Growing up, I was an X-Men fan, I still am. A house full of people with powers that are a metaphor for any level of discrimination and fight scenes where a big blue hairy guy jumps around. Sign me up. But the one character who made the X-Men franchise their own was the one and only Wolverine, to the annoyance of some hardcore fans that insist on Wolverine being more of a side character than the lead. No one can deny that the one actor everyone thinks of when they hear the name Wolverine is Mr Hugh Jackman himself. Not surprising since he has played the same role since the year 2000 (insert Busted song with altered lyrics). And in the past two decades there has been very little to no criticism on Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of the hairy and angry clawed Canadian, other than him being too tall.
Logan is going to be the focus of this post, his most recent and final portrayal of the character. A rated R (18) superhero movie that would never have been made before Deadpool’s success at the box office, showing that the largest group of Superhero fans are of legal drinking age. But calling Logan a “Superhero film” feels to cheapen what they created for 2017’s release, because although it is a story about a superhero and there are action scenes and comedy that you could find in any MCU movie or and scene with Flash from Justice League. Instead it chose to have so much more, turning into a dark and emotional character piece that just so happened to have a superhero character as the lead.
Jackman has stated before how Logan was his passion project, the film he wanted to tell for the character. Taking the almost invulnerable character and putting a place where he is broken and torn, every scene filled with more emotion than the last, especially those including Charles Xavier as the audience sees the man with the most powerful mind slowly fall into memory loss and brain damage. For those who had sat and watched these characters save the world several times over now sit in their sand covered hideaway with no apparent plan but to disappear to fall into the hands of death.
The writing is without a doubt the best in the X-Men film series, choosing dialogue over action for the first time. This film admittedly only works as well as it does for me as it was a send off to a character(s) I had grown up watching on the silver screen and pretending to be in my friend’s garden on a rainy English summer day. However, I have seen the reaction of people who knew nothing on the character and the emotional queues still hit them as much as myself. As we watch someone who is truly struggling to grasp hold on anything that could give him a reason to keep going, while along the way to find a reason he is instead greeted with more heartbreak.
Also, the only superhero film to release a black and white version, or ‘Noir’ as they call it. It actually works, the tone fights the classic style. An homage to the black and white character pieces of years gone by, with one scene in particular that is breathtaking to see Wolverine stumble across the grass as headlights shine across to make him no more than a silhouette of the character he used to be. For those who are a fan of the film already then I suggest viewing it in its monochrome glory. The editing, cinematography and sound also being unmatched in superhero films, one of the reason to call Logan a superhero film seems to take away from it.
Now to the acting, for I am a huge fan of Jackman, but Logan is from what I can tell, his best work yet. Every emotion being felt just through his expression, knowing at every moment he is in pain and heartache but trying to cover it up as to his traditional introvert personality would allow. With his classic yelling becoming stomach curdling by the ending, as the film continues and every crawl away from danger is a fight for survival. Even causing myself to blame allergies at times, while I wiped away some of the moisture in my eyes.
And through all of this I couldn’t have imagined anyone else take on the role. Knowing that the MCU might have the inclusion of the X-Men in the coming years and so Wolvy will undoubtedly be recast by someone more than capable. To me and a lot of fans now, the only true on screen Wolverine will be the Australian mum crush that is Hugh Jackman. To him he will be missed and not just by Ryan Reynolds/Deadpool but to those who sat down on a Saturday afternoon and watched him yell his way into fights with Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellen.
The Nerdy Bartender 