Studio: 20th Century Fox (2 hr. 17 min.)Plot: Wolverine protects Professor X and a young girl, the last mutants on Earth.
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, Elizabeth Rodriquez, Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal, Quincy Fouse.
Rating: R
Bottom Line: ***
By Khaleel Herbert
Hugh Jackman unsheathes his claws for the final time in “Logan.”
It’s 2029 and Logan a.k.a. Wolverine (Jackman) works as a limo chauffeur. While sleeping in the backseat of his limo, he’s awakened by Mexican thugs trying to steal his tires. He politely asks them to back off, but they shoot him.
Uh-oh! Angry Logan slices, dices and dismembers them.
While attending a funeral, Gabriela (Elizabeth Rodriguez) a Mexican nurse, asks for the Wolverine’s help. Logan shrugs her off and heads to a desert area near the Mexican border where an old Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and ex-mutant hunter Caliban (Stephen Merchant) reside.
Xavier has Alzheimer’s and occasional epileptic seizures that cause earthquakes. Logan is also sick on the inside. The adamantium in his body is slowly deteriorating his healing powers and immortality. He unwillingly helps Gabriela and her patient, Laura (Dafne Keen), a child who is a lot like him in demeanor. She even comes with her own set of metal claws.
When Gabriela is murdered by Pierce (Boyd Holbrook), a lackey for a government agency that wants to exterminate mutants, Logan, Laura and Xavier hit the road. Destination: Eden in North Dakota, a place rumored to have more mutants like Laura.
Jackman gives his all as the rugged don’t-f-with-me mutant. He delivers a brooding Wolverine, similar to his performance in “The Wolverine,” when he battled his guilt of killing Jean Grey. Thanks to Marvel making “Logan” rated-R, Wolverine’s filter is off the hinges, allowing him to drop f-bombs anytime he wants. F-bombs are completely natural for Wolverine.
Keen gives a superb performance as Laura. She’s as ruthless as Logan in battle, repeatedly stabbing and flipping baddies over with her legs wrapped around their necks. She stayed silent for half the movie. She should’ve kept quiet until the scene where she calls Logan, “Daddy,” which would have made the scene more emotional.
Some holes in the film appear. How did Xavier get Alzheimer’s? Where did Caliban come from? Another issue was Laura and other characters speaking Spanish without subtitles. That’s a bit cumbersome for non-Spanish speakers.
“Logan,” is a movie for all the adult Wolverine and X-Men fans. Like “Deadpool,” it doesn’t disappoint in delivering sweet bloody violence. Hugh Jackman hanging up his claws for good is as sad as when Tobey Maguire hung up his Spidey-suit. But Jackman shall sit in the Marvel superhero movie hall of fame next to Tobey Maguire and Robert Downey Jr.
Like Blackflix.com On Facebook
Follow Blackflix.com On Twitter
Printed in the March 19, 2017 – April 1, 2017 edition.
