Logan (2017) - SPOILER-FREE Review

Editor’s Note: this is an old, unformatted, unedited review. The author’s opinion might not match the original thoughts written in this article.

Directed by: James Mangold

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, Dafne Keen

Runtime: 135 min

Logan is set in 2029, (almost) all of the mutants died and a drunk, isolated and depressed Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), aka Logan, is spending the rest of his life near the Mexican border with a mutant named Caliban (Stephen Merchant) and a sick Professor X (Patrick Stewart).

When a woman comes asking for his help to take her "special" daughter to safety, Logan sees himself in a live-or-die mission that might finally take him through his long-searched destiny's path, similarly to Hugh Jackman's supposedly last portrayal of this epic character.

Well, if you're thinking this is just another typical X-Men or cliché superhero movie ... You're seriously wrong. Of all the comic-book movies I've seen, I dare to say this is the one that I can finally call a goddamn DRAMA. Plus, this time it's rated R! Thank you Deadpool, I honestly hope that we'll have more films like this in the future.

The very first scene instantly transports us to a different tone that we're not used to seeing in this type of films. It's darker, gritty, bloody, gruesome, grisly, did I mention bloody? There are so many scenes that just stuck to my memory, I constantly jaw-dropped at almost every single action scene. AWESOME! Excellent direction by James Mangold, the quick cuts worried me at the beginning, but it's almost flawless. As for the action, this movie nails it and surpassed the already huge hype that it had. Best action from the whole  X-Men franchise.

Hugh Jackman ... It's an epic goodbye. As always, he's magnificent which I already expected before entering the theater. I mean, it's a character that he's been playing for almost 20 years, it's a routine that he knows from scratch, but this one is really the best from him.  A very different Logan and he nailed it perfectly. Patrick Stewart is great as always and this time he's even funnier than Hugh Jackman! However, the real surprise is Dafne Keen (Laura), who plays the extraordinary kid. She's able to connect with the audience without saying a SINGLE WORD until the beginning of the third act. Honestly, she reminded me of Millie Bobby Brown's powerful performance of Eleven on Stranger Things. She's that good. Marvel just keeps getting the casting right, again and again, every single time.

I can't and I won't tell you much about the story. What I can say is that this is definitely the most emotional and captivated that I've ever been in an X-Men movie. The ending is as perfect as it can be and the movie is honestly more than I expected it to be. It surpassed the hype surrounding it and I can only congratulate James Mangold for the brilliant work.

Unfortunately, the movie isn't perfect as a whole (none is) even if it has a lot of perfect action scenes and performances. The pacing drops to a slow-burn in the second act (the least great of the three ... still great, though) and, don't get me wrong, it is needed and it's well compensated later in the movie, but it still dragged on for a little too much. The villain worked for the plot, I don't have that many problems with him even if I did expect more from him. A few exposition scenes, in the beginning, explaining the origins and purpose of some important backstory nagged me a bit, I think they had the possibilities and means to achieve a better way to explain everything (as they did in some other situations throughout the film) without recurring to an iPhone video.

All of these are minor issues because Logan is f*cking AWESOME! The bloodiest X-Men movie ever, the best X-Men action scenes ever and the best Hugh Jackman in all of the franchise: this is the best film from the X-Men universe. An emotional DRAMA, with powerful performances from both main and supporting actors, a beautiful ending and an epic journey that now (supposedly) ends. Thank you, Hugh Jackman. You will not be forgotten!

| A+ : 9.3-10 | A: 8.7-9.2 | A- : 8.0-8.6 | B+ : 7.3-7.9 | B: 6.7-7.2 | B- : 6.0-6.6 || C+ : 5.3-5.9 | C: 4.7-5.2 | C- : 4.0-4.6 | D+ : 3.3-3.9 | D: 2.7-3.2 | D- : 2.0-2.6 | F: 0-1.9 |