If you are a Marvel fan, you have seen your share of disappointing and heartwrenching endings to their movie adaptations. Most recently, the end to Avengers: Infinity War has totally interrupted my sleep patterns. Another time in which I just was not ready for the ending was in the film, Logan. I should have known by the title something was not right or was it. If you are a real film buff, you know that the ending is not always the ending. Sometimes the ending is just the beginning. Is this the case with the Logan ending?
The entire promotion for the Logan movie was centered on giving his fans a chance to say goodbye to Hugh Jackman as Logan. Afterall, while Jackman is still is great shape, he is aging, and one of the characteristics of Wolverine is that he does not age. When you have invested 17 years into a character with the same actor playing the character, it is hard to simply throw in another actor without a good preceding explanation.
Logan seems to have been the explanation of a new younger Logan at some point, right?
I think that I am one of the few people who can watch a move in which the protagonist is never overpowered or overcome. Yet, that is rarely the story. It seems the more vulnerable you make a superhero, the more you draw the audience in. Prefer to just see the hero kick butt. As with other things, I don’t always get my way. The director of Logan. James Mangold did an exceptional job of breaking down Logan in every possible way before sending him out in a blaze of glory.
We are used to seeing entire cities level and the world at risk of extinction in the X-Men movies in which Wolverine appear. There is no such presentation or suggestion in this movie. This movie is about Logan and his own demons and his pending demise. However, although the stakes are not as high as in most Marvel movies, the suspense and the ride it creates is legendary.
Early on, this movie reveals the reality that the war that mutants have been fighting for decades has been lost, and mutants a near extinction. When you find yourself is a situation in which a once immortal super-hero with the ability to rapidly regenerate is doing everything in his power to simply cling to life, the rules of the game has definitely changed.
Will Laura, played by Dafne Keen, is one of the bright spots in the movie. Will is Logan’s daughter and his number one reason for fighting to stay alive. She is among a band of mutants that are trying to escape north of the Canadian border to survive a vicious attempt to wipe them out. Logan is intent on ensuring that his legacy lives on through Will, but the fight to see his vision through is legendary.
I have to admit that the humanity of Logan that never existed in Wolverine is what keeps you on the edge of your seat. You are pulling for him against all odds. The finally is Logan’s final fight. He enters this affair at a point in which he can barely stand and has very little left in him. The odds are definitely not in his favor, still, you find yourself pulling for him with all of your might.
The fights throughout this movie are nothing short of ferocious and brutal, and the climax is no different. If you don’t gore, you may want to sit this one out. While other superhero movie fight scenes recruit excitement, this movie is centered on the violence and finality of it all. There is a darkness in this movie that you just don’t normally see in a Marvel film. The darkness is so thick that it cuts into your soul. It feels real.
In the end, although you lose a beloved hero, the good guys win. Will, along with her mutant friends, live and make it into Canada to unite with other mutants who are hiding there. Logan dies out in the middle of nowhere, buried in an unassuming grave, but celebrated by his daughter and the others nonetheless. He does not die as a part of the X-Men; he dies as a father who made the ultimate sacrifice.
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