Logan (2017)

There's a thin line between sensitive and tearjerking. And in "Logan" the line is crossed exactly when it shouldn't be... Actually I start to think it's something specific for Marvel, but in the end that's not the main problem here.

If you watch the trailer you'll sort of figure out the story. In a semi-dystopian future where we don't have many mutants left, Logan lives somewhere isolated taking care of an ailing Professor X. When a girl seems to show the same powers of extending retractable claws some not well-intended group of individuals want to get her. If you add to this what you might have heard = Hugh Jackman giving up on the role, there's no spoiler that Wolverine will die. I don't know how big of a spoiler is that others die too. A bit too many I would say. But that's also not the main problem here...

The problem is that James Mangold is an overrated director, although he wasn't for "Wolverine", which was actually almost bashed by critics. So I don't really get how the same guy was put in charge of the sequel. I'm sorry, but I don't agree with the general opinion that "Logan" is a small masterpiece. The directing is weak, the camera work is dull and even bad in some places (we have frame margins that are cut inappropriately), the script is... oh well... I don't know, but for me kids & violence don't get together when we have the amount of sheer roughness seen in "Logan". There's one thing what you see in "Kick-Ass" where everything should be taken lightly as a joke, there's one thing what you see in "Let the Right One In" (the Swedish version) where you have one gruesome scene in the end that's built over an entire context and has more meaning, there's one thing what you have in "Firestarter" or in "Looper" where the lack of control can be seen as problematic, and there's a totally different thing having a movie where an 11 years old child cuts heads or slashes people more than enough to kill them each 30 minutes, because that's how we get rid of the bad people and "excess violence sells". I can agree with that for a generic action movie, but not when the violence is produced by children and made to seem required. Spoiler: Even more, the attempt to "sentimentally" tune the ending after the final carnage is ridiculous...

It's true that I never really liked the X-Men series, but considering the ratings and even the trailer setting the story in a grim future I had some hopes. All I can say more is too bad for the semi-dystopian context that almost went unused...

Rating: 2.5 out of 5