Spoilers Logan - Grading & Discussion

[The Nth Doctor]

Logan is extraordinary in its rawness and brutality and poignancy, and the film is a deeply satisfying conclusion to the story of Wolverine. It's not just a superhero story. It's a human story.

I'm not sure if I would say it's my favorite X-Men film, let alone my favorite superhero film, but it is my favorite Wolverine film. And say that as a big fan of The Wolverine (the director's cut).

A longer version of the Deadpool pre-credits scene is now online, including a brief cameo that was inexplicably cut out from the theatrical version:

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[Lakenheath 72]

The film unintentionally reflected what is happening now - people who are not welcomed in our country are seeking and getting asylum in Canada. (The children have friends in Canada who were successful in getting them asylum. This is what the phone call from Eden in the movie was about.)

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/canada-minister-asylum-seekers-us/

 

[Gryffindorian]

Just saw it this late afternoon/early evening.

Hmm, I liked it, it was good, Hugh Jackman was excellent. But apart from it being different to a standard "comic book movie" I don't really get what the huge hype over it is.


Just one thought for now, I mean you really surely have to think of this as a "what if" movie, no? Because for a part of this whole X-Men saga... I'll go to spoiler code as it is very spoilery for the film

Spoiler

So all the X-Men are dead. Professor X killed them by accident. And no one really seems that bothered. Or "seven mutants" anyway, whoever they were. It just kinda makes the whole ending, and indeed almost the whole point of DOFP a bit pointless. "Let's change the timeline and save all the mutants so then in the new timeline mutants are almost extinct too and Xavier himself kills most of the rest."

That's why I could only really enjoy this if I think of it as a what if. If not who cares what happens in X-Men: Supernova (or whatever the next movie is called) when most of the X-Men are just gonna wind up dying offscreen somehow anyway.

Isn't the whole point of the X-Men that it's about Charles Xavier and his students working together to show humanity there's a better way, that humans and mutants can live and work together in peace? But here we see oh that never happens, mutants all die off anyway, and Charles Xavier actually killed a load of his students, and he ends up just dying in bed stabbed by a clone of Wolverine..... Hmm, great...

I get that this plot point wasn't the real point behind the movie, but as a fan of the franchise it did stick out for me.

Also the use of the R-rated violence was awesome, to finally get to see Wolverine properly going to town. But the constant use of the F-word in the first 20 minutes or so... It's like they took a normal script and added fuck or fucking to every other sentence. It got pretty OTT to be honest, as if it was only to say "hey look at us we can swear all we want!"

QFT

I gave this movie a B+ only because of the quality of the plot; otherwise, it would have been an A movie for me. I realize not all stories have to end on a positive note, but given the events in DoFP, you would think there would be a brighter future for the X-men, which evidently isn't the case in this story.

On the other hand, this was a gritty and intense drama that I quite liked, whether superhero or not. It took them long enough to create an R-rated Wolverine movie that it deserved, like Deadpool. I wonder how it's going to fit into the continuity of the X-Men cinematic universe.

 

[Reverend]

Logan is extraordinary in its rawness and brutality and poignancy, and the film is a deeply satisfying conclusion to the story of Wolverine. It's not just a superhero story. It's a human story.

I'm not sure if I would say it's my favorite X-Men film, let alone my favorite superhero film, but it is my favorite Wolverine film. And say that as a big fan of The Wolverine (the director's cut).

A longer version of the Deadpool pre-credits scene is now online, including a brief cameo that was inexplicably cut out from the theatrical version:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

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Bit of a stink being kicked up on social media about the Deadpool teaser (yeah, what else in new, right? ) with the main complaint being that innocent old men being murdered as the basis for a joke is in poor taste. I don't disagree but I'm a little confused since I don't recall "good taste" every being a notable 'Deadpool' trait. Indeed, I was under the impression that wildly inappropriate gallows/mortician's humour was one of the main selling points. Am I missing something?

 

[Lakenheath 72]

For myself, I did not have an issue with the teaser. Deadpool acted in character. I do not know why the Stan Lee cameo was not in the clip I saw in the theater. I think the clip flowed better without the cameo.

 

[Trekker4747]

I just got back from seeing it again with my best friend, and even though he not feeling well he enjoyed the hell out of this movie and said it was "great movie." Which it really is. It's not just a "good comic-book movie" or a "good X-Men movie" or a "good Wolverine movie," it's just a damn good movie. With a lot of heart, soul and atmosphere in it. You feel for these characters and understand them, you feel bad for the deaths of the family they helped on the highway, you want to see these kids achieve their goals and freedom and damn that girl who plays Laura/X-23 does a damn good job and act. The feral-child feeling when she's in her own little mini-berserker mode, the emotions at the end, the desperateness and line delivery when she begins speaking in Spanish. (Don't know if the girl has fluency or if just learned her lines really damn well but she delivered the Spanish lines very well. (From my untrained ears, a Spanish-speaking person may feel otherwise.)

Everyone in this movie does a damn good job, probably some of the best acting from Stewart and Jackman and sheesh....

After seeing it again I may feel like nudging my grade up to a full A+. The "faults" in this movie are pretty minor. mostly in the motivations and use of the antagonists and a, sort-of, cliched "duplicate fight" with X-24 but those problems are just tiny compared to all of the good in this movie.

This is just a very, very good movie.

 

[Tosk]

My only complaint was the video that Logan watches. It's a little on the nose that she went to the trouble of editing her clips and timing her voice over, AND a lot of the footage she could not have gotten secretly. So either they (the filmmakers) goofed or it's supposed to be a mix of secret footage, stolen footage, and narration.

Sure, she could have done it, but it did feel a little produced for what it was supposed to be.

But I only complain about it in a jokey manner, have a laugh at it. Not a really serious complaint.

 

[Phily B]

I just got back from seeing it again with my best friend, and even though he not feeling well he enjoyed the hell out of this movie and said it was "great movie." Which it really is. It's not just a "good comic-book movie" or a "good X-Men movie" or a "good Wolverine movie," it's just a damn good movie. With a lot of heart, soul and atmosphere in it. You feel for these characters and understand them, you feel bad for the deaths of the family they helped on the highway, you want to see these kids achieve their goals and freedom and damn that girl who plays Laura/X-23 does a damn good job and act. The feral-child feeling when she's in her own little mini-berserker mode, the emotions at the end, the desperateness and line delivery when she begins speaking in Spanish. (Don't know if the girl has fluency or if just learned her lines really damn well but she delivered the Spanish lines very well. (From my untrained ears, a Spanish-speaking person may feel otherwise.)

Everyone in this movie does a damn good job, probably some of the best acting from Stewart and Jackman and sheesh....

After seeing it again I may feel like nudging my grade up to a full A+. The "faults" in this movie are pretty minor. mostly in the motivations and use of the antagonists and a, sort-of, cliched "duplicate fight" with X-24 but those problems are just tiny compared to all of the good in this movie.

This is just a very, very good movie.

If Logan doesn't get a few Oscar nods, then no comic book movie ever will.

 

[Tosk]

If Logan doesn't get a few Oscar nods, then no comic book movie ever will.

Some already have.

 

[Trekker4747]

If Logan doesn't get a few Oscar nods, then no comic book movie ever will.

"The Dark Knight" got, of note, an Oscar nod for "Best Supporting Actor" with Heath Ledger's The Joker which he won posthumously.

I suspect you're speaking along the lines of the "big" awards and not the minor ones for technical aspects of the movie being made. I agree, that the movie should see some nods for the acting with Jackman and Stewart (and, hell, maybe even the little girl) and *maybe* for Picture and Director. But it's important to note that we're almost a year away from Oscar nominations for 2017 and, usually but not always, movies from the beginning of the year are "forgotten" or overshadowed by movies later in the year. There's a lot of time an politics in it and usually studios don't put their Oscar material out in February which is usually a "dumping ground" for movies expected to be underperformers. Though in Logan's case the studio likely had some degree of hope in it and felt February it could be released as a good movie with the very least amount of competition the likes it'd see over the Summer with a blockbuster coming out nearly every week.

Oscar Nods aren't impossible but I'd say very, very unlikely give the way the politics of the system work.

 

[Commander Richard]

Don't know if the girl has fluency or if just learned her lines really damn well but she delivered the Spanish lines very well.

She lives in Madrid and speaks Spanish. She's also an acrobat and gymnast.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

My only complaint was the video that Logan watches. It's a little on the nose that she went to the trouble of editing her clips and timing her voice over, AND a lot of the footage she could not have gotten secretly. So either they (the filmmakers) goofed or it's supposed to be a mix of secret footage, stolen footage, and narration.

Sure, she could have done it, but it did feel a little produced for what it was supposed to be.

But I only complain about it in a jokey manner, have a laugh at it. Not a really serious complaint.

Yeah, that bugged the hell out of me, too, especially considering it was all done on her phone. There were several moments of "How was she able to record that without being caught?" particularly the conversation between Xander and another nurse through the door and the kid jumping off the roof.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Good movie but I have a few odd comments.

We didn't quite catch what made the autotrucks go squirrelly. Was that due to them trying to avoid something?

Hearing about the adamantium, I had a strange notion watching this that perhaps Logan had been poisoned by Richard E Grant's anti-mutant stuff which didn't take full hold with his healing factor or something (maybe even what went wrong with Prof X). Guess I was overthinking (or not thinking) on that one. It was kind of odd how they sort of chucked him into the story at the end.

Wasn't Laura grown and raised in the Weapon X facility? How did she learn Spanish as her native tongue?

I was impressed by young Dafne Keen but even more so with Stephen Merchant, I never imagined the snarky guy from the Ricky Gervais podcast could pull off a decent serious acting role. Maybe it's those mostly silent damaged characters that help sell these young actor's emotions such as Millie Bobby Brown in Stranger Things or Saoirse Ronan in Hanna. Actually can see a little of both projects in the Laura X-23 character.

Just saw Logan..Hands down the best X-men verse movie! One question that I did have was that the a lot of the movie took place going between the boarders of Texas and Mexico in 2029. But I did not see the Trump's boarder wall.

Didn't he drive through it at one point?

They may have answered the "what happened to this timeline" question in the pre-movie stinger. I believe the phonebooth said "Nathan Christopher Summers is coming". So maybe we can just blame him for effing with all the X-Men timelines.

I believe it stated he's "cumming soon".

 

[F. King Daniel]

My only complaint was the video that Logan watches. It's a little on the nose that she went to the trouble of editing her clips and timing her voice over, AND a lot of the footage she could not have gotten secretly. So either they (the filmmakers) goofed or it's supposed to be a mix of secret footage, stolen footage, and narration.

Sure, she could have done it, but it did feel a little produced for what it was supposed to be.

But I only complain about it in a jokey manner, have a laugh at it. Not a really serious complaint.

I noticed this too. I can only imagine that video editing phone apps have come a long way by 2029.

 

[kitik]

Wasn't Laura grown and raised in the Weapon X facility? How did she learn Spanish as her native tongue?

The company facility she lived in was located in Mexico City.

I noticed this too. I can only imagine that video editing phone apps have come a long way by 2029.

Good point. Future phones.
"Siri, edit video footage down to 5 minutes. Professional level."

 

[Set Harth]

Some already have.

One even took home a win recently...

 

[LJones41]

The first half of the movie was first-rate and very original. But I thought it went a bit downhill in terms of plot in the second half. A bit too cliched in regards to the kids. The video that Logan had watched was a bit of a problem, as well.

 

[Snaploud]

The movie got way too depressing with the Xavier 'I don't deserve happiness...I killed my friends...Logan, I think I finally understand you...*cut to clone Logan stabbing Xavier in the chest*' moment. And why were they perfectly fine staying at the nice family's house when they knew for a fact that it would put that family at risk? That was just bizarre.

Over-all, it was an impressively made movie. I just found the back half way too depressing for my tastes.

 

[JD]

Bit of a stink being kicked up on social media about the Deadpool teaser (yeah, what else in new, right? ) with the main complaint being that innocent old men being murdered as the basis for a joke is in poor taste. I don't disagree but I'm a little confused since I don't recall "good taste" every being a notable 'Deadpool' trait. Indeed, I was under the impression that wildly inappropriate gallows/mortician's humour was one of the main selling points. Am I missing something?

No you aren't. All I can think is that those complaints are coming from people who never actually saw the first movie.

We didn't quite catch what made the autotrucks go squirrelly. Was that due to them trying to avoid something?

Reposted from earlier in the thread.

Will and Logan theorized that they might have been sabotaged by the guys who were harassing the family.

It was a quick line, so I can see how people might have missed it.

 

[Xerxes82]

The movie got way too depressing with the Xavier 'I don't deserve happiness...I killed my friends...Logan, I think I finally understand you...*cut to clone Logan stabbing Xavier in the chest*' moment. And why were they perfectly fine staying at the nice family's house when they knew for a fact that it would put that family at risk? That was just bizarre.

Over-all, it was an impressively made movie. I just found the back half way too depressing for my tastes.

They weren't perfectly fine staying there. Logan desperately wanted to not stay there. Xavier, who isn't really himself, wanted to stay, and Logan has a soft spot where Chuck is concerned.

I think, thematically, that Charles knows what he did. Somewhere, deep down. And that he's been longing for this sense of family, of togetherness again. He's always been, at heart, an incredibly community oriented man. He needs people, not just as a teacher or a protector, but as a human being. He's never quite right when on his own (see, DOFP when it's just him and Hank). Even with the risks, I think Charles has just faded so far that he can't pass up the opportunity, even knowing what might happen. In essence, Charles gets that family killed. It's another crime for him to confront, another way that he can finally understand Logan. But it makes a lot of sense for an old, slightly senile Xavier who has lost so much, by his own unwitting hand.