- [Scott] So, over the past few years,
I've released a handful of videos about "Logan,"
and one of them is even my most popular video ever,
even though there are lots of technical editing issues
burned into it.
That's my legacy!
But I feel like most of these videos
are not examples of my best work,
trying to craft theories and poorly analyze things
with an obnoxiously over-the-top and jokey narration voice.
So, when I was asked to be a part of this
One X-Cellent Scene series
with a bunch of other fantastic nerdy video essayists
analyzing their own favorite X-Men scenes,
I saw this as my opportunity to redeem myself a bit.
So, I just want to speak from the heart here
and very simply break down a single scene from this film
that, for whatever reason, still sticks with me.
It's this one right here at the hotel
when Logan confronts Laura and Charles
about these colorful X-Men comics he finds her reading.
- Read these in your spare time?
- Oh yeah, Charles, we got ourselves an X-Men fan.
- [Scott] This scene is so small,
lasting only a couple seconds,
but it serves as a rapid and effective critique
of the entire X-Men film franchise as a whole.
- In the real world, people die,
and no self-promoting (blades clashing)
in a (blades clashing) leotard can stop it.
This is ice cream for bed-wetters.
- [Scott] Let's take a step back to the beginning for a sec.
Remember this exchange from the very first X-Men film?
- You actually go outside in these things?
- What would you prefer, yellow spandex?
- [Scott] On the surface,
this little joke seems very similar to the scene in "Logan"
that we're talking about
of him bashing these X-Men comics.
Both seem to poke fun
at the bright and colorful source material
in films that try to be edgier and grittier.
However, this line in the first film
doesn't do much more than simply
bash the real life X-Men comics by saying,
look how cool and edgy we are in our black leather suits!
Color?
We don't need color!
We're dark and sleek.
"The Matrix" came out last year
and we were told that leather is in!
Now contrast that against the scene in "Logan,"
which criticizes in-universe comics
that don't exist in our world
because it's not trying to criticize
the source material of the comics,
but rather use these comics as stand-ins
for the previous X-Men films in this franchise.
They are visually flashy,
with explosions and cool CGI superpowers
that clearly captivate a younger audience
the same way that these comics appeal to Laura,
who enthusiastically reads them.
- We got ourselves an X-Men fan.
- [Scott] And I'm not saying that the previous X-Men films
are strictly for children,
but the first one was the first movie
that I can remember watching in theaters.
And I watched it twice!
I was Laura,
watching and re-watching these movies
the same way that she spills over
these colorful X-Men comics.
Viewing these early X-Men films as a child inspired me
and countless other kids, I imagine,
to pick up X-Men toys and play out my own fun stories
with mindless action--
- [Announcer] Logan's claws extend just like in the movie!
Do battle with Sabertooth's swiping attack!
- [Scott] With a specific focus
on the brooding, angry, and violent Wolverine.
- [Child] Wanna mix it up, big boy?
- [Scott] He's so fricking cool.
I wish I had a picture of this,
but I dressed up as the movie version of Wolverine
for Halloween when I was eight,
complete with fake sideburns
that were incredibly painful to remove.
- Does it hurt?
- Every time.
- [Scott] Wolverine was the coolest character to me
and clearly so many others,
as he continued to be the focus
of most of the X-Men movie franchise.
But this scene in "Logan"
takes that childhood wonder and youthful fanaticism
that I had with the character and says--
- In the real world, people die,
and no self promoting (blades clashing)
in a (blades clashing) leotard can stop it.
This is ice cream for bed-wetters.
- [Scott] "Logan" got an R rating,
and that was the silliest sentence.
You all know that.
I don't know why I had to,
the point is, a lot of fans out there
really thought that it was rad
that Wolverine could finally
get more brutal and bloody and gritty,
and maybe say a few more naughty words than normal.
- (blades clashing) Off, Logan.
- [Scott] Whoops, Charles said that one!
What a twist.
But the entire theme of "Logan"
is the exact opposite of this idea.
It's that violence shouldn't be glorified.
And this is not a very revolutionary take, here.
The villain, obviously,
is just a more feral version of Logan,
this mindless killing machine that people want him to be
both in the fiction and in the real world.
He's got a slightly different haircut,
but X-24 acts very similar to how we first meet Logan
in the first X-Men film
as this aggressive, animalistic brute.
- What the hell are you?
(X-24 growling)
- [Scott] Seeing this version of himself,
Logan tells Laura--
- You don't have to fight anymore.
Don't be what they made you.
- [Scott] Don't be a weapon,
because being a weapon is what ultimately kills him,
with the adamantium poisoning combining with the serum
that he takes at the end,
that makes him embrace his even more violent and feral side,
making it so his healing factor
wouldn't work enough to save him.
I mean, I know a lot of people like this movie
because it is kind of dark and gritty and brutal and,
but imagine walking away from this film, from this scene,
thinking that the point of the movie
was how cool gory violence is.
We can see from this short scene with the comics
that Logan is disgusted by all these fake, sanitized tales
that paint his violent actions
as something rad and entertaining
- You do know they're all (blades clashing), right?
Maybe a quarter of it happened, and not like this.
- [Scott] Previous X-Men movies show world-ending threats
where seemingly everything is largely fine at the end,
and Logan is understandably upset by this because--
- In the real world, people die.
- [Scott] Heck, even in previous X-Men films
where the X-Men do suffer losses,
the big sad moments are almost hilariously theatrical.
In a previous film,
Professor X is torn apart at a molecular level
by an ultra-powerful cosmic being,
and then gets a stereotypically sad funeral
surrounded by loved ones wearing black
and a giant, looming headstone.
You can even see that the comics in "Logan"
are trying to poke fun at this.
One of these comic covers features
an excessively dramatic mutant funeral
that, yes, foreshadows what is to come,
but it also contrasts
how appropriately theatrical the comic is
compared to what actually happens in the movie.
Later in this film,
Charles dies for the second time in an X-Men movie,
but instead of it being so over-the-top and comic-booky,
he's just stabbed while he's chilling in a bed.
And that's it.
It feels way more real and way more sad.
He and Logan,
two of the most powerful and influential mutants of all time
are buried in the middle of nowhere
with hardly anyone there to mourn them,
hardly the dramatic and cliched funerals
that we'd previously seen.
Notice how even the movie title, "Logan,"
doesn't make any reference to the X-Men
or the flashy superhero codename of Wolverine,
like the previous films.
It's just Logan stripped of all pomp and circumstance.
"Logan" does not aim to glorify the violence
of its titular character,
but to show as tragically as it could
what a lifetime of violence does.
It's brutal and real and heartbreaking.
It's not fun.
It's not glamorous.
It's not a comic book.
- Class dismissed.
- And this is the part of the video
where I make everything about me!
It's very easy for me to look back on this channel
and see a bunch of bright and colorful
and overly-energetic family-friendly content
just kind of machined out from week to week
without much critical thought.
But as I've been trying to explore new topics
and new ideas on this channel for the past couple of years,
diving into political analyses of comics and superheroes,
talking openly about my own personal struggles
with anxiety and mental health,
I can kind of look at my old videos
the same way that Logan looks at these comics.
I even did it at the start of this video,
where I mentioned how my most popular upload on this channel
is a quick and dirty theory video about "Logan"
that I rushed out as quickly as I could
to get all the views,
which admittedly worked, but I'm not proud of it.
It's not the best representation of me
or the kind of stuff that I like to do here at NerdSync,
especially these days.
So, I just wanted to say,
thank you to everyone who watches my videos.
The views on videos are down.
The subscriber count is down,
but you're here, and that means a lot to me.
Whether you're subscribed or not,
whether you support me on Patreon or not,
I just wanna thank you for letting me
have some of your time today.
And if you have even more time to spare,
this is just one video in an entire playlist
with so many other great YouTubers
who are a part of this series, One X-Cellent Scene,
analyzing their favorite scenes from X-Men films.
People like Nando v Movies,
Patrick Willems, Lessons from the Screenplay,
and so many other brilliant YouTubers.
I am so lucky that I even get to be a part of this.
I'll have everyone's videos linked in the description below,
as well a just full playlist
that you can watch down there,
or right here on screen somewhere.
As always, my name is Scott,
reminding you to read between the panels
and grow smarter through comics.
See ya.