Logan reviews round-up: Hugh Jackman's Wolverine gets the perfect send-off
Here's what the critics are saying about the R-rated, James Mangold-directed farewell to one of the X-Men franchise's favourite performers
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Your support makes all the difference.Last year, Fox's gamble with an R-rated, full-throttle Deadpool paid off handsomely - now it was Wolverine's turn, hoping to give Hugh Jackman a truly worthy send-off in his last outing as the classic X-Men hero.
With reports that Jackman took a pay-cut to ensure the studio wouldn't push for a PG-13 rating, it's clear Logan has taken great pains to differentiate itself from the rest of the X-men universe, and critics are lapping it up.
Already being hailed as the best Wolverine film yet - and even the best X-Men film by some - Logan is also notably being described as a superhero film in name only, having much more stylistically in common the western, even namechecking the 1953 classic Shane.
Here's what the critics are saying:
The Independent - Geoffrey Macnab - 4/5
Audiences looking for wham bang action may find Logan a little downbeat but there’s more heart here than you’ll find in almost any other superhero movie.
The Telegraph - Robbie Collin - 4/5
How much fans of the series will take to all this isn’t immediately obvious: Logan is a film for people, like me, who thought the only good bit of X-Men: Apocalypse was Michael Fassbender crying in the woods, and left the cinema wishing that had been the whole thing. It’s something no-one could have expected: a creatively risky superhero movie. And it deserves to pay off.
Smartly U-turning from the X-films' latter tendency to ramp up the world-threat via increasingly incomprehensible CGI, Mangold keeps things grounded and intimate. For the first time, the tension between Logan's animalistic killer instinct and his struggle to just be a good, decent human being is explored in depth and at length.
Birth.Movies.Death. - Priscilla Page
With filmmakers cramming more characters, CGI, and noise into their superhero films, it’s refreshing just to spend time with Logan, Laura, and Charles. James Mangold and co-writers Scott Frank and Michael Green have created a unique and intimate entry in the world of superheroes. Though it would be unfair to call Logan a “superhero film.” It’s a western, a noir film, a road movie.
The Guardian - Peter Bradshaw - 4/5
It is more like a survivalist thriller than a superhero film, and signals its wintry quality with the title itself. It’s like seeing a film entitled Banner or Parker or Kent. With the approach of death, maybe super identity is cast off. Superpowers start to fade along with ordinary powers.
Digital Spy - Rosie Fletcher - 4/5
Logan is easily better than either of the other standalone Wolverine movies, and far more meaningful and grown up than any of the First Class generation films – but not exactly fun. Impressive and bold, it's a superhero movie that feels nothing like one, though whether that's a good thing or not is debatable. Either way, we're glad it exists.
Little White Lies - David Jenkins - 4/5
It’s also packed with death and destruction, though time has been taken to ensure the murders don’t all happen for the sake of empty visual kicks. There’s gore, but it’s not a leery, screwball brand of violence. There are no sick laughs. The violence is swift and brutal. And the film is noticeably bereft of cool kiss-off lines or metatexual quips.
The Hollywood Reporter - Sheri Linden
As its title suggests, Logan strips away the superhero bells and whistles, cast-of-thousands spectacle and labyrinthine twists of the X-Men franchise to focus on its most tormented mutant, aka Wolverine. Seamlessly melding Marvel mythology with Western mythology, James Mangold has crafted an affectingly stripped-down stand-alone feature, one that draws its strength from Hugh Jackman’s nuanced turn as a reluctant, all but dissipated hero.
Only marginally more expansive than last year’s Deadpool (and just as eager to celebrate its R-rating), Logan strips its namesake down to his metal skeleton, cutting through the layers of precious world-building and plastic CG b*llshit that have made too many of his previous big screen adventures feel like emotionally neutered toy commercials.
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