Revisited - Logan (2017)

So for this week I wanted to go for a fairly recent movie. This movie went it came out, got a lot of hype and when I finished watching I felt like it should half been hyped more. Nothing is more difficult than making a good superhero film and on top of that, making a good ending to a franchise leading character we all grew up loving. This movie gave an ending Wolverine deserved as well as the actor Hugh Jackman who played him brilliantly for all these years.

Logan is a 2017 American superhero film starring Hugh Jackman as the titular character. It is the tenth film in the X-Men film series and the third and final installment in the Wolverine trilogy following X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and The Wolverine (2013). The film, which takes inspiration from "Old Man Logan" by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, based in an alternate bleak future, follows an aged Wolverine and an extremely ill Charles Xavier who defend a young mutant named Laura from the villainous Reavers led by Donald Pierce and Zander Rice.The film is produced by 20th Century Fox, Marvel Entertainment, TSG Entertainment and The Donners' Company, and distributed by 20th Century Fox.] It is directed by James Mangold, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Green and Scott Frank, from a story by Mangold. In addition to Jackman, the film also stars Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, and Dafne Keen.

Principal photography began in Louisiana on May 2, 2016, and wrapped on August 19, 2016, in New Mexico. The locations used for Logan were mainly in Louisiana, New Mexico, and Mississippi.

Logan premiered at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on March 3, 2017, in IMAX and standard formats. The film received critical acclaim, with much praise for its screenplay, direction, acting (particularly that of Jackman, Stewart, and Keen), action sequences, emotional depth, and departure from traditional superhero films. It became one of the best-reviewed films in the X-Men franchise, with many critics regarding it as one of the greatest superhero films ever made, and it was selected by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2017. It was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 90th Academy Awards, becoming the first live-action superhero film ever to be nominated for screenwriting. It grossed over $619 million worldwide and became the third-highest-grossing R-rated film of all time.

In 2029, no mutants have been born in 25 years. An aging Logan's healing ability is failing. Working as a limo driver in El Paso, Texas, he and mutant tracker Caliban care for 90-year-old Charles Xavier, Logan's mentor and founder of the X-Men, in an abandoned smelting plant in northern Mexico. Xavier has developed dementia that causes him to have destructive seizures; it is alluded that one year prior, one such seizure released a powerful wave of his telepathic powers that resulted in the deaths of six hundred people, including several of the X-Men.

Logan reluctantly agrees to escort Gabriela Lopez, a former nurse for biotechnology corporation Alkali-Transigen, and a young girl, Laura, to Eden, a refuge in North Dakota. Later finding Gabriela dead, Logan is confronted at his Mexican hideout by her killer Donald Pierce, who is Transigen's cyborg chief of security. Pierce is looking for Laura, who has stowed away in Logan's limo and has similar powers to him. She, Logan, and Xavier escape Pierce and his Reavers, but Caliban is tortured into tracking Laura.

A video on Gabriela's cellphone shows that Transigen created Laura and other children from mutant DNA to become weapons; Laura was created from Logan's DNA. As they proved difficult to control and Transigen found an alternative, the children were to be killed, but Gabriela and other nurses helped some escape. In Oklahoma City, Logan discovers that Eden appears in Laura's X-Men comic and tells her it is fictional. The Reavers arrive, but Xavier has a seizure and incapacitates everyone except Logan and Laura, who kill the attackers and inject Xavier with his medication. As they flee, Dr. Zander Rice, head of Transigen, arrives to help Pierce.

Logan, Laura, and Xavier help farmer Will Munson and his family after a traffic incident, accepting an offer of dinner at their home, where Logan drives off enforcers from a corporate farm. Rice unleashes X-24, a clone of Logan in his prime and his alternative to the child program, who murders Will's family and Xavier, stabbing Will and capturing Laura. Caliban sets off grenades, killing himself and several Reavers while injuring Pierce. Logan is outmatched by X-24, but Will pins X-24 with his truck before dying from his injuries. Logan and Laura escape with Xavier's body.

After burying Xavier, Logan passes out. Laura takes him to a doctor and persuades him to prove that the site in North Dakota is not Eden. There, they find Rictor and other Transigen children preparing to cross into Canada. Laura finds an adamantium bullet that Logan has kept since his escape from the Weapon X facility, which he once considered using to commit suicide. Logan decides that his job is done and chooses not to accompany them, to Laura's dismay.

When the Reavers capture the children, Logan takes an overdose of a serum given to him by Rictor that temporarily enhances his healing abilities and boosts his strength. With Laura's help, he slaughters most of the Reavers before the serum wears off. As Pierce holds Rictor at gunpoint, Rice tells Logan, who killed Rice's father years ago at the Weapon X facility, that no new mutants have been born due to genetically engineered crops created by Transigen and distributed through the world's food supply. Logan, having found a gun, shoots Rice and injures Pierce. X-24, enraged by Rice's death, fights Logan, as the children combine their powers to kill Pierce and the remaining Reavers. Rictor uses his powers to flip a truck onto X-24, but he frees himself and impales Logan on a large tree branch. Laura uses Logan's revolver and adamantium bullet to shoot X-24 in the head.

Near death, Logan tells Laura not to become the weapon that she was made to be, and after she tearfully acknowledges him as her father, he dies peacefully in her arms. Laura and the children bury Logan, and Laura turns his grave marker on its side to create an X, honoring him as a member of the X-Men before she and the children depart for the Canadian border.

All in all, this film gives us a fresh take on the superhero genre but adding realism and some western spin to Wolverine's self discovering journey. Though I wouldn't say it's a movie I would watch nonstop since it's a very sad and serious movie but that doesn't bring it down at all as being one of the best superhero films of all time. This has been Revisited, thanks for reading. Ricardo signing off