One of the primary reasons that James Mangold’s Logan works so well as a send-off to Hugh Jackman’s 17 years playing Wolverine is that it does the opposite of nearly every superhero movie convention expected. The end result earned critical and commercial acclaim and an Oscar nomination for adapted screenplay (a Wolverine movie got an Oscar nomination for screenplay; thought I’d say that again). More than a superhero film, Logan has more in common with the Western where an old gunslinger goes out on a final quest (more Unforgiven than X-Men).
In fact, my favorite cut of the film is Logan Noir: the black & white version of the film included as bonus feature on the Blu Ray. Denuded of a lot of the effect of the blood, the film feels more in tune with an old warrior’s final journey. But Mangold does give the fans, at the end of the film, one final berserker charge from Wolverine as he races to save his daughter and the last mutant children from the Reavers. Even that scene though, if you put him on a horse and swapped his claws for six-shooters, would be straight out of a Western. Kudos to Jackman for 17 years as the world’s favorite mutant, and to James Mangold for figuring out a way to give us a Wolverine that was off his leash, yet more true to the character’s roots than in any other film he’s been in.
Just about this whole movie is my favorite scene, but singling this one out isn’t a bad call. One of these days I need to watch the noir version.
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Oh you have to. There’s something about the black/white that makes it feel even more like the old westerns it imitates and it takes some of the sensationalism of the blood away. Not many movies could be improved by black/white, but I actually think this one is. No knock on the color version.
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My runner-up scene was the family dinner where they had to pretend to be a nuclear family at the farm house. I thought that was a very funny, very touching character scene, but ultimately a hero’s final charge is something you can’t top.
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For a superhero to die, that ain’t a bad way to go. 🙂
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Both his and Xavier’s deaths were so heart-breaking. The only thing I don’t like about the film is Logan’s young clone. I didn’t feel like that fit with the otherwise gritty tone of the film and it’s the only thing that takes me out of that movie. But it’s the best Wolverine movie we’ll ever get.
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I guess they had to squeeze in some form of continuance. It’ll be interesting to see where the storyline goes next.
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After 17 years of Jackman playing the character, we got this, instead of a sad rehash. Franchise filmmaking is in a state of flux right now, and the transformation is looking positive. You know how I feel about QT, yet if he is allowed to make a ST movie, it’s such a game changer (when it comes to franchises) that I’m praying it happens.
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