Released: March 2017
Venue: Vue Cinema Leeds
Director: James Mangold
Rating: 2.5/5
In season one (episode 21) of the mega popular US show Friends, fake Monica tells real Monica that when she watched the “Dead Poet Society” she said to herself that those two hours of her life were the ones she lost forever. While I always thought the comment was rubbish because I loved that film, I see what she meant because that is exactly how I feel after watching Logan. Just that I lost nearly three hours of my life.
In the year 2029, Wolverine James Logan Howlett (Hugh Jackman) is dying from poisoning. He lives with mutant tracker Caliban (Stephen Merchant), and together they care for Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) who has a neurological disease, which is causing him lack of telepathic abilities.
Gabriela Lopez (Elizabeth Rodriguez) approaches Logan and asks him to help little girl Laura (Dafne Keen) to reach “Eden” in North Dakota where Laura would be safe. Laura is one of mutants Americans have created in Mexico to serve as warriors. As mutants refused to fight and the project failed, all mutants are being killed. Lopez also gets killed while Laura escapes to Logan, who later finds out that Laura is his daughter created from his genes. The fight to save Laura and get her to safety begins and continues after Logan’s death. While at the end they realise they love each other and Laura calls him daddy for the first time, the moment is too long to be moving.
While there is some story line for Hollywood is again telling us that the US politics is violating human rights, there is not enough story for 137 minutes, and thus the film becomes painfully long. While I am generally not a fan of action movies, I do not mind them if there is a story behind (remember my blog on Hunger Games). However, in this case it was simply too much, and if I have watched this film on Netflix I would have discontinued watching after a while. I did not walk away from the film since I was in the cinema, but towards the end of the movie I was struggling to fight off a panic attack, as I could not bear a painfully slow movie anymore.
The film has got some good reviews though. The Guardian gave him four stars (see here) clearly praising the Wolverine story. While this bit was interesting, that’s all it was there for me. Had the film lasted less perhaps it would have been OK.
However, what must be noted is acting. Elizabeth Rodriguez is a well-known face to me as I remember her from Netflix’ Orange is the New Black. She was equally excellent in this movie as she was in Orange is the New Black. Stephen Merchant was not only excellent but absolutely brilliant and he clearly demonstrated he is an actor able to act in a serious role such as this one, as well as in other roles such as his hilarious TV Series “Hello Ladies”.
Thank you for reading.