Home » Logan DVD Review

What’s It About? In the near future, a weary Logan (Hugh Jackman) cares for an ailing Professor X (Patrick Stewart) in a hideout on the Mexican border. But Logan’s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are upended when a young mutant (Dafne Keen) arrives, being pursued by dark forces.

Verdict: Thanks to the success of Ryan Reynolds’ brilliant 15-rated Deadpool, 2017 gave us Logan, one of the best ever X-Men movies and definitely the very best Wolverine movie, a film that both the awesome Hugh Jackman and comic book fans deserve.

Jackman and director James Mangold, who already greatly improved on the X-Man’s first solo outing with The Wolverine, promised something different with this new movie and they weren’t kidding. Mangold and his co-writers Michael Green and Scott Frank have successfully ripped up the comic book movie playbook and gone for a full-fat, dark and moody western, that’s ravishingly shot in all its rusty, dusty glory by Gladiator cinematographer John Mathieson, and effectively scored by Marco Beltrami.

Of course, director Mangold’s got form in the western genre, having brought an excellent remake of the classic 3:10 to Yuma to the big screen. And while Logan channels the likes of Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning Unforgiven, George Miller’s Mad Max series, as well as Hollywood’s Golden Age of Westerns, it also wears the influence of the Man in Black, Johnny Cash, firmly on its sleeve. Which is hardly surprising, given that Mangold was the director who gave us the Cash biopic Walk The Line.

And Mangold’s Logan movie doesn’t waste time when it comes to getting its adamantium claws dirty. In fact, it dives head first straight into the kind of action you can expect throughout; forget quick cut-aways, this action is visibly brutal, bloody, and 100% full-on, and certainly earns its 15-rating. Indeed, from start to finish, the whole film is filled with WTF moments. Props go to Logan’s stunt team for numerous incredible fight scenes, each one more flinch-inducing and crazy than the last, yet each of which feels so raw and authentic that they cleverly hide the hard work that’s gone into choreographing and executing them. And the movie’s sound department have outdone themselves too, especially when it comes to the action scenes as the sound of those mutant claws ripping and piercing through everything in sight is spot-on as it’s just perfectly excruciating! Plus there’s some horrifyingly good visual effects work from the movie’s VFX team.

This Logan is untamed and untrammelled. He may be totally vicious, but he’s also scarred and hurting badly. We’ve not seen him quite like this in the X-Men movies before. Hugh Jackman gives a pitch-perfect performance, really making you feel just how worn-out, run-down, and weary this Wolverine really is.

And Dafne Keen may be a newcomer to the big screen but as Laura, she matches Jackman’s superlative performance throughout. She really is that good. The way she moves, the way she attacks, the way she eats, and the way she communicates, all leave you in absolutely no doubt just how feral her character is. Add to that the fact that Keen is as good at playing the humour and tender moments as well as the more physical scenes, and we have a real potential future star in our midst. Actually, the quality of her performance reminds me of the first time I saw Hailee Steinfeld on the big screen in the Coen Brothers’ True Grit and also Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in Stranger Things.

As for Patrick Stewart as a 90-year-old Professor X, what can I say? Except that, just like Jackman and Keen, he’s exceptional, wringing out every last drop of anguish, heart, and humour from the script. Speaking of humour, Stephen Merchant brings a nice dose of that to the film as the mutant-tracking Caliban, a part he plays superbly. While Boyd Holbrook puts in an effectively nasty turn as Donald Pierce, who’s out to get Laura, along with Richard E Grant’s evil scientist, who unfortunately doesn’t get a great deal to make a particular impression with.

DVD Extras: Deleted Scenes & Audio Commentary by James Mangold.

Final Words: The R-rated Logan rips, wrenches, and roars its way through its 131-minute run-time. James Mangold’s film is a bold and satisfying cinematic take on the much-loved X-Men character. In his final outing donning those adamantium claws, Hugh Jackman skilfully steps up to the challenge of creating a character and a film that will likely be held up as benchmarks for future comic-book to celluloid adaptations. While Patrick Stewart and Dafne Keen join Jackman in giving stand-out turns in a film that never shies away from the nasty realities of its world.

Rating: 4.5 / 5      

LOGAN is available on Blu-ray and DVD from 10 July 2017, and on Digital Download on now, from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Jan Gilbert

Jan Gilbert is the founder of Flicks And The City.

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