Hey everyone! Today I’m reviewing the newest Wolverine movie, Logan. I know, it’s been out for awhile but I don’t like crowds so I do try to wait for some time to pass after movies come out so they die down but I couldn’t wait that long!

Now, I first came across the X-Men through the tv animated series X-Men Evolution and then through the films later on. My parent’s aren’t big nerds, neither of them were ever into comic books or anything. My mom still doesn’t care much for these movies but my dad does like them after being exposed to them through me. My sister also now likes them as well. I don’t have any comic book knowledge of the X-Men though, so I wasn’t able to enjoy it from that aspect but I’m okay with that.

I haven’t watched all of the most recent movies since they did get seem to get worse as time went on but I was really excited to see Logan, especially since there were so many good reviews on it.

As always I’ll start with a spoiler free review. After the spoiler free section there will be one of the promotional posters for the film and a header indicating the spoilers will start. Spoilers will end after the second promotional poster. Both posters are not my images, they are from Google.

Spoiler Free Review

If you haven’t seen the movie yet and you like this kind of movies I highly recommend you stop reading and go watch the movie even before continuing through this section.

The movie takes place in the future, following the previous story lines. Logan is now older and is caring for an elderly Professor Charles Xavier. Professor X is now suffering from a mental degenerative disease, which is always sad, but with him being such a strong telepath, it’s dangerous. They’re both very much retired, although perhaps not by choice.

It’s revealed that there haven’t been any new mutants born in a few decades so the mutants are dying out and with their limited or unstable powers Logan and the Professor aren’t in a position to help them much anyway. However they do come across new mutants and have to take up the mantle of protectors and mentors once more.

It is also revealed that Logan is dying because the adamantium that coats his bones and claws, is now poisoning him. As he’s older his healing abilities are no longer as strong or as quick to work, so he isn’t able to protect against the effects. Plus, he is feeling suicidal, only working and trying to stay alive to look after Professor X.

This movie is meant to be the last time that Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart will appear in the X-Men universe, and it was a beautiful farewell. After so many less-than-stellar Wolverine movies this was finally the Wolverine movie fans deserved. The movie is rated R, which allowed the movie to be a true representation of what I always pictured Wolverine’s character should be. The fight scenes are amazing and the story is dark and grim.

Overall the movie has a strong finale feeling to it. I think it will be hard to then go back and watch any future X-Men movies, not only because it won’t have my favorite character, but because it just felt so final. The series felt completed and while I did like the newer younger X-Men portrayals I think that watching them would feel strange after such a strong performance here.

That’s the end of my spoiler free section. Onto spoilers!

Spoiler Review & Thoughts

Logan/Wolverine has always been one of my favorite characters, and actually my favorite episodes from the tv show were the ones with X-23. However from what I had seen of the universe it felt so unlikely that she would ever appear in the films. Like I said earlier, I never read the comics so all I had in terms of exposure to her was the tv series, and I always wanted to see more of her.

In the tv series X-23, named Laura, was very much presented as a clone (as far as I remember), but in the movie she is only referred to as Logan’s biological daughter. I feel that was a good choice because the movie does movie quite quickly and it helped propel Laura and Logan into the father-daughter relationship they eventually fall into. Really Laura could have carried the movie on her own. She was amazing! Most of her role was scowling and silently judging Logan, in a way that most of us wouldn’t dare to do for fear of death. Laura proves to be a fierce lady and when she starts speaking she switches so easily between English and Spanish, so I could relate to her that way!

As the movie begins it’s revealed that Laura is one of many mutant children used for experiments in Mexico City. She herself is half Mexican as a result of Mexican women used to have the children, whom are never seen again. I am a native Spanish speaker as my parents are Mexican immigrants so it was very nice to be able to hear both languages that I know in the movie. The children escaped with the help of the nurses that would take care of them. The nurses were ordered to help kill the children because the X-23 program was considered outdated after the X-24 program was a success. But more on that later.

Laura’s presence also seemed to really help Professor X as well. Immediately he is able to communicate with Laura although she hasn’t spoken. Logan seems so perplexed by this, despite knowing the Professor’s telepathic power, so it seemed that the Professor hasn’t been able to do this or just hasn’t done so in awhile. And while Professor Xavier has demonstrated that he is very selfish as his sickly, elderly self, he seems to become more of the Professor X that we are used to seeing when Laura arrives. He even admonishes the son of the farmers for wanting to abandon his studies and teases Logan about his lack of enthusiasm when they were still at the school.

One really fun little detail of the movie was the comic books. Since mutants haven’t really been around to cause chaos, the world has come to view mutants in such a positive light, taking events that happened and turning them into fictionalized representations on the pages of the comics. One of the comics Laura carries with her has the coordinates in North Dakota where the escaped children are meeting before heading up into Canada, where they hope to put enough distance between them and the lab that experimented on them and raised them to kill.

Going back to X-24, we see the cloning part of the story return. X-24 is Logan’s clone, played by Hugh Jackman as well. We don’t see any other clones part of the X-24 program but the clone is essentially a younger but not as powerful Wolverine. He does need help to heal so it’s clear the program isn’t an exact copy but pretty close. Of course,  he does die in the end due to his inability to heal as Laura is able to, and as Logan used to be able to do. Laura is able to finish him off, but only with an adamantium bullet she swiped off Logan earlier.

Death played a huge part of the movie. Xavier’s death comes quickly after his revelation that he remembers how he accidentally killed mutants and humans at the mansion after losing control of his powers due to his illness. By then X-24 had broken into the home where they were staying and stabbed him with his claws while trying to retrieve Laura. It was heartbreaking to see how quickly Logan runs upstairs to try and save Xavier after realizing something is wrong and then how desperate he is to make sure that the Professor doesn’t die believing it was Logan that did it. Personally I don’t think this was the case as Xavier clearly realizes something is wrong when he turns to look at X-24, so that was a great solace but it was sad to see him go.

There is also another character, a mutant tracker named Caliban who was helping Logan care for Xavier while Logan was working. Caliban is left behind after Logan believes him dead when the villain Donald Pierce come for Laura with Reavers. Caliban is tortured by the sunlight that hurts him to lead Pierce to Laura. He does kill himself by detonating two grenades inside the truck where he is held. At this point he has already led them to Laura and Logan, but I suppose his main goal was to take out Pierce. It didn’t work but it was nice to see a character that we really didn’t get to see learn about what is going on but he’s still so dedicated to be on the “good” side.

So eventually Laura does get reunited with the other X-23 program children. I felt this was a tad unbelievable. None of the nurses seemed to have survived or accompanied the children as Gabriella did. These kids who had never seen the world outside the lab until they escaped seemed to have a good little community set up and thriving out in the middle of North Dakota. It seemed improbable that they would have everything they needed to survive because of coordinates from a comic book and the survival skills to make it out there but somehow they did. They also seem to be a tight knit group, helping each other with medicines and then coming to each others’ aid as they are attacked later. While they do have some sort of self preservation instincts, once they are caught they stick very close together.

Logan’s death was particularly moving as he and Laura’s relationship has evolved and grown so much. Laura has come to see Logan as her father, and he has accepted her as well. While they’re not able to have a peaceful goodbye they realize that in their crazy world they are lucky to have had the time they had to get to know each other as well as a chance to at least acknowledge what they mean to each other.

Logan’s last words are “so that’s what it feels like.” I’ve seen a few interpretations on these words, and at first I thought that he meant having a familiar bond. However I don’t think that’s the case any longer, as I feel he would have felt something similar with the other X-Men (even if it’s not as openly accepted by Logan) and even with Xavier. I’ve also seen one interpretation that he was referring to feeling pain and inviting death in, something that he’s gone for so long only able to see from the outside,  and losing friends through the years. I think that he meant more along the lines of feeling peace, knowing that Laura and the other children are safe and that he can let go and move on.

The other kids don’t seem to understand their bond but they respect it and help Laura bury and remember Logan. They give her time to say goodbye, listening to her words and then moving on to leave her to say farewell on her own. The final scene where Laura turns back to change Logan’s cross into an X was beautiful. Logan is the last of the X-Men and a cross really wouldn’t fit him to begin with, so it was nice to see that even though they only knew each other a short time, Laura understood Logan perfectly.

Again, I don’t think that it will be easy to jump into a new X-Men movie after this film. I’m one of the people that have enjoyed the reboot of the younger X-Men but even so I feel like I wouldn’t be able to view the films the same way almost. This movie just had such a finality to it, and had a perfect ending.

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So that’s my review and thoughts on Logan! I do want to hear your thoughts on the movie so feel free to leave a comment below. All I ask is that you state ahead of time if you’re going to have any spoilers in your comment so others know to skip if they haven’t seen the film yet.

Thanks for reading!