Movie Monday: Logan

As a superhero movie fan, I couldn't resist going out opening weekend to see the final X-Men movie featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier.

Logan is set in the future of 2029, where many mutants have died off and none are being born. Tired of his long life and poisoned from the inside, Logan is working as a chauffeur across the Mexico-Texas border to provide from himself and the aging Professor X. Age is interacting with Charles' telepathic powers in deadly ways; when he has a seizure, everyone around freezes in pain. But Logan can't abandon the man who has been like a father to him.

Of course, a wrench has to be thrown into the works. That wrench is Laura, or X-23, an eleven-year-old mutant with suspiciously familiar powers being tracked down by government goons.

Don't go into Logan expecting slick bombast. James Mangold has taken clear inspiration from westerns, most obviously the classic Shane. It's an elegiac film, albeit one that does have plenty of brutal action scenes and sprinklings of humor. Since Deadpool proved to Fox that R-rated superhero films can make buckets of money, Logan leans into its higher rating. The violence is bloody and the language is salty.

I enjoyed seeing two of my favorite characters playing off of each other, and Dafne Keen as Laura works perfectly in the mix. She's an adorable ball of rage with flowered sunglasses who spends over half the movie communicating only in grunts. When she does finally speak, she still accompanies it with a punch to help Logan get over his self-pity. (And let me say that I appreciate Logan's linguistic efforts. Characters born in Mexico speak Spanish.)

 Logan is a moving film about the regrets of the past and the hopes of the future. It also happens to feature Wolverine vs. Wolverine action, for the best of both worlds. I don't think fans of these characters will be disappointed.