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This idea that Logan is
set in an alternate world to the previous films seems to be spread
throughout the entire movie, however perhaps it's best demonstrated by
all of the aspects that have bumped things up to an R-Rating. In The
Wolverine, Logan was at one point
pinned in place by a barrage of arrows and we thought, “Hmm I
wonder how he'll escape from being skewered by all of them”. In
this film however he sticks his metal claws through peoples heads as
he has done since his first on-screen appearance in X-Men
back in 2000. However this time,
and due to the increase in how realistic this violence is, our thought
is simply, “HOLY FUCK HE JUST STUCK HIS FUCKING CLAWS THROUGH THAT
GUYS FUCKING BRAIN. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST”. In X-Men:
First Class, Logan tells Charles
to “Go fuck yourself”, and we all let out a gasp. Here, both
Logan and Charles throw so many F-bombs at each other that it almost
becomes background noise. Because why the fuck would a man that stabs
people for a living give one solitary shit about minding his
language? The violence here isn't gratuitous or for the thrill of the
audience, but to highlight the obvious fact that violence isn't nice,
it's not something to be cheered on, and it is certainly something that the
character will then carry with increasing weight and for the rest of
their life. No wonder Bond drinks. I can only wonder and dread the
nightmarish level of PTSD that must be on the way for John fucking
Wick.
I suppose you could argue that these
are all fairly superficial observations that separate it from the
universe of the X-Men series
that we've previously seen, and to
point out the lack of continuity between films as further evidence
wouldn't be getting too much deeper. Which is my way of still
pointing it out regardless... so fuck you. It's worth noting too
though that a lot of Hollywood cliches are also subverted here. When
our anti-hero meets some goons at the start of the movie, he doesn't
take them down like John Wayne used to pretend to do to distract us
from the fact that in real life he hypocritically dodged the draft. Instead, Logan
pleads with the twats to leave him alone before quickly getting shot
in the chest and then having his head kicked in. Later on when
fleeing from a scene, Logan drives towards a wall. If movies have
taught me anything it's that walls only do their job so long as
people believe that they do, in the same way that money only has the
level of value that society places on it. If we believe we can drive
through a wall then the odds are it's going to smash in slow-motion
and the people in the car will be able to continue at speed to
safety. It seems however that in Logan, walls
actually are capable of doing their job and so when he aims his car
towards it and hits the accelerator, we don't get the satisfying
escape that we've been conditioned to expect. Instead he hits the
wall, the wall remains in place, and the car gets completely fucked. I
guess things have moved on since that time Quicksilver enjoyably raced around
the X-Mansion to the sounds of Annie fucking Lennox and whilst his friends all died around him.
However it's within the tone of the
movie that all of these aspects work together to create something
that feels as though it's from a much more grounded world. Perhaps
the previous movies did happen here and the filmmakers just don't
give a fuck about continuity. In X-Men: Apocalypse, Caliban
was an underground dealer played by Tomas Lemarquis whereas here he's
played by Stephen Merchant who appears to have adopted the role of
Logan's surrogate wife, left at home to look after their baby,
Professor X. At one point Logan holds an X-Men comic
and so there's no reason that earlier films couldn't simply be
Hollywood's adaptation of this film's past. Or perhaps the previous
movies are simply the drunken memories of what's gone before? Like
when you remember your night out as being brilliant until you find
the photographs and realise that you actually spent most of the time
in a queue to have a piss up against the back of a bin. Whatever you
choose to believe however, there's no doubt that all of this builds up
to the theme of the film. Whether it be the cost of violence, the
hopeless future of a tortured alcoholic, or the fame of having once
been known as a hero, it seems that Logan is
obsessed with legacy. Well either that or it's a giant fucking tribute to the film Shane I
suppose.
Although Shane might
be Logan's biggest
source of inspiration for reasons that will become obvious when you
watch the movie, it's worth noting that there are a few others in
here too. For similar reasons, there's also Unforgiven in
which what's left of a previous hero comes out of retirement to
dispel the romanticism of his past glories. As much as this film
literally quotes Shane's, “There's
no living with a killing” speech, it could just as easily drop in
Clint Eastwoods, “It's a hell of thing, killing a man. Take away
all he's got and it's all he's ever gonna have”, the Schofield Kid
whilst crying responds, “yeah, well I guess they had it coming”,
to which Eastwood spits back, “We all got it coming, kid”. Or
perhaps we could also throw in the, “I'm an old broken down piece
of meat and I'm alone and I deserve to be all alone” line from The
Wrestler which this film shares
a similar underlying sadness with. Both films also show the effects
of the title character's destructive life on their own body, however
where the Wrestler "[doesn't] want you to hate me”, Logan is so busy
hating himself that he probably wouldn't notice a little extra from
anybody else. On top of these though, there's the dysfunctional family on a road-trip aspect
from Little Miss Sunshine, and
the rumour of a safe-haven in a rotting society suffering from a
problem with its birth-rates from Children Of Men. There's
also a Beyond Thunderdome thing
in the third act in regards to where the X-23 story
goes. None of that last paragraph had any swearing or attempts at
jokes to try and keep your attention and so for no reason at all I'll
just end it with the word “cock-womble”.
Although I actually have a giant
soft-spot for the previous instalment The Wolverine, I
think we all agree that it went and gone and done a fuck up with its third
act, CG-Silver Samurai, comic book bullshit. Despite how grounded
Logan may be however, I
suppose there is one aspect of the film that gets a little close to
that again with the appearance of X-24. If you've not seen the film
yet then you might want to skip the rest of this paragraph for fear
of a few spoilers. However for all its pretensions to the
higher-brow examples of Hollywood Past, there's no denying that Logan
also borrows a little from
something along the lines of the 1991 crap-tastic Van Damme vs Van
Damme fight in Double Impact. Logan
is forced to fight his own evil twin which is pretty much something
that every 1980's beef-cake action movie star has done at some point
in his life. I'm aware that this plays into the overall theme of the
movie in which Logan must grapple with both his past and therefore his own darkness. In this case, that
happens to be a younger version of himself that's fuelled by nothing
beyond the rage and aggression that he's spending his life attempting
to contain. However perhaps seeing the metaphor of Logan attempt to
defeat the ghosts of his past and mental pain by literally punching
it in the face, like Arnie did with his clone in the movie The
6th Day, is
a tiny bit on the nose. Although, unlike Arnie, at least when Hugh
Jackman looked at his own clone, he didn't also look like he wanted to
shag it.
I'd hate to sound like I'm slagging
that aspect of the film off however because I actually thought it
worked fine. I'd just understand if other people thought it was an
aspect that got a little too close to falling into the type of movie
that the rest of Logan so
successfully avoided becoming. Especially when you consider how
smartly this film seems to be commenting on our current state of
society too. Charles was once a dapper and idealistic chap who has
been shat on by the world to the point that his dream of integration
has left him a husk of his former self. He's in dire need of
medication and yet exists in a country in which his carer is working
a separate full time job and struggling to get access to the
necessary healthcare. This is a world with driverless trucks and a
sky full of drones contrasting with widespread poverty in a developed
nation. The gang simply want to cross the border for their dream of a
better life and yet they're being hounded down by the selfish agenda
of a corporation that essentially earns it's vast wealth from fear
mongering and the exploitation of human misery and prejudice. Oh and one of the
main causes of trouble in this movie is a dim-witted prick called
Donald that essentially does the bidding of this corporation for his
own fucking dumb, greedy reasons. Although even in the world of the
mutants and the X-Men, I'd
be at odds to work out what the fuck is really going on with Donald
Trump's duck-fart of a hair do.
Combining both the legacy aspect of
the movie along with its obvious comment on our modern times, it
seems difficult to also ignore another over-all message of the film.. that life is ultimately a miserable experience in which our fleeting
moments of happiness are eventually lost to the sadness and failures
of our past. Why carry on with such a miserable and hopeless
outlook though? Well, as was the case with Charles taking on Logan and Logan
taking on X-23.. there's always the slim hope that things might get
slightly better for the next generation. Although I've been listening
to that album in which Nick Cave sings about his dead kid a lot
recently. Maybe if you have a less downbeat consumption of
pop-culture than me then the message of this movie might not feel
quite so much like the numb misery of a kick to the balls. By focusing more on character than spoon feeding information on plot, director James
Mangold has made a film that's ambiguous enough that I'm sure we can
all ultimately read Logan however
we like. What was the "bad thing?" that Professor X references from his past.. did he suck off Super Hans from Peep Show, I wonder? Whether your outlook is a pessimistic one or
alternatively probably wrong, I'm sure we can all agree that this
film with its themes and obvious increase in quality is the film for
the phenomenal Hugh Jackman to hang up his claws. Especially
when compared to X-Men Origins: Wolverine which was so shit
that I wanted to shoot myself in the head with an adamantium bullet
to kill my memories of having seen it. Until I realised that made no fucking sense whatsoever.
After seventeen years of playing a character you'd think that he'd be
bored to the dick of Wolverine at this point, too. Going back to James
Bond, you should compare Roger Moore's charming performance in Live
And Let Die to his work in A
View To A Kill. Those two films
had a gap of twelve years and in his final performance as 007, it's
like Moore is being directed at fucking gun-point. Watch the film
carefully and you'll notice that Moore is actually spelling out the
words 'help me' in Morse code with his eyebrows. However here, Jackman
seems more dedicated than ever. The only thing that stops me from
smashing the mirrors in my house is the knowledge that although the
48 year old actor looks better as an ageing alcoholic than I do as a
28 year old tea-totaller... he also looks better in that condition than
he did at my fucking age too. Not that I'm saying he looks cool, of
course. Not here anyway. Just that despite being the mess that he is, I
imagine he's still strong enough that he could quite easily kill me by pulling my arms out of their sockets as though he's a fucking wookie.
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