Logan (2017) - Dir James Mangold; Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart

The third of the wolverine movies Logan provides a conclusion to Wolverines story arc in a emotional but unsurprisingly stabby concluding chapter. The film picks up the action in the near future. An aging Wolverine has joined the gig economy and seemingly become an Uber driver with perhaps the ugliest limo in history, a serious drinking problem and a severe attack of cragginess. Since the end of the last film a virus has prevented any further mutants from being born so when Wolverine takes a call and discovers a mini-me child with equally homicidal tendencies it triggers a road trip in which Wolverine has to save the girl from those who created her.

To add to the fun a nonagenarian Professor Xavier, suffering from the early stages of Alzheimers joins them on the road to North Dakota. It's a bit like National Lampoons' Vacation but with less jokes and more stabbing. My, my, my there is a lot of stabbing in this film, not perhaps surprising since the two main characters  have knives coming out of the fists, and in the girls case, feet. The sheer breadth of stabbing methods on show here is quite remarkable. From cranial splitting slow motion stabbings to full on choreographed multi stabbings.

The film then proceeds to explore the issues around age and relationships, about what happens when a super hero retires. But like with the recent Ian Mckellen Sherlock film i'm not sure as a topic this is very interesting. You don’t pay to see a boxer past his best getting punched out by a nobody, you want to see them at their prime. Watching Wolverine huff and puff like a geriatric is decidedly uninteresting.  Yes I can imagine what Wolverine is like when he gets old without paying £10 for the privilege.

The tone also seems out of kilter. The relationships between Logan and Xavier is played out like a kitchen sink drama with oscar pretensions rather than comic book action cash cow. The issue here is that it has hard to emotionally invest in characters who have metal knives coming out of their hands and have the ability of mind control. If this was a biopic or a family piece, or maybe an exploration of aging for modern men than maybe, but this is all utter nonsense which makes the serious tone somewhat difficult to take, well, seriously. 

There is also a bizarre cameo by Stephen Marchant which attempts, and fails to cheer the mood. His character is just a bit awkward and doesn't really fit with the movie. Richard E Grant plays the bad guy like you imagine a grand old english actor playing a bad guy, again it's all a bit over the top, but at least it serves to remind you that you are watching an action movie and not Jeremy Kyle.

The fascinating part of this film has actually nothing to do with the plot but its depiction of automation. In a middle scene a road in the desert is shown with cabless automated trucks driving along it. Seeing it visually really hits home the impact of automation. If this dystopian vision does come to pass there could be massive social consequences.

It is telling that this is perhaps the highlight of the movie. At least if you get bored watching it you can rely on some stabbing to wake you up.

Maybe Go (if you really like comics or stabbing)