I've loved the X-Men for years, since I was given a reprint of Days of Future Past by
my cousins aged 7, to watching the first year after, through memorising X-Men top trumps.
I even got this Dorling Kindersley reference book when I went to the States for the first
time.
I love them to a shameful extent, so when I heard there was going to be a Wolverine
movie which finally had all the gritty action and character-building his comics did, I was
excited.
Unfortunately, that movie was The Wolverine, a bizarre mishmash of the Japan comics and
whatever giant robot nonsense the marketing department decided they needed to sell action
figures.
Then last year I saw the announcement for Logan, and I was horrified.
Another movie from the same team?
Heavens save us.
And then that trailer came out.
You know the one.
From the first stirring strums of Hurt to the final montage of pure carnage breaking
out, I was hooked.
It's one of the best trailers I've ever seen.
So I was cautiously optimistic heading into the cinema for this.
Right from the first scene, Logan owns its R rating, dishing out curses and mortal wounds
like a teenager on Call of Duty.
As the story progresses, and Logan is introduced to Laura, a young mutant with retractable
claws and an insatiable berserker rage like him, however, it becomes clear that the rating
isn't just an excuse to show the ultra-violence in the old Liefield era comics, but an opportunity
to tell a story with the requisite depth of emotion as any more mature movie ought to
have.
The clearest example is and this is a bit of a spoiler, so buckle up if you haven't
seen the film the scene where Laura finds Logan's adamantium bullet.
After going on a semi-prepared spiel about how this is a way of him being able to remember
where he came from, he pauses and quietly admits he was keeping it to kill himself.
This very adult story beat would never be allowed in a PG movie - not because it's restricted
by rating, but because it might turn off valuable younger audiences.
With an R rating, Mangold, Jackman and co are finally able to explore aspects of the
character so tantalisingly visible on the surface of his more family friendly appearances.
And with more to do, the actors are able to unleash their skills.
Jackman shows every ounce of the determination, grit and guilt that we have always known Logan
to harbour.
Patrick Stewart moves from the puritanical righteousness of previous performances to
the bitterness of a cantankerous, deteriorating old man.
When they do finally die, the effect is transformative: it is apparent that we finally have a superhero
picture of true weight, where actions really do have consequences.
Stewart's final speech is a masterclass in expression, releasing a franchise's worth
of pent-up emotion.
And Jackman- oh, Logan.
It takes a certain kind of actor to make a single line reveal a lifetime, and he does
it, with his last words.
Wonderful.
Outside of characterisation, the plot is the same amount of thin as you might expect from
a superhero movie.
It's better than most- characters do things for actual reasons, have motivations and limitations-
and it doesn't end in a big CGI showdown, which is a breath of fresh air.
It's not revelatory or insightful, and in a movie of another genre, it might not pass
muster.
But in a superhero film- especially considering the poor caliber of the ones we've seen recently-
it's a joy.
The other gift of the film is its direction.
Freed from the shackles of such extensive CG sequences as the train fight in The Wolverine,
Mangold is able to build on sensory imagery and a quiet way with mise-en-scene to create
a superhero film with real vision.
He showed a little promise here in the opening scenes of The Wolverine, detailing Logan on
a hunt in the wilderness.
Here, with an excellent team of stunt choreographers and clear Western influences, as well as a
skilled cinematographer, he gives us proper fights, carried out as set-pieces which develop
and change minute-by-minute.
I'm not the kind of guy to make a list of all the X-Men films and place them in a list
ranging from worst to best.
Even if I did, the comparisons wouldn't make much sense: the franchise has run for 17 years,
over countless reboots and lost plots, changing tone and style with each iteration, form the
steroid madness of Xmen origins to the stately chaos of X-2.
But one thing which has remained constant, and which I was sad to see missing in Logan,
was a sense of hope.
Throughout their struggles, the X-Men are advocating for a better and brighter tomorrow,
working in the hopes that those who come after them will know an easier world.
But Logan is set in a world were those hopes have been finally, definitively, bitterly
frustrated.
That was a change which didn't sit well with me, and seemed almost mean-spirited.
Films reflect the environment they're made in, I suppose.
I know that Europe is in strife, that the US President is a deeply unpopular fascist
fool, that our ecosystem is dying and Marvel keeps churning out shit movies.
But that means, now more than ever, we need hope.
That's why I always liked the superhero genre: even in their darkest hour, these demigods
fight for freedom and peace, even if they never achieve it.
To see a film- and a good film too- set in a world where that fight is over and the bad
guys won- that was pretty crushing.
17 years after I saw my first X-Men movie, a fitting coda to a long and convoluted story.
One of the best of the superhero movies, and an invitation to the rest: die, now, while
you have your dignity and your values are intact.
A warning which may be too late.