By DJ Momo
In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan's attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces. And yet, the darkest force the movie faces is, without a doubt, all the holes in it.
Wolverine is one of the most loved characters from Marvel comics. He is (arguably) more popular than Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and maybe even Spider-Man depending on when you grew up. And yet, for a character with such a big repertoire of source material to "inspire", he never seems to be done right. After the fiasco of the two first movies in the Wolverine Trilogy, I went in expecting very little from that movie. I did not even watch the trailer beforehand. Without a doubt, the two first movies set a very low threshold for me. The good thing is, it is my favorite Wolverine movie yet. The bad thing is, that's not saying much. Let's start.
First of all, let's get the actors' performance out of the way. You already know what to expect from Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart in an X-Men movie. You've seen them do it multiple times and rightly so. They are good at their roles and Logan is no exception to the rule. But I have to say, Patrick Stewart's performance was splendid to say the least. For a man who always, throughout his roles, shows a sense of dignity and power, seeing him on the other end of the spectrum, and well-performed of course, was really surprising. Hugh Jackman has got the character down once again although that character could have used more story, but more on that later. The movie also included a few other actors who brought in wonderful performances. Stephen Merchant plays the previously introduced Caliban beautifully. He was the perfect casting for such a role given his skill at snarky retorts, at conveying information through his unique eyes aaaaaaand, least important yet still notable, his very realistic constricted "i have diarrhea" face. The two breakout performances come from Boyd Holbrook and Dafne Keen. Boyd is an actor! And by that, I am not talking about his job, but rather his "soul" (sorry for the high cheesyness factor). He took on a role, which could have been easily been done wrong and manage to make himself one of the most interesting characters in the movie, the one who's next scene you are looking forward to. Dafne Keen, who is a very young actress, manage to convey more through silence than a lot of veterans do. Maybe I am biased because she is such a cute kid but she really was an interesting actress who I believe has a huge future coming along. All and all, the performances were amazing but not enough to save the movie.
The movie had a, in lack of better words, simple plot. In a world of convoluted superhero movies where you are brought to understand that someone saying your mother's name makes them a good person in your eyes, maybe that is a good thing. In fact, I would go ahead and say it is THE good thing. But simplicity, while attractive, does not mean that, for it's sake, the movie should be riddled with plot points. First of all, most characters have no real motivations. The villains have no real reason to chase Laura. I mean sure, if they needed her, which they didn't, of if they cared about "erasing evidence", which doesn't explain why they are really focusing on her and her only, or if there was the threat of legal problems, which there wasn't, it would be understandable. But no, the villains, at great loss, time after time, keep chasing the main characters. Then there is Caliban, who, for no real reason or turning point, does what he does when he does it (no spoilers, you'll realize what I mean when you watch the movie).
Then there is the problem with X-24, who feels like a convoluted copy of Deadpool, not the good one, but the one from the original Wolverine movie. He feels like a terrible, and dare I say lazy, plot point that doesn't contribute a lot to the movie especially given the amazing repertoire of Wolverine villains in the comics, like, to name just one, Omega Red. Wolverine, as a character, does not have any building whatsoever on top of the other films. It is like, as always, he is going through the same story again and again but with different people. Charles Xavier was actually one of the more interesting characters in the movie only because of the reveal at the end. On the other hand, the villains are really lackluster. The big bad was really boring and uninteresting even though he gives off the feeling of having the possibility of, maybe, possibly, in an alternate, better, reality, having the small awesomeness of a Bond villain. His lackeys were pretty boring, if not saved by their leader's performance. Given the source material, they could have been scarier and more threatening. But this, until now, was the bad side of the movie. The movie is still a good road trip movie with good action and interesting tidbits here and there.
Overall, the movie was going in the good direction if only it hadn't stopped halfway and what it was trying to do. Too bad this was Hugh Jackman's last entry in the franchise because we could have had something better later on. I give it a 6/10.
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