Logan
Director: James Mangold
Sometimes one needs a little trash. It may come in the form of a page-turner, a magazine or a TV or film franchise.
When I found I’d missed seeing an adaption of one of my favourite animations – Ghost in a Shell (1995) – I urgently needed ice-cream and trash to compensate for my loss. I thought the last of the Wolverine/X-men franchise would be the way to go. I chose perfectly.
Logan is enthralling. Almost too good to label as trash. The lead actors – Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Dafne Keen – capture your soul in their portrayals of three products of bio-technology who share the angst of both human alienation and our desire to avoid emotional pain. A tough combination for anyone but particularly for those who possess superhuman powers.
These three do, of course, come loaded with abilities that could set off psychological and physical events that we mere humans could not possibly conceive: one old man (Stewart) is in possession of a brain that has been defined as a weapon of mass destruction and he is accelerating towards dementia; an almost indestructible Wolverine (Jackman) is aware that he is rotting from within (probably that adamantium bonded to his bones so many years ago); and then there is the she-cub who Wolverine is slowly and reluctantly recognising as not only his kind but more than likely his DNA-sampled daughter (played perfectly be Dafne Keen). All three complex and lonely characters are being pursued for the purpose of their extermination.
While the bad guys in this last Wolverine film are suitably formularised to be easily substituted into any Bond movie or XXX sequel, the emotional depth of a journey that leads to the discovery of previously unexperienced emotions by our three lead marvels is what this film is all about.
A little bit Shane (gunslinger classic of 1953), a whole lot sophisticated X-men for adults (complete with ‘R’ rating), catch this movie while it is still playing in cinemas.
Logan is a surprising triumph in trash that goes way beyond good versus evil.
(*Disclaimer: I have not seen any previous Wolverine/X-men movie so please forgive any glitch in Marvel mythology).