Marvel Rewind | A Look Back At 'Logan'

Thomas takes a retrospective look at Hugh Jackman‘s superb swansong as Wolverine!

After taking a look back at two Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, I thought it’d be a nice idea to take another trip into the Marvel world but this time with Hugh Jackman’s farewell to Wolverine in Logan, which was released in 2017.

Every story must come to an end one day and Logan is Hugh Jackman’s last time as the iconic comic book character Wolverine. It’s never easy to say goodbye. Though I’m a big fan of the X-Men movies, I didn’t like the first two Wolverine solo movies but this one, this one was very different on so many levels. Logan was a brilliant farewell to the character, James Mangold and his team crafted the perfect story for this last chapter.

Logan didn’t feel very much like a superhero movie. It felt more like a road movie where the characters went on a road trip that in the end changed their perspective. In the beginning, we met a Wolverine who was old, alcoholic, tired by life. He tried to hide from the world with Professor X but he failed to when Laura, a young mutant came into his life and he had to protect her and lead her to someplace safe. As the story goes Logan didn’t change his views but he came to appreciate Laura and accepted the fact she’s his daughter and for Laura, she learned what she could from him.

Professor X too was not the same man we used to know. He was a dying man, having these kinds of seizures endangering everyone. The world was an entirely different place in this movie, the mutants were gone. It’s a sad world. It didn’t try to be funny and had some nice jokes, it was just dark and it was excellent as it was. Logan was the darkest of the X-Men franchise and also the most violent, it’s rated-R. In the fight scenes, you saw the blood, the blades going through the people, heads rolling down … real massacres. There’s not much hope and Logan knew it, he knew their odds of survival were thin.

The characters were always on the move, chased by the villains trying to get to Laura. They never stayed at one place very long and yet Mangold knew when to be slow and when to go at a faster pace with his movie. It’s all well-orchestrated, bringing action and emotions altogether. Because it’s the last of Hugh Jackman and it’s the darkest of the franchise, Logan has some heavy casualties. The obvious one – Professor X, with the trailers, I already knew it would happen so I was prepared and yet when it happened, tears couldn’t be stopped, every single time I watch it. It’s a sad scene, Professor X just gave a beautiful speech to Logan about life and turned out it’s not Logan but project X-24 who killed him. (X-24 is an exact copy of Logan and was the biggest villain in the story). The second death came at the very end and I think it was inevitable – Logan. Throughout the movie, we saw that Logan was a dying man, he was supposed to be immortal but he’s sick, what made him so strong the adamantium was actually what caused his downfall. He couldn’t heal, he needed glasses to see, he was old … And from scene one, there was this shadow of death hovering above Logan, his time was limited. Even though Laura was the one who killed X-24, Logan died a hero, it was thanks to him that the mutant kids could escape. The last scene ended with Laura placing the cross of Logan’s grave like an X, and just like that the story had come to an end. It was not just a goodbye to Wolverine but a goodbye to all the X-Men we knew.

Hugh Jackman gave one of his best performances, he was outstanding. The pain, the anger, the regrets, the sadness, Jackman was able to give us all these feels, everything that Logan felt beautifully. He was Wolverine and he always will be in our hearts, just like Patrick Stewart was Professor X. I think Jackman was robbed from an Oscar nomination, not just because it was the end of an iconic role but for the performance he gave.

Final Thoughts

Logan was dark, violent, and poignant, it was the end the character deserved. A brilliant farewell.

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Thomas Storai is the Collectables Editor for The Future of the Force. He is passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and a wide variety of movies. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasStorai where he uses the force frequently!

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