by Monica Hayes
After nearly 20 years playing one of the key characters in the X-Men universe, Hugh Jackman takes one last victory lap as a member of the storied team in the thrilling action-adventure, Logan.
Set in 2029 when mutants are all but extinct, gone are the days of the younger Wolverine (Huge Jackman) who was the loner with a very bad attitude and even worse temper. We now find Logan, gray-haired, full beard and mustache, half-drunk, and in deep despair about his failing health and inability to quickly regenerate.
If that weren’t bad enough, he is working as a chauffeur under his real name, James Howlett and lives in secret in Mexico on a property owned by the Yashida company. Together with a mutant tracker named Caliban (Stephen Merchant) who looks after the Professor and with every job he takes, Logan has two objectives: 1. To buy medicine for the ailing Professor X (Patrick Stewart), whose dementia brings on seizures, which can cripple anyone within range. Some have labeled him as a potential WMD; and 2. Trying to purchase a boat so that they can quietly live out their days on the open water.
This quiet life is abruptly interrupted when a desperate woman (Elizabeth Rodriguez) approaches him to help get her daughter Laura (Dafne Keen) to North Dakota, so they can go on to the mutant safe haven, Eden. However, Pierce, a cyborg working with Transigen who “designed” Laura and other mutant children like her, is tasked with bringing her and the other children who escaped back for destruction.
Reluctantly, Logan is forced back into action when Laura finds her way to their secret hideout, meets the professor and Pierce shows up with his goon squad. Pierce’s goons, and Logan, quickly find out that Laura is NOT your ordinary mutant child. Laura does not talk, she stares, she glares, and she even growls, she hits, she claws, she takes what she wants, when she wants it. Let’s face it, this little girl is RUTHLESS! Remind you of anyone we know?
During their getaway, the Professor tells Logan “she very much like you Logan.” Little does he know, just how much she is like him. This is the beginning of an offbeat family adventure. With this adventure, Logan, clearly dying, and without hope finds his way back to love and care again.
Logan is an unrestricted, uncensored blood fest and featuring a high-body count that comic book fans, as well as fans of the genre, have long anticipated. Add Laura to the mix and you have pure excellence all wrapped up into one. Jackman, who has played Wolverine for the last 17 years, has taken himself and this character to new heights in Logan. Whoever is slated to play Wolverine next will surely have some really big shoes to fill. Logan is a MUST see.
Grade: A