Kontextmaschine

8th March 2017

Post with 23 notes

Logan (2017)

Saw Logan. It was decent, and probably the most intimate superhero franchise installment out there, but that’s a low bar and it wasn’t the revelation I hear it described as, neither the action as visceral nor the emotions as moving as promised.

On the action - the concept docs I saw had it as “by now Logan’s just a beefy dude who can be hurt like anyone else, he just survives to heal slowly in grueling pain”

And by superhero standards the setpieces are reasonably down-to-earth, centered on people striking each other with their muscular limbs. But more than boxer-past-his-prime brawling, Logan fights with superhuman pounces, batting beefy men for yards with a backhand.

(That’s to say nothing of Laura, who fights with a style halfway between acrobatic luchadores and the Rabbit of Caerbannog.)

He does get hurt but it’s hard to feel along with when its kind of arbitrary which damage “counts”, and Logan’s fighting and healing levels fluctuate according to the demands of the narrative - explicitly with the green medicine in the final act, but also in things like the opening sequence with the rim thieves, going from punching bag to death machine in a way that’s not accounted for by any internal hesitance like in Old Man Logan.

On the emotions - Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman have played Xavier and Logan so long that they really inhabit the roles - in less plotty, less fighty moments they really get across the weariness and decay of the characters, and them playing off of each other is a joy to watch. But for all that it feels like the audience is expected to feel a sadness and loss at this being the actors’ final outing that the movie just needs to access and invoke to carry over to the characters themselves. Maybe some did, I didn’t.

Logan/Laura there are some good moments, but overall it seems a little paint-by-numbers Gruff Beard Dad and never really blossoms. And the other kids show up too late to be a thing in their own right, but manage to command screen time and plot twists that could’ve gone towards paying off the core relationships.

Finally, having the final Wolverine setpiece in a (near)-Canadian forest was a nice touch I guess, but visually it was shot fairly undistinguished and plot-wise if the baddies can trivially pursue across the US/Mexican border I’m unclear why reaching Canada resolves things.

Tagged: reviewlogan