Wolverine’s road trip a fine journey
COL. Stryker, Magneto and Apocalypse? Yawn. In “Logan,” the “X-Men” franchise finally discovers what really strikes fear in the hearts of men: an 11-year-old girl. Being stuck on a car trip with her is the basis of the movie, and I’m still shuddering.
No, her secret power isn’t supersarcasm or nuclear-infused eye rolling, but Laura (Dafne Keen) provides plenty of drama anyway, as does this supremely well-executed neo-Western. With its dust and its rust and its chain-link fences, it is, in a small way, revolutionary. The superhero genre has gotten more boring as it’s gotten more popular, but “Logan” suggests an escape from escapism, a stripped-down return to the feel of 1970s Clint Eastwood pictures.
“Logan,” joining the small group of comic-book movies released with an R rating, feels more alive from the very beginning, when Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is a chauffeur in 2029 Texas. This Wolverine lops people’s heads off and drives his claws through people’s skulls.
He and Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) hide out in Mexico with the aid of Caliban (Stephen Merchant), an albino mutant who can sniff out other mutants, after a disaster that nearly wiped out the X-Men. A Mexican woman seeks out Logan to rescue her daughter, Laura, who was raised in a sinister lab that is the nursery for a new generation of X-Men.
Along with Charles, Logan agrees to drive the girl north to a rumored new Eden where mutants can supposedly live in peace — as a bounty hunter (Boyd Holbrook) and nefarious scientist (Richard E. Grant) give chase.
Co-written and directed by James Mangold, the film recognizes that superhero movies such as last year’s forgettable “X-Men: Apocalypse” have become meaningless spectacles. Logan, who too often has been boringly invincible, is in this episode the most human he’s ever been. His instant-healing powers are breaking down due to a toxin in his system, and he carries with him an adamantine bullet in case he should feel like committing suicide.
So the silliness that mars most of the “X-Men” movies — corny battles with innumerable mutants hurling stuff this way and that — is now replaced by a somber tone. There is a quiet sequence in a farming community where, for instance, the movie stops to contemplate the satisfactions of authentic person-to-person relationships over technology. A cornfield where the plants are grown to be turned into corn syrup serves as an able metaphor for bland, mass-produced, druglike entertainment — and ties neatly into the fell plan advanced by Grant’s scientist character.
“Logan” never rises to the beauty or importance of, say, the “Dark Knight” films, but it’s a captivating throwback that promises to lead the genre away from sci-fi flash and trickery. I’d rank it beside “X-Men: Days of Future Past” among the best “X-Men” entries.