Think of it as a superhero's version of Unforgiven.
The performances are excellent. While many felt Hugh Jackman to be an odd choice, at least physically, for the role of the five-foot-and-change swarthy, stocky Canucklehead all those years ago, there's no doubt that he has come to define the character. He's never not been good in the part, but here he excels with a weighty, weary take on a familiar character that instantly evokes compassion and sympathy. It's a little shocking to see a character who's been heretofore nigh-indestructable facing not only his own weakness and mortality, but that of others as well.
Patrick Stewart is also wonderful (when isn't he, though?) as Xavier, who slides in and out of lucidity, but still retains that avuncular kindness that's been his hallmark over these films - and he has been playing this role as long as Jackman's been playing his. Frankly, I find the Xavier of the comics somewhat unlikeable ("A jerk") as one of the X-Men famously declared, and I've loved Stewart's portrayal as a more humane idealist rather than the manipulative Machiavel he's often been in the source.
Richard E. Grant and Boyd Holbrook play the films' villains - Dr. Xander Rice and Donald Pierce, respectively, but neither role is particularly memorable. Stephen Merchant also has a featured role as the long-suffering mutant tracker Caliban. But the real breakout star of the film is Dafne Keen, playing Laura, aka X-23. Laura can switch from being a sweet, almost motherly little girl longing for a family to a crazed and terrifying berserker in a second, and is utterly convincing in both modes. This is Keen's film debut, and I'm interested to see what she does next...it's an unexpectedly powerful and nuanced performance.
I should mention, by the way, that this is most emphatically NOT a movie to bring young kids to, regardless of how much they may like the X-Men. It is R-rated, which I really hope continues to prove the exception, not the rule, in superhero films, and it is extremely, graphically violent. Said violence is not just directed at the usual evil goons, either. There is quite a lot of the stabby-stabby going on, complete with sound effects, and the dialogue is peppered with words you wouldn't find in an average comic. So word to the wise - this is a pretty intense film...we've come a long way from a point where a film's most blue line of dialogue was "Okay, you're a dick."
I will say that this is a very high-quality movie - and I mean that not "for a superhero movie", but as a movie on the whole. Someone could watch this film having little to no knowledge of the previous X-films and be able to follow a poignant, gripping, beautifully shot and acted tale of a faded warrior. Taken out of the context of the X-Men universe, it's quite a good movie.
However, it's in context that I'm having some trouble with the movie. I want to be very careful here and not give away any of the salient plot points, so I won't really elaborate on the specifics. Suffice it to say that some of the events and conclusion of this movie throw a lot of the franchise to date into shadow. Don't get me wrong - this film is very true to its characters, and it is in many ways a beautiful movie that I suspect will resonate for quite some time. Even so, I think I'm going to have to think of it as a standalone, and not necessarily the inevitable outcome of the whole franchise.
It's going to be strange, now, not having Jackman around as Wolverine. Marvel (via Fox studios) has been public about their current uncertainty of what to do with the character...though given his massive popularity, I'm sure he'll be recast sooner or later, but I suspect in the short-term we will be Logan-less for a while. If rumors hold true, the next film in the direct X-franchise will be set in the '90s and feature James MacAvoy training the New Mutants, and I have to think Logan will not be appearing.
At any rate, Logan is a magnificent swan song; Jackman has earned an iconic stature in pop culture, and I don't think anyone could blame him for wanting to be able to stop obsessively going to the gym after almost two decades to maintain that physique. His final outing is an excellent performance, and just as Jackman made his Hollywood career seemingly out of nowhere by bursting onto the scene in 2000, I suspect Dafne Keen may find herself with a similar trajectory thanks to remarkably similar circumstances, if she plays her cards right.
And so, Hugh Jackman ends his seventeen-year run as one of the world's most memorable superheroes.
Thanks, bub.
FINAL RATING: 8 STARS (OUT OF 10)
Oh - one addendum - there is no post-credits scene this time. However, there is a scene BEFORE the movie opens, acting as a sort-of-teaser for Deadpool 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment