TIRED LOGAN FINDS NEW LIFE
Everybody’s favourite mutant has hands full with new protege, Chris Lackner writes.
Big release on March 3: Logan. Big picture: America is a dry, Mad-Maxian wasteland, and sinister forces are hunting illegals hiding on the Mexican border. (No, I didn’t just get out of a time machine. That’s the near-future setting of the new Wolverine solo film, Logan.) Hugh Jackman is back, allegedly for the last time, to play everyone’s favourite mutant in need of a makeover. Maybe Wolverine (a.k.a. Logan) wouldn’t be perpetually angry if he had regular manicures and a decent stylist?
Deadpool blasted the way into R-rated superhero turf, and Logan doubles down. This movie is Marvel meets indie film fest cred. A dystopian, minimalist western, there’s no spandex in site — and no ancient creatures threaten the Earth (humanity seems bent on taking care of that on its own). The X-Men are long gone, and most mutants are dust. Logan himself is beaten up and broken, his heralded healing powers much diminished. He hides out on the Mexican border and kills time by working as a driver, drinking himself silly and caring for an increasingly unstable, elderly Professor X (Patrick Stewart). When a young mutant girl enters Logan’s charge, he’s forced to take action — and give a damn about something again.
Forecast: Hmm. Grumpy, lonely old-timer given new spark of life due to his bond with a child? We’ve seen this before, but the recluse has never had switchblades for hands. What’s next for avant-garde superhero cinema? I predict a silent movie about The Hulk, and a new Superman movie in which the Kryptonian is played by 10, diverse actors and actresses (as usual, none of them will be any good in the role)