I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but one big thing about it bothered me, and for that I have to rate it as just a good movie instead of an amazing one.

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Logan shouldn't have died.

It's a bold move, for certain. But as killing the main character is something Hollywood is less and less hesitant about doing, I think in order for it to have the right effect it need to work with Logan's character arc, and I don't think that it does. I think it actually spoils it a bit.

The Logan that we are introduced to at the beginning of the movie is effectively done with living. He plans to drink his way through the days until he and Charles get their ship, then take care of Charles there until he dies. At that point, with himself old and tired, all of his friends gone, and seemingly nothing left to live for, he would then kill himself with the adamantium bullet. He's resigned himself to this.

But then something happens! Laura comes along and is thrust into his life, despite his reluctance at every stage. Immediately, Logan has a meaningful job to do -- not drive drunk assholes around, but to get this little girl, this mutant, his daughter, to safety. And even with all of the hardships, he does so. His refusal of payment shows that, despite his gruff exterior and the excuses he made along the way, this is not a merely transactional task; he does it because it's the right thing to do. During it, Charles reminds him that care for young mutants, making sure that they were safe and they had a safe place to learn, was something they once did and need to do once more. And when he is gone, this role passed from Charles to Logan.

I don't believe that Logan's arc should have ended with a man who had resigned himself to death dying to save others. It should have ended with a man who had resigned himself to death finding a new purpose life by in continuing Charles' mission with this new group of young mutants.

 

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I disagree. Logan took every chance to ditch x-23 up until soon before Charles died, and he never gave up wanting to die. The only reason he took her to North Dakota was because he lost the growling war in the truck and she forced him to take her.

Once she was there, and they took off, I really don't think he planned to follow along to see that they were safe. He seemed content enough when he was looking through the binoculars, seeing that they were safely well on their way into the mountains. At least until he saw the Reavers coming for them. His death was inevitable; he just got to shine a little before the final act, IMO.

 

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Not to mention Jackman wanted to retire from playing Wolverine, so an ending that left Logan alive and well with a setup that's practically begging for a sequel would be the last thing he wanted.

 

What was up with all the skull punching this time around? Most kills were done by stabbing them through the head, rather than slashing or body shots.

I did like the film, gritty but without going into ridiculous OTT "everything is shit for everyone forever".

 

It's the most effective way to kill people, so I don't see why you would just lobotomize everyone if you're capable of it. Even if they survive, they're put down as an immediate threat.

I liked the movie overall, but I'm honestly not gushing over it. I liked the creative decisions they made (jobbing Xavier was excellent, x-24 existing is pretty inevitable, etc) but its hard to feel hyped about the movie. It was, essentially, an extremely extended funeral March for the X men series as we currently know it, and especially for Logan.

Also some stuff just didn't make sense. The small things, of course, but like at the end with all the Reavers, how come so few kids used their powers? They were supposed to be trained as weapons for most of their lives. Also why was that black kid so fat? Since it wasn't related to his powers (I was hoping he was a Lil blob kid) why would the company let him get that way?

I should stop here before I ruin the whole movie for myself nitpicking it apart...

 

I have yet to see the movie, but this made me chuckle. I love that it's a legitimate gripe you have with the plot.

 

I get exactly what you mean. I started laughing when he was running away, because they'd obviously tried to make it look like he was running at a decent clip... But when would a trained soldier be unable to run at the same speed as a fat kid can waddle?

I'd been wondering about the powers too, because they're just these kids running about. Then the ice-girl happened, but it still felt almost too late, you know?

There are issues with the film (hey, I know we're on a short time-frame, but let's crash the night here, rather than keep going), but for the most part, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

 

To be fair to that point, Xavier (like Dumbledore) was never just interested in helping Laura to survive, but rather to create a circumstance where she could grow into being more than just "formerly weapon X-23". Showing her what a "normal" family looks like is actually incredibly important from a psychological perspective, and it might have also been intended to get the point across to Logan just what might be if Eden was real. Xavier has several doctoral degrees, and one of those is child psychology if I recall correctly. I felt like (in that scene) he was weighing the psychological needs of Laura and Logan against their physical need for safety. Also, he's a tired, crippled old man who is losing his mind to a degenerative brain disease....

I know the fat kid might be a minor gripe, but it's a pretty big flaw in the consistency of the program. ALL of these children were intended to be used as a weapon, so I would imagine like an athlete their diets would be micromanaged to a very high degree. One of the nurses was reprimanded because she was being too kind to the kids (the Halloween costume scene), but they were allowed to hold a birthday party for the kids? Several of them have powers that are identifiable as easy to weaponize (iceman's powers manifested as frosty breath, storm was the fat black kid, etc.) and a few were even trained to use their powers (see: shockwave kid who blasted his trainer, x-23's ridiculously extensive training) on screen, yet very few of them ever did when they were being hunted down by soldiers. Maybe the stress made them forget, but the stupidity of the children (who were supposed to be training to be soldiers) in many instances was quite jarring.

Another instance: when they try and make a break for the border. Do you REALLY think that the Reavers who were following them were just going to stop at the Canadian border? Not even children can be that stupid, and given that satellite coverage was supposed to be down in that area, any allied forces for the children SHOULD have been meeting them half-way.

I'm not even going to get started on X-23, since she is protected by plot armor and the X-gene. I just didn't remember Wolverine having super strength, which would surely have been required for some of the stuff she pulled off (basically every time she flips a fully grown adult who is not moving). Coming from a martial art that commonly throws people (and as a fully grown adult) an enemy must be moving for those things to work. At a tiny fraction of the mass and strength, the stuff X-23 pulls off is impossible unless they gifted her with a ton of other mutations too.

I really need to leave this thread...

 

The nurse was actually chewed out for both of those. I'm pretty sure it was a birthday party (cake candles were extinguished) and the Halloween comment was making the point that this isn't the first time she's been warned about that sort of thing.

 

Wolverine's pretty much always had low-level super strength, thanks to his perfect regeneration letting him push his body to ridiculous extremes. Basically the old stories about moms lifting cars off their kids by tearing their muscles apart and such, except Wolverine's muscles heal ridiculously fast so he can operate at that level for extended amount of time.

Considering how X-23 fights like a feral berserker, she's almost certainly doing the same thing.

 

A good movie, certainly, but hardly 'perfect' imo. The minor gripes were a bit too major at some points for me to ignore, and with the amount of genuine emotions in the movie it shouldn't be this way.

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For example the Canada border as stated above... Yeah, obviously those guys would just go "aw, shucks" ten feet before the border crossing, pack up and leave. The kids are about to be hunted down like animals, but hey, killing is bad so let's not even try to fight back at all. The interaction between Logan and Laura were emotional, but imo there were too few of in the middle of the movie. The fact that Logan felt that Xavier needed to be separated from the general public was understandable; the fact that he was forced to live in worse conditions than most dogs in the west, less so.

The actual antagonists weren't really as good as they could've been; that glasses and cybernetic arm guy should've been more memorable for the amount of screen time he got, the wolverine clone was simply dumb muscle and the doctor was just there for the most part. I think that Holbrook especially was... Not a let down, perhaps, but not what could've been. The good guys' cast was much better, but Logan and Charles were a given, Laura could've spoken a bit more in the breaks between the brutal fights and Caliban I've liked.

Caliban. It's such a fucking great name.

There was also the fact that, aside from everybody watching the movie liking Xavier, if he's deteriorated with age to the point that an involuntary attack of his can kill hundreds of people means something should've been done about him. It seems that he's the most dangerous individual in the movie (completely unwillingly), and even just a throwaway mention that Logan is protecting a mass-murderer over which he has little control over that has killed people before by accident and will almost certainly do so again was not only warranted, but felt appropriate.

I'm also not sure about Logan dying. It didn't come out of nowhere or was done badly, but I still felt it should have been something... more. The dialogue just before his death with Laura felt a bit too abrupt, even for a man of few words.

In any case, I've enjoyed it but there were things that could've been improved. 7.5/10, definitely worth seeing but not the masterpiece some people make it out to be IMO.

 

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I'm not sure I get the complaint about Xavier. Something is being done about him, it's the entire setup for the movie and why Logan needs cash. He wants to buy a boat so he can be far enough away from any people that his seizures can't effect anyone, and before that he was keeping him isolated and sedated. One of the villains even mentions that Xavier has been designated as a weapon of mass destruction.

 

One the best films that I have seen in the comic genre. I littlerly cried in some parts of the film, but I do wish they had more info on Eden.

Those guys didn't have any way to bring those kids back as they were granted alyssum.

 

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Maybe I'm missing something, but little about that situation made sense.

I assume that Zander Rice (the doctor) worked at least in part for the government, even if he was abusing his position for his own gains. If Xavier was so designated -by the government- then I'm surprised that, since they apparently knew the location of their hideout, they didn't simply level the entire thing from orbit or drone everything in half a mile radius. I mean, you have (at least somewhat) mobile genocide waiting to happen that you can't control, and with the general sentiment towards mutants I'm just about certain that he'd either be dead within a day or they would try to detain him and try to do something so that his mutation would be passed down to somebody they could control.
Neither happened; apparently they were aware where he was, since Pierce said as much to Logan when they first met, but were content to leave them be until X-23 came along. All the mutants, at least in the US, were almost exterminated/prevented from being born at all, and yet somehow they left a dude that can kill hundreds with his mind drugged up in a water tower be? Yeah, no.

And what does Logan do? He's such a moral character that he refuses to use his powers, superhuman as they are, to acquire the money through the myriad of ways that normal people don't have access to, and instead works as an Uber driver for drunk college girls. It's not like he needs some unobtainium; he lacks cash, and less than $100'000 IIRC. He could swing by to some crackhouse and shake down some small-time crime boss and have enough overnight, but no, he spent months driving people around for pittance while keeping one of the few people he cares about constantly drugged up and living like an animal in the middle of nowhere. And if they actually needed to move somewhere, then he risked hundreds of people that could die at any moment with a bit of bad luck.

In the end, he wasn't even killed because he was a danger to everybody around himself, but because he was in their way of recovering X-23. The entire hook about needing money is just strange, especially since the amount is just so insignificant.

 

I'm not an X-men expert but I saw a video on IGN that addressed the whole Canadian border thing (I can't find a link right now, but I'll continue looking later).

Spoiler

Not really a spoiler, but anyway. The kids spoke to a woman before they left their camp, so apparently somebody is waiting for them in Canada. It was speculated that they were in contact with Alpha Flight, the Canadian equivalent of the X-men whose appearance was hinted at in a previous film (okay, their name appeared on a computer screen but that's better than nothing). They wouldn't have been affected when Charles killed the X-men, so it's possible that they'd still be around. Since they work for the Canadian government, it would make sense that they couldn't just cross the border to help them out.
Who knows, maybe we'll see an sequel/ spin-off. But maybe that's all just bullshit and it's nothing more than a plot hole

 

There's no benefits to going after Xavier, and some pretty serious downsides if they get caught bombing some place owned by a Chinese company near the Mexican border (on the Mexico side). Do you want to deal with a passed off Logan and Xavier if they happen to survive? I sure don't. If they survive Logan could use Xavier as the worst, most repeatable weapon of mass destruction in the world.

Re: Alpha Flight. I don't buy it. The sanctuary they were granted was granted under the conditions that no one be aware they were illegally crossing over the US border. This is evident by in that Exact same conversation it's said "Satellite coverage will be down for a few hours" meaning this is a covert OP. From a realpolitek standpoint, if Alpha Flight (or any Canadian military or government forces) shows up to contest the Reavers (who are operating seemingly within legal bounds, and are legally the guardians/caretakers of the children) it'd be literally child's play to call it kidnapping. ESPECIALLY considering we know the Reavers use video camera on their guys.

So how's does that play out? Transigen is attempting to re-capture (or in legal terms, asserting their parental rights) the children and the Canadian government is interfering with a lawful action for their own personal gain, all with video footage to show their agents (who are admittedly overzealous in their belief in the second amendment) being attacked by (at best) a vigilante mutant task force, or (at worst) the Canadian government is overstepping their bounds and interfering in the custody of sovereign citizens of the US and Mexico.

While it's in Transigen's best interest to keep this thing quiet, they most certainly have a vested interest in securing the children from their enemies even at the cost of 'exposing' what they are doing (though really, the mutant problem has already been taken care of, so these kids are probably just a genetic fluke and their fantastic stories are just that, stories).

 

So it was a fun movie. I was really hoping for a happy ending for Logan, and I think that they decided on this ending because Jackman didnt sign up for more movies.

And the only thing I didnt like about the movie is the ending. And I'm not even a big X-men fan.

Hope Logan has some comeos in Deadpool.

 

I imagine the plan/hope was that Transigen would've lost the trail and wouldn't know they'd gone to Canada (or at least wouldn't be able to prove it.