Justin Forrest
Writer

Loosely based on the comic story “Old Man Logan,” the movie “Logan” is the final story of everyone’s favorite crass, clawed, Canadian: The Wolverine.

Thanks to Fox’s first foray into R-rated territory, “Deadpool,” we finally get a fully realized and proper Wolverine story. I mean, you can’t have a story about a guy with knives that come out of his hands with out a little blood shed.

Not only is there lots of blood and gore (and oh boy, is there lots of gore!), foul language also runs roughshod throughout the movie. Something still new to the superhero genre.

One of the biggest proponents to this isn’t The Wolverine himself, but Sir Patrick Stewart’s aging Charles Xavier. Xavier having gone through serious trauma, both mentally and physically plays the blunt voice of reason and also the heart of the story.

The story itself takes place over 20 years in the future, where almost all mutants (Along with the X-Men) are all dead. The also aging Logan is slowly dying from metal poisoning, due to his metallically coated skeleton.

Yet, this hasn’t stopped him from trying to take care of his mentor and surrogate father Xavier. Soon their lives change dramatically when not just a young girl, but a young mutant falls into their hands.

A mutant that has the same powers as Wolverine. They both are tasked with taking this young girl to a supposed mutant sanctuary cross country, all the while avoiding government agents and scientists who want the girl for themselves.

While this story is dramatic and brutal enough for a proper send off to everyone’s favorite X-Men character, I did find issue with the pacing of the movie. Sometimes the movie felt too slow and sluggish with not enough of an emotional hit for me at times.

When the action did finally ramp up it felt satisfying, but didn’t exactly break new ground. If you’ve seen other Wolverine fight scenes, you probably know what to expect. The other big issue I had with the film is you don’t get enough time to get invested into the side characters and worst of all, the villains.

You just don’t get to know enough about them and why you should want them to be defeated. Beyond that they never really feel like a legitimate threat, especially considering our heroes are older and weaker than they’ve ever been before.

Despite its flaws, this is still a very good movie. Hugh Jackman puts all the love that he’s built for this character these past 15 years all into this film for one final grand adventure.

And if you’re an X-Men fan like me, who has been with this series almost my entire life, then you too will probably feel closure on what could be for now, the end of the X-Men movie franchise.

For those parents thinking of taking your children to see this superhero movie, take caution. Because Logan is the best in the world at what he does, and what he does isn’t very nice.

I give it four reels out of five.

jforrest@lc.edu