{"id":50874,"date":"2017-03-04T12:20:42","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T17:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/hugh-jackmans-wolverine-swan-song-logan-has-its-aging-claws-out-review\/"},"modified":"2017-03-04T12:20:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T17:20:42","slug":"hugh-jackmans-wolverine-swan-song-logan-has-its-aging-claws-out-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/hugh-jackmans-wolverine-swan-song-logan-has-its-aging-claws-out-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Hugh Jackman\u2019s Wolverine Swan Song, \u2018Logan\u2019 Has Its Aging Claws Out: REVIEW"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hugh Jackman\u2019s Wolverine Swan Song, \u2018Logan\u2019 Has Its Aging Claws Out: REVIEW<\/b><\/p>\n

\"logan-xmencomics\"<\/p>\n

Hugh Jackman\u2019s last stand as Wolverine in \u201cLOGAN\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

LOGAN<\/strong><\/a>,<\/em> the latest and last (for now) solo Wolverine movie, was not kidding around when it opted for Johnny Cash\u2019s \u201cHurt\u201d as its trailer music. It\u2019s not just the severity of the title, but the elegiac lyrics, and the dying man<\/a> as guiding spirit \/ inspiration. Some trailers lie but this one spoke world-weary truth. This is exactly the kind of movie James Mangold, who also directed the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line<\/em>, delivers.<\/p>\n

Wolverine\u2019s mutation were never those iconic claws, which were a science experiment to weaponize him, but his ability to instantly heal which also slows down his aging process. The movie franchise got very silly about this, placing him in the civil war context in X-Men Origins <\/em>as if the once feral Canadian hero was an immortal vampire rather than a mutant.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

But Logan<\/em> is anything but silly about aging. That is wise since this franchise is long in the tooth. What\u2019s more\u00a0Hugh Jackman does<\/em> age as he is not, alas, a mutant \u2014 unless you count bonafide movie star charisma as a superpower, which: fair point!<\/p>\n

\"logan-scarmirror\"<\/p>\n

So Logan<\/em> hits Jackman with harsh light, exposes the wrinkles, grays the hair, and piles on the scarring and \u2018seen better days\u2019 makeup.\u00a0Logan <\/em>jumps ahead to the future of 2029 in which everything in the US has gone to total shit (this seems less like science fiction than probability given Trump\u2019s America) and our world, particular for mutants, is unforgiving like a dystopian western. Logan is not healing quickly like he used to and is hiding decrepit Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) from authorities.<\/p>\n

\"youngmutant\"At first Logan doesn\u2019t believe his former Professor that young mutants exist again (the movie is thankfully low on backstory, expecting you to imagine things that came between the films). But soon our familiar heroes are on the run with a mute young girl<\/a> who is suspiciously like Wolverine himself, complete with claws and murderous rampages.<\/p>\n

The story of Logan<\/em> is actually fairly clever, dropping us into a plausible dystopia and shoving our faces in terrifying \u2018What If?\u2019 scenarios, which stack on top of each other like a Jenga tower ruled by Murphy\u2019s Law. What, for example, would happen if the world\u2019s most powerful psychic mind was experiencing mental deterioration and his seizures could incapacitate and even kill everyone around him? The film\u2019s best action sequence, in which Wolverine has to agonizingly make his way through a crowded hotel and soldiers before Xavier accidentally kills everyone, is terrifying and superbly executed.<\/p>\n

One of the film\u2019s boldest moves, and its only arguable nod to \u201cfun\u201d is a meta riff on comic lore and superhero movies. Old X-Men comic books come into the plot and Logan has nothing but disdain for them, writing off superhero stories as escapist fantasy. Despite impressively smart elements like this, the movie falls into many usual traps of the genre: the villain is unsatisfying and ill-defined despite Boyd Holbrook trying his damnedest to zjoosh his role up on charisma alone; there are sacrificial characters of color (sigh) \u2013 why must black characters always die in genre films?; and the action scenes become repetitive.<\/p>\n

\"logan-hallway\"<\/p>\n

This action sequence is purposefully out of focus, but it\u2019s a good one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

About those action scenes\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t take long to realize that Mangold and team are as thirsty for blood baths as Countess B\u00e1thory and are going for the hardest of possible \u201cR\u201d ratings from the MPAA. Gone are the days when the X-Men <\/em>movies pretended that Wolverine wasn\u2019t a mass murderer (he doesn\u2019t even try to leave survivors in any action situation now). This is the first X-Men movie in which people have arteries. There will be (lots of) bloodletting.<\/p>\n

\"logan-holbrookvillain\"If the violence wasn\u2019t enough to ensure critical favor for the film\u2019s \u201cseriousness,\u201d Logan and Xavier both use \u201cF**k!\u201d in seemingly every other sentence as if to proclaim that they\u2019re inside a very serious IMPORTANT movie for adults. The \u201cR\u201d seems to be winning unanimous praise from critics but I can\u2019t personally hop on this bandwagon. Brutality, like any other noun, is not qualitative. It cannot make any work of art serious or important. It can only make it brutal.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have children but weirdly I\u2019ve never felt older while watching a movie. You can say all you like, as people have to me when I\u2019ve expressed this concern, that \u201cthis movie isn\u2019t for kids!\u201d but tell that to the hordes of children who love superheroes and will surely find a way to see it themselves. I literally have never seen a movie this<\/em> violent that wasn\u2019t part of the slasher genre and I see a lot of movies.<\/p>\n

All that said, Logan<\/em> is not just the latest but the greatest Wolverine movie. Sure, sure, the bar was very low after\u00a0the appallingly joyless\u00a0X-Men Origins: Wolverine<\/em>\u00a0and better but disposable follow-up\u00a0The Wolverine<\/em>\u00a0but that\u2019s still good news. A quick look around at early reviews suggests that Mangold has made a masterpiece. Like so many things connected to the world\u2019s current favorite movie genre, this is more hype than reality. Still, even if the movie doesn\u2019t live<\/a> up to the fannish excitement, it\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0wonderful that Hugh Jackman got a swan song worth his time as he says goodbye to the character he\u2019s played for nearly his entire career. For all of its flaws, this sometimes inspired hellish neo-Western is worth seeing (for those with strong stomachs).<\/p>\n

\"logan-bloodyarms\"<\/p>\n

There won\u2019t be a sing-a-long version of Logan <\/em>(that wouldn\u2019t be sober and important enough!) but there should be:<\/p>\n

\n
I hurt myself today
\nTo see if I still feel
\nI focus on the pain
\nThe only thing that\u2019s real
\nThe needle tears a hole
\nThe old familiar sting
\nTry to kill it all away
\nBut I remember everything<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What have I become
\nMy sweetest friend
\nEveryone I know goes away
\nIn the end
\nAnd you could have it all
\nMy empire of dirt
\nI will let you down
\nI will make you hurt<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Freed finally from those Adamantium claws, we can only hope that the next act of Jackman\u2019s career will make up for lost time and allow him to explore his range as an actor. He\u2019ll embrace his song and dance side in The Greatest Showman <\/em>this Christmas and let\u2019s hope for a comedy and a romantic drama follow on its heels. There\u2019s more to movie life than superheroes and berserker rages. In other words: RIP Wolverine but long live<\/a> Hugh Jackman.<\/p>\n

\"logan-funeral\"<\/p>\n

The post Hugh Jackman\u2019s Wolverine Swan Song, \u2018Logan\u2019 Has Its Aging Claws Out: REVIEW<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine Swan Song, ‘Logan’ Has Its Aging Claws Out: REVIEW<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n