‘Logan’ Review: Somber, sober and thoroughly fascinating

Oggs Cruz

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‘Logan’ Review: Somber, sober and thoroughly fascinating

Ben Rothstein

'[Logan] is made even more relevant given that it is released at a time where its fantastical elements are worryingly real'

What is particularly interesting about the X-Men movies is that while they are obviously over-budgeted pageants of the latest in digital effects, their narratives are often sympathetic to oppressed people.

Even at its worst (Brett Ratner’s 2006 X-Men: The Last Stand), the movie franchise about heroic and villainous mutants manages to stage battles that have some form of figurative value when viewed amid troubled times. The best films (Matthew Vaughn’s 2011 X-Men: First Class, Bryan Singer’s 2003 X-Men 2 and 2014 X-Men: Days of Future Past) are clear in their appreciation of pop culture as launching pads for spectacle-filled stories that subtly expose the threats and dangers of division.

Despite characters that spew flames out of their fingertips, control metal, and read minds, the X-Men movies are grounded on stark and sometimes contentious issues and realities, making them more relevant than they appear to be. 

Bleak America

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

James Mangold’s Logan, while seemingly separate from the main X-Men storyline with its cycle of reboots, bears the same trademark and soul, an affinity for those who are unfairly marginalized for being born the way they were.

Only three mutants remain. Logan (Hugh Jackman), now a chauffeur-for-hire for anyone who needs a limo, is the sole provider for Xavier (Patrick Stewart), a nonagenarian who suffers from dementia and frequent uncontrollable bouts of paralysis-causing psychic waves. Caliban (Stephen Merchant), the mutant tracker whose powers are now useless, has been relegated to household chores. Stripped of pride and reason to exist given that their powers have turned into liabilities, the three find themselves holed up in an abandoned smelting plant close to the border of Mexico, trying their best not to attract too much attention. 

 

The film is set in an America that is not unlike the one we have at present: an America where the privileged few who have all the money to burn, who have the capacity to get their kicks from drunkenly showing their bare breasts to random drivers, who were born without peculiarities, are protected from the so-called others. 

Those the majority regard as the others, those who are afflicted with rare capabilities, and those who are from outside the border, are unfortunately chased, hunted, killed, and treated without rights reserved for the rest of humanity. 

Suddenly a road movie

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

It is only when Laura (Dafne Keen), a mutant born and raised in a laboratory in Mexico, finds herself under the custody of Logan and his crew that a certain hope is restored. Laura claims that there exists a haven for people like her somewhere in North Dakota and recruits Logan to bring her there. 

Logan deliberately turns itself into a road movie, one that explores America that is troubled, but still with a few but discernible patches of goodness in people who are left in the margins. The mutants will eventually meet strangers who are willing to help them, those victimized by big business, by the vices of mutated capitalism.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

Except during the times when it necessarily displays its essential violent scenes, the film is somber and sober, almost to the point of seeming like it wants to breakaway from its superhero mold. When the film shows its characters’ powers, Mangold does so not with the purpose of being spectacular but to expose abilities that are awesome and malignant at the same time. 

Logan is a quietly angry film, one where each death is shown as gruesome and unsightly, seemingly excessive. 

However, each kill committed by Logan or Laura or any of the victimized mutants is laced with rage. The grotesqueness of the film’s depiction of violence is justified, not just by the need of the audience to satisfy their bloodlust with depictions of ruthlessness, but by the film’s aim to match its elegant restraint with bursts of frenzied brutality that come from somewhere deep.

Prejudice has won

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

Logan is a fascinating film. It is made even more relevant given that it is released at a time where its fantastical elements are worryingly real. 

Within the familiar narrative structures that Hollywood has utilized through the years, it was able to reflect a collective apprehension over a very possible future. One where prejudice has won, where America is no longer the land of opportunity, where kindness is scarce, where old films and comic books are beacons of hope, and where those who were born different need to fight just to exist. – Rappler.com

Francis Joseph Cruz litigates for a living and writes about cinema for fun. The first Filipino movie he saw in the theaters was Carlo J. Caparas’ ‘Tirad Pass.’ Since then, he’s been on a mission to find better memories with Philippine cinema.

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