One last time
Final R- rated Wolverine film to claw its way into the Chinese market in March
The long- awaited, last installment of the solo films for Marvel superhero Wolverine, Logan, will hit big screens in China on March 3, the same date as the film’s US release.
The film will be Australian actor Hugh Jackman’s last turn as the character he has played in the X- Men franchise for the past 17 years.
Jackman said that this last film has exceeded his expectations.
“I can’t say I’m missing [ the role] because it’s difficult to describe. It’s not going anywhere for me. It’s always here, the fans will remind me every single day of my life,” Jackman said at a press conference on February 17, at the Berlin International Film Festival, where the film held its world premiere. “It’s part of who I am. It’s a journey that I’m so grateful for.”
According to Jackman, what excited him the most about this film was that the producers behind the film wanted to make Logan a film not defined by the superhero genre or the previous franchise.
This last installment is sure to be a different film for Wolverine fans, not only because the mutant is gradually losing his healing factor and therefore is much more fragile and aged, but also due to the fact that the directors and producers were trying to break the genre conventions of superhero films.
For example, unlike most superhero films, the film is R- rated in the US due to the great deal of hardcore violence and vulgar language it contains.
“It is not a movie for kids, it’s just that simple,” director James Mangold said at the press conference. “The rating exists for a reason.”
Hard violence
The story is set in the near future during a time when no new mutants have appeared for more than two decades. Things change, however, when a group of kids who were trained to be killing machines appear. Director Mangold also expanded the story to show how Logan struggles in both his later superhero life and with intimate relationships with others.
“I think one of the things that excites me when I work on larger films like this is the idea of speaking to a larger audience,” Mangold said, then called on all filmmakers working on big films that attracts larger audiences “to use that platforms to do something other than sell Happy Meals or action figures, but to actually use that platform to ask some interesting questions.” Jackman also said that he hopes Lo
gan will make audiences think about violence, so they can see the effect it has on people as well as the aftermath it leaves behind.
Although the film is not made for children, a large number of child actors were involved in its production.
Mangold said he and all the cast tried hard to create an atmosphere of love during the shooting, but choosing a smart kid with smart parents was the most important thing for him.
Dafene Keen, who was 11 during shooting, plays a huge role in the film as the child Logan must protect. Mangold, Jackman and Patrick Stewart, who returns to the franchise as Pro- fessor X, described her as an extraordinary actress. Mangold said Keen grew up around acting, adding that he was confident that she understood the boundary between acting and reality when n filming certain violent scenes.
“We can not explore the questions of violence, ce, children, fatherhood andd otherth stories, if we are not able to make an adult movie with children,” Mangold said.
Even though the decision to make an R- rated film means a large portion of moviegoers will not be able to see the film, Mangold believes it was a necessary choice.
“That gave us the freedom to make a movie for grownups. Separate from violence, separate from language, the idea of the movie doesn’t have to be for an 11- year- old. The scene doesn’t have to be tailored for the attention span of an 11- year- old,” Mangold told media.
China question
The R- rating helped ensure that the film’s content could be made for adults. But in China, where there’s no rating system, how the film will be shown remains a question. Last year’s hit superhero film
Deadpool, another R- rated movie featuring an X- Men character, was not shown in China. This has led many moviegoers to wonder then how
Logan, with its great deal of violence, was able to make past China’s censors.
Previously, violent scenes in imported films have been cut out entirely, such as the church massacre scene in Kingsman: The Secret Service. However, not a single scene, even ones containing people being shot in the head and flying body parts, were cut out of the extremely violent war film Hacksaw Ridge.
Currently, there has been no news that Logan will be edited for the Chinese market. Chinese movie sites such as Mtime and Douban are advertising the film’s runtime as 135 minutes, the same length as the version of the film shown at the Berlin International Film Festival.
However, it was recently announced that the version of the film that will be shown in US theaters will be three minutes longer than the Berlin version. Current media speculation is that this may point to an additional after- credits stinger.
Whether these additional three minutes make it into the version shown is China is still up in the air at the moment.