Logan is exactly the kind of Superhero movie I want more of. That's not to say it's perfect, but it does so much right that I can easily overlook its flaws. It is a solid action movie that holds up on it's own, remains internally consistent, and certainly presents a lot of action that is both thrilling and unique. The characterization is solid, the acting is far better than it needs to be in a movie of this type, and I enjoyed it a lot. All of this is completely removed from the fact that it ties into the X-men, how it interprets the characters, or any of that. This movie stands up on its own. If that's all you need and want to avoid some minor spoilers (I'll do my best to keep major points out of this), stop reading now and go see it. But beyond holding up as a good action movie, the way it ties into other Superhero movies and the way it manages to capture the core of these characters is really amazing.
There's a lot of history going into this movie. I'm really not qualified to go into the history of the X-men, which is, even among comics, incredibly convoluted and difficult to follow. And I've never really tried to hard to follow it. But at some point in the 90s, Wolverine became the biggest character in comics. He was insanely popular, for reasons I still don't fully understand. He's grown on me since then, yes, but the pre-Bryan Singer era Wolverine is not my cup of tea. Then Bryan Singer's X-Men movie came along. People were not happy about the casting. Wolverine, a short, stocky, and pretty rough looking Canadian famous for being a brutal killer was going to be played by a tall, thin, and handsome Australian actor known pretty much only for musicals. But it really worked, and the film did a few things that made me like Wolverine as a character a lot. I don't want to go into tracking him through the rest of the films that vary wildly in quality, but these changes are present in pretty much all of the goods ones.
The central metaphor of Wolverine is that he is the survivor. He's the one left standing at the end of a battle, whether his side won or lost. People who argue about how hard it would be to kill Wolverine completely miss the point and writers who make him a Terminator are the reason he's so inconsistently written. He's not about being invincible or unkillable, he's about the tragedy of being the lone wolf*. I think Wolverine post-Singer (possibly before, I'm not familiar enough with it) represents an evolution of the classic lone, stoic badass character. Eastwood's The Man With No Name is the best example, but there are countless others. But there is something about that character that is often overlooked, or at least not the focus of the story, which is that this particular character has lost their pack. The fact that Wolverine starts out with no memory makes it all the more clear. This isn't a revenge story, this is a survivor's story. It's about the guy thinking back about all that he has lost and wondering if he can go on. And that is the story that Logan really picks up on. It isn't concerned with something personal for Wolverine, which is where a lot of Wolverine stories mess up. It's about Wolverine standing surrounded by yet another dead and dying family. For as bad as Wolverine: Origins was, the opening sequence of him fighting in a bunch of wars and seeing everyone die really resonated because it got the character way better than the rest of the movie.
This ties into the next thing Logan gets right about Wolverine that so many comics and other adaptations get wrong; Wolverine isn't an Alpha. He can teach, help out, do a lot of stuff, but he's never been a good commander or strategist. In Logan, he is constantly a caregiver or following orders. Sure, he's not too good with specific instructions, but when it comes to the long term, he always is looking to other people to give him an objective. This really works because it fits the character. Wolverine is the pack enforcer, he deals with threats and immediate problems, but the pack is always lead by someone else. Even if that someone else is losing their mind**. It works so well because it makes the hero's journey such a natural path for Wolverine to follow. He's reluctant at first, because it's not his pack. That was how X-Men started and that's how he treats Laura in Logan. But once Rogue or Laura is introduced to the pack, now he's on the quest and he will do whatever he can to protect that charge.
Which brings me to my last point, the movie being "R" rated. There has been an audience for comic book movies asking for "R" rated Superheroes for a long time, though often, I think, for the wrong reasons. A film needs to be focused on whatever it is trying to say and all parts of that film need to work towards that goal. Lighting, editing, framing, the script, it all needs to build the experience around whatever the film is about. It's why frantic, quick-cuts in a fight scene works really well in The Bourne Identity, where the fight is all reflex and even the hero himself doesn't know what is going on, but feels really out of place in a lot of other movies where everyone involved in the fight is a master fighter. And one of those parts is the decision of how to depict violence. X-Men 2 should not be an "R" rated movie, even though it has Wolverine dicing people, because realistically portraying that violence will establish a tone and mood that is not in line with what X-Men 2 is about it. Logan, on the other hand, really earns it's rating. Because the focus is on Logan, the man, not Wolverine, the Superhero, and you can really break down that difference. Wolverine is the pack enforcer who does what needs to be done, but Logan is a man who really regrets that he has no other options. Logan constantly tries to deescalate and never seems to pick a fight, he just is constantly in situations where the survival of those he cares about is dependent on fighting. And Logan is about those regrets, those decisions, and the weight of the lives he took it upon himself to protect.
Logan is about many things, but its all focused and centered on one thing, the main character's journey. The film moves, the ending is a very different place from the beginning, unlike many modern franchise movies. It's heartfelt and you can feel the respect and love of the characters in the film, from the writers to the actors to the director. I'd love to compare Laura and Eleven from Stranger Things, or talk more about great performances and references, but I just want to focus on Logan. Seeing a complete character arch in comics or comic book movies is very unusual, and will undoubtedly be undone, but for the time being we have a full saga about Wolverine. It's messy, doesn't always make much sense, but it ends on a high note and that fits the character perfectly.
* Yes, I know wolverines are animals and very different from wolves. And while Wolverine definitely draws a lot from those creatures as well, imagery of harsh survival and wild animals are, in our cultural at least, tied pretty closely to wolves and wolf-based metaphors. Also note that Wolverine's primary rival is Sabertooth, named for a large cat. There aren't many metaphors I know about felines and weasels having a feud, but felines and canines is very common.
**I don't really have space or time to get into how great Patrick Stewart's Xavier is in this movie, but it's masterfully done and really scary.
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