Spoilers Logan - Grading & Discussion

[Gaith]

^ Of the USA's 320 million inhabitants, a tiny number are involved in corn farming, so the odds of our trio meeting someone with a direct connection to the end of mutantkind... I suppose that once one accounts for their driving route, it's not that improbable, but it's still unlikely, and it's still just plain coincidence that the trucks attack the family as they pass by.

In any case, I wasn't impressed by the corn syrup plotline. Either don't explain the mutant shortage at all, or have the world be a Blade Runner-type dystopia where government-sanctioned killers hunt mutants. Introducing a GMO parable is an awkard move for what otherwise aspires to be a simple neo-Western story, IMO.

 

[Tosk]

^ Of the USA's 320 million inhabitants, a tiny number are involved in corn farming, so the odds of our trio meeting someone with a direct connection to the end of mutantkind... I suppose that once one accounts for their driving route, it's not that improbable, but it's still unlikely, and it's still just plain coincidence that the trucks attack the family as they pass by.

I still don't get the supposed coincidence. If you "end" mutantkind by treating the world's food, then billions of people would have some kind of "direct connection".

In any case, I wasn't impressed by the corn syrup plotline.

Noted.

 

[Forbin]

???
I drink tea, but you can't say I have any kind of direct connection to the farming or manufacturing process.

 

[galleywest]

From reading this thread, I guess I'm in the minority, but here are my thoughts:

As a stand alone movie, it was really good, very well directed, very thoughtful, both uplifting and heart-wrenching. I would recommend it as a serious drama to anyone, sci fi fan or not. Patrick Stewart is amazing.

As an X-Men movie...I didn't like it as part of that set of movies. It was such a departure from the other X-Men movies--soooooooooo much more violence! And the swearing! We went from "bub" to "F-ity f f f fffffffffffffffffff"! It's very hard for me to reconcile this movie with the others in the franchise because of the relentlessly depressing portrayal of Wolverine and because of the tone. And thus is my opinion.

 

[Reverend]

Unless I missed something, I was under the impression that the anti-x-gene therapy wotsit was introduced into the food chain though more than just corn syrup. Putting it in a base ingredient is just being efficient.
Secondly, I think there was a mention of how a megacorp was buying up land so that just about every crop was this gene-modded stuff, so odds are if you drive though a farmland area, almost every local you meet either works for, or is currently under pressure to sell out to these guys.

Also worth remembering that this is a dystopia with the main descriptor seemingly being a failing or rather a "sick" environment, not unlike Logan himself (it's thematically tied.) As such I can absolutely see some huge agri-corp maximising profits on failing land by growing high yield crops for cheap, profitable processed foodstuffs, even if what they're doing is only making it worse.

The message here isn't anti-GMO so much as anti-corporate greed at the cost of the environment. That tracks with the mutants being weeded out and controlled because just like humans, they're part of the environment and by killing and "farming" them, the whole ecosystem is being damaged.

As for meeting the farmer: yeah, that's a little bit of a coincidence, but so what? It's a story and in storytelling such things are necessary. Did you ever hear the story of the epic journey on which nothing unexpected happened, nobody was met along the way and nothing was learned by the end? Of course not, because who the hell wants to tell that boring story, much less hear about it?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I think I'd give the film a B, maybe a B-. It's often good, even very good, and that's a testament to the actors, especially the core trio, because they had to transcend some weak material. The story seemed underthought to me; too often it was aping Children of Men, but without being as harrowing -- or as powerful -- as Children of Men, and I found many plot developments coincidental or arbitrary. (Logan getting back to the hotel in Las Vegas at just the right moment is the major coincidental plot development, and there are a number of arbitrary ones where characters outside of the narrative have to behave in stupid ways, like when Laura steals the SUV, for the plot to continue.) Like Children of Men I wondered if there was any sort of "happy ending" five minutes after the credits rolled; the ultimate irony of both stories would be if the main character's actions and sacrifices were all for naught as the hopeful ending they were struggling for didn't exist. I feel like Logan needed a rewrite -- or maybe even a rethink. There was a good idea at the heart of the film -- Logan's last adventure -- but because it seemed so derivative of Children of Men to me, Logan never really stood out enough for me to love it.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Moving on from bullshit semantic spats...

Picture, if you will, a neo-Western in which an aging action icon with serious anger issues must, due to sudden circumstance, protect and transport a daughter he barely knows, who's being hunted by merciless killers. But, unlike Logan, the 2016 Mel Gibson flick Blood Father runs a mere 88 minutes, and I'm tempted to call it the better film. Both movies feature quiet respites in their second acts, but whereas Logan introduces a family of random characters through sheer happenstance (who also happen to have a laughably improbable connection to the worldwide mutant shortage), the downtime companions in Blood Father showcase the crowd its protagonist came from, and highlights the ways they've grown apart, which strikes me as the more effective choice. (Again, I wish that the peaceful family in Logan had been that of Shreiber's Creed.)

Erin Moriarty (the Kilgrave victim and murder suspect from Jessica Jones) turns in a strong supporting performance as Gibson's daughter, and William H. Macy stands out in a cameo as an alcoholic washout named Kirby, making this an unofficial sequel to Jurassic Park III for those whole like to make such connections. But of course the main attraction is Mel himself, in his first starring role since 2012's even more delicious Get the Gringo. Blood Father is a bit less fun, but it's no less artful, and the 60-year-old Gibson is still crazy buff, crazy compelling, and likely a bit just plain crazy, also. (Never mind the black and white cut: I now want to see a Fury Road with him as Max even more than I did before.) To be fair, Logan has many more moments that stick with me than does Blood Father, but fans of the former may well enjoy the latter. It's a solid, gnarly low-key actioner from the director of the underrated Assault on Precinct 13 remake.

And in a parallel universe, Mel Gibson has just reprised the title role for the final time in Logan, having agreed to take the role when first approached in 1999!

 

[Hunter Zolomon]

I am sorry but i feel that this movie was over rated and very disrespectful to the xmen legacy if i am being honest. Yup and it was boring in parts and i kinda fell asleep a little. I am not even gonna cover the plot holes that this movie has, like how mutants where eliminated in america, the canadian border seems to have an anti reaver shield, an empty water tank with holes in it can block xaviers powers, terrible and forgettable villains. Dont get me even started on how the good guys who are on the run from mercenary killers decide to just chill and put that families life in danger. Hell i would have liked to have heared some xmens names mentioned, you dont even have to tell me how they died. Plus how the hell did that nurse not start by telling wolverine that he has a clone daughter. She can find him but the govt cant find weapon x and a man whose brain has been classified as a wmd. Hell i would have been satisfied if there was a shot of alpha flight waiting for mutant kids across the border, which would explain why the reavers needed to get to them before the border, because its just trees and forests, they could easily keep chasing the kids across the border before they could reach help.

A lot would have been resolved by just small statements here or there, what happened to sabre tooth, magneto and the brotherhood, what about mutants that are overseas. It may sound nit picky but boy, this movie was sold to me as a very adult and realistic take on the logan character so yeah i am gonna expect some real answers to real questions. Finally Kaliban gets no love in this film, treated like utter shit through out the film by the protagonist and then the same protagonist puts an entire family in danger for a soft bed and a hot meal, its not like logan has had a rough life and been chased by gangs of killers before. All of this made me lose sympathy for him through the movie and finally that cheesy x on his grave made cringe so hard i almost dislocated my shoulders.

 

[Tosk]

an empty water tank with holes in it can block xaviers powers

That's the attempt, but it clearly doesn't work...or work well. When Charles has an attack early on, Caliban is affected too.

 

[Hunter Zolomon]

That's the attempt, but it clearly doesn't work...or work well. When Charles has an attack early on, Caliban is affected too.

the movie has way too many lapses in logic for my taste.

 

[kirk55555]

Just saw this on DVD.

This was really an awful film. Not quite the worst superhero movie I've seen, but its in the bottom 10. Its definitely the worst of the FOX superhero movies, and I'm including Wolverine Origins and fant4stic in that statement. A movie made by people who seemed to not just not care about the X-Men franchise, but actively seemed to hate it and all of the characters. A complete embarrassment for everyone involved, especially Patrick Stewart in quite possibly his first outright awful role (although its mostly the scripts fault for that).

If it didn't have an R rating I'm convinced no one would even talk about it. As it is, the R-rating was just used for an eye rolling amount of f-bombs and some poorly done gore (seriously, the use of the claws wasn't cool or interesting, it was badly done slasher film stuff).

I won't even get into how badly this would screw over the franchise if I thought it was canon, but I'd put money on FOX not having all the X-Men die stupidly offscreen at any point so that stuff doesn't really matter outside of it being a stupid plot point in this film.

I'd rather watch Wolverine Origins and Fant4stic as a double feature five times in a row then ever watch this movie again (and I generally rewatch even bad superhero movies).

In case its not clear, I rated this movie an F

 

[Reverend]

the movie has way too many lapses in logic for my taste.

You say that as if there was a more viable option available to the characters. Barely managing with no resources and on borrowed time is sort of the whole point.

 

[Tosk]

If it didn't have an R rating I'm convinced no one would even talk about it.

I won't address the rest of the review, as we all have different opinions...but on this point you are wrong.

 

[Ovation]

Watched it last night. Loved it. Don't care for a second about how it fits "in canon" (way too many alternate universes in the films and comics for that to be a serious concern). Can't wait to re-watch it in B&W. Reviewers drawing parallels to Unforgiven have it right. Solid A.

 

[shivkala]

I liked it, didn't love it. Comics have a tradition of setting stories in the future and then letting the readers (and future writers) decide if it's an "official" future or just a "possible" future. Even Old Man Logan was like this.

The fact of the matter is, Hugh Jackman and, to a lesser extent, Patrick Stewart have been playing these characters for so long, they don't feel they can continue to do so realistically. So, we get a movie where they can ride off into the sunset. Since the current X-Men movies since First Class are set in the past, it remains to be seen whether or not this will ever impact the other movies. There's every possibility it will be retconned the same way the other X-Men movies were.

I do like that it's less of a super-hero movie and more of a pure action movie. Despite the characters and abilities of said characters, I think it owes more to Mad Max than any of its predecessors.

 

[LJones41]

Despite a few continuity issues and ham-fisted usage of profanity, "Logan" is a very good movie. I just recently saw it for the first time. But it seems plain to me that with the exception of some changes, it is basically a remake of 2009's "X-Men Origin: Wolverine".

 

[Dales]

Just saw this on DVD.

This was really an awful film. Not quite the worst superhero movie I've seen, but its in the bottom 10. Its definitely the worst of the FOX superhero movies, and I'm including Wolverine Origins and fant4stic in that statement. A movie made by people who seemed to not just not care about the X-Men franchise, but actively seemed to hate it and all of the characters. A complete embarrassment for everyone involved, especially Patrick Stewart in quite possibly his first outright awful role (although its mostly the scripts fault for that).

If it didn't have an R rating I'm convinced no one would even talk about it. As it is, the R-rating was just used for an eye rolling amount of f-bombs and some poorly done gore (seriously, the use of the claws wasn't cool or interesting, it was badly done slasher film stuff).

I won't even get into how badly this would screw over the franchise if I thought it was canon, but I'd put money on FOX not having all the X-Men die stupidly offscreen at any point so that stuff doesn't really matter outside of it being a stupid plot point in this film.

I'd rather watch Wolverine Origins and Fant4stic as a double feature five times in a row then ever watch this movie again (and I generally rewatch even bad superhero movies).

In case its not clear, I rated this movie an F

well we must have watch different movies because logan is one of the best and most unique comic films to date. people who make your comments tend to enjoy the dumb and silly plain out awful mcu movies though with barely any plot or story telling like logan gave us. which is a darm shame because I thought fox Days of future past alone was superior to all the mcu movies but logan took that step further. definitely the best comic film of 2017 followed by wonder woman then homecoming.

 

[Tosk]

Why you gotta diss the MCU to praise Logan? Dang son, if you want to bad-mouth another franchise, that's what the DCEU is for.

 

[Ovation]

Why you gotta diss the MCU to praise Logan? Dang son, if you want to bad-mouth another franchise, that's what the DCEU is for.

Nah. The MCU can use a bit of bad-mouthing. It's not that much better than DCEU.

 

[LJones41]

Why you gotta diss the MCU to praise Logan? Dang son, if you want to bad-mouth another franchise, that's what the DCEU is for.

Not to me, it isn't.