Spoiler-Free Review: Logan

Logan

The following is a spoiler-free review of Logan. Keeping with B3 traditions here is the good, the badass, and the ugly as they apply to the third (and maybe Hugh Jackman’s last) Wolverine stand-alone film.

The Good

It’s dark, gritty, and bleak. This is not a cheesy comic book movie. No tights.
Dafne Kee puts on a solid debut performance.
The Deadpool intro is funny, and gives us an Easter egg that points towards another Marvel favorite in the works. No, it’s not Howard the Duck.

The Badass

This is the best on-screen performance of Patrick Stewart’s career. He nails the helplessness and loss of dignity that comes with old age.
The movie is savage. This R-rated Logan is the first time we actually see a version of Wolverine that comes close to the comics.
It is a good movie, not just a good superhero movie. It is well-shot, it has a great score, and the dialogue is believable.

The Ugly

The plot is a bit light.. Get from point A to point B. But there are some serious feels along the way, so we give them a pass.
The timeline is a bit confusing. Is this part of the First Class / Days of the Future Past thread, or the original X-Men trilogy? Is it something new? There is enough subtext to fill in the gaps, but it isn’t explicit.
The antagonist is a bit lame. He looks like the love child of a boy band reject and a T-100.

All in all, I truly think that Logan is the strongest Marvel film yet. It currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score in the low nineties, and I think that will only climb. It is easily the best superhero movie since the Dark Knight (2008).

Grab Logan on Blu-Ray