IMDb: 8.7

Rotten Tomato: 93%

Synopsis: In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan’s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces.

Trailer 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Div0iP65aZo

Trailer 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH3OxVFvTeg

“Oh. My. Gosh.” These three words are what describe this movie. The movie “Logan” came out in theaters on March 3 and has been a massive hit, making $88.4 million during its opening weekend alone. I was fortunate enough to go to see it this past Saturday and let me just tell you … it is one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.

NOW WARNING: When they say this movie is rated R, they really mean it. There is no sex or anything like that. This movie is R-rated based off of the violence and the strong language. But making this movie R was probably one of the best decisions for this movie. It would be unjust to have made this movie PG-13. But who cares that it is rated R for violence? That just makes it even more awesome. The action was one of the best action sequences in modern superhero movies. It gets your blood pumping. If you cannot handle blood or people being stabbed, this might not be the movie for you. And do not go and take your seven and 8-year-old kids to go see this movie because you will be in for a surprise.

Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” is the fourth highest rated movie on IMDb ever with a 9.0 rating. It is considered one of the greatest comic book movies ever made and is even one of the few comic book movies to win an Oscar. But, Logan is giving it a run for its money with it being the second highest rating with an 8.7 on IMDb.

Critics have claimed this is the “Dark Knight” of the Marvel movies. Man, does it live up to its name.

It has tons of action sequences. Because this movie is rated R, the action is unbelievable. The amount of fighting they show in the movie is just beautiful. And the great thing is, the movie does not even have that many fight scenes. It has a compelling story. So it is not completely just fighting and it is not completely Logan and Charles just sitting around being old. It is well balanced, it pulls you in and makes you feel connected to the characters. And speaking of characters, the addition of X-23 was awesome. Dafne Keen does a fantastic job portraying the character. Even though I do not know much about the character “X-23,” she was written extremely well to where I was able to understand who she was and what she could do which made you grow to care for her. She does not say much in the movie. She lets her body language do more of the talking. She has this very menacing glare. When she gave other people in the movie her glare, it was like daggers. She was intriguing.

“Logan,” to my surprise and enjoyment, actually has a compelling and well-developed villain, which is something most comic book movies struggle to do nowadays. The guy they chose held up his end when going toe-to-toe with Logan. The writers of the movie gave him a small backstory and made him annoying to where I basically wanted him to die. And that is what a bad guy should be. You should understand why they are doing what they are doing and you should not like them.

It was heart-wrenching. The saddest part about this movie is that when it is over, I realized that this was Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart’s last movie as the characters Charles Xavier and Wolverine. It just hit me right in the feels. For almost two decades, these two actors have played these characters and this is their last movie as those characters … I mean … it just got to me … I might have even teared up. Who am I kidding? Of course I cried. Everyone cried. But who cares, they were manly tears. The movie style was dark and not like the light-hearted Avengers movies (even though I love those just as much). There were a few jokes in there which made it enjoyable, but it was not like it felt out of place. It was nice that it would be serious but throw in a joke and then go back to serious. It did not lose its dark tone. I loved every second of it.

Overall, this movie was fantastic and should definitely be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. The cast, the story, the action was all just phenomenal in this movie. As Hugh Jackman said, “My goal for this movie is after my fans see this movie, they say, ‘That is the Wolverine movie we have been waiting to see.’”

I rate this movie: 9.3

Yes, I would recommend to a friend.

SPOILERS:

WARNING:

THIS NEXT PART OF THE STORY WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

This is for the people who have already seen the movie or do not care about spoilers

The movie opens up and they let you know, “Hey this is rated R for a reason.” Logan is shot in close quarters with a Shotgun. He gets up pissed and just starts going ham. He cuts one guys leg off. He cuts another guy’s arm off that was holding the shotgun. He stabs a few people in the head. IT IS JUST AWESOME. It was beautiful. After that sequence, like I said earlier, he is sick. He limps away. He goes to get cleaned up and they show a really cool shot of Logan pushing the shotgun bullets out of his body. But it is different than previous Wolverine movies. He is pain. He is not healing like he used to. His claws are not coming out like they should. You can tell that this man has lived a long life.

Logan gets called by a lady asking him to drive her and this girl to a place in North Dakota. He, at first, wants nothing to do with them but after they offer him $20,000, he decides he will do it but when he returns to the lady, she has been shot dead. And thus is how Logan is dragged into the situation. He has to look after this girl even though he does not want to. So the bad guys come looking for her and roll up to the place where Charles and Logan are staying at. They beat the living daylight out of Logan to get him to tell where X-23 is. He does not tell them so they search the premises. They send in a group of guys to find and arrest the girl. On the outside, you start hearing gunshots and screams. Then X-23 comes walking out, HOLDING THE HEAD of one of the guys that went in to arrest her. Then two claws slide out of her knuckles and she just starts going to town. She is jumping from one person to the next, killing them. The whole band of bad guys goes after her and she starts picking them off one by one. The bad guys eventually corner her when out of nowhere, Logan jumps up and they start fighting together. The coolest part was that she had a claw in her foot. She starts kicking people in the throat, and I know that sounds gross and bad, but it is just awesome. They make a run for it and then escape.

So they are on the run now with this girl. Logan finds the phone of the lady who was killed and watches a video about who the girl was, why the bad men were after her, and why they had to look after her. Charles reveals to Logan that she is his daughter and that her name is Laura. This is an important detailed scene that helped propel the story. It told the backstory of the villain and of X-23. It helps personalize X-23 and makes you hate the bad guy.

Skip on later into the movie, and you are at the farm. This was a great scene. You first have the part where Will Munson (the dad farmer) and Logan are out fixing the water and some white farmers come up to them. They tell Will to get off their land but Logan comes out of the shadows and tells them to get back in their truck. They farmers cock their gun but Logan takes the gun out of their hand, hits the guy in his face, and then pulls the Bo Jackson and breaks the gun on his knee. That was a man’s dream of awesomeness.

http://www.imdb.com/videoplayer/vi386512409

But then you go back to the house and you have this heartfelt moment with Charles. He is telling how great this night was and Logan is listening to him. But when Charles turns, you kind of see Logan and notice he looks different. He comes up and puts his claws in Charles chest and kills him on the spot. Charles dies like a punk and that is the tragedy of the life of Logan. He has this father figure who gets killed by X-24 who is a younger clone of Logan. Logan runs into the house to see X-24 literally carrying Laura out of the house in hand-cuffs and it leaves Logan with a decision: Save his daughter or save his mentor/ friend. Logan runs up to Charles and lets him know that it was not Logan who killed him. Charles dies and you see Logan get filled with rage. He goes after X-24 and it is just a full out brawl. It is Logan vs Wolverine. Man vs. Beast. And the beast is winning. Logan does get some punches in but X-24 fires right back and it is just hard to watch and you do not know if Logan is going to make it. Luckily, Will Munson was able to run over X-24 before falling over dead. This gave Logan and Laura time to escape.

When they get out of there, they go to bury Charles. This is the moment Logan becomes most vulnerable. He buries the man that was a father to him. The man that was a reminder that he was once good. And in the movie, Logan actually chokes up in tears. You see Logan cry and then you want to cry and then everyone is crying but it is okay to cry because this movie is worth crying over.

The fight scene in the forest is a gift from God himself. You talk about take your child to work day….that is take your child to work day TO THE EXTREME. Logan and Laura have bonded together over the movie and it is great to see them fighting together. Not only are they fighting together as allies, but they are fighting together as father and daughter. She jumps over his back and stabs someone. BAM. In this scene, you see how Logan has grown to care for her. In the beginning of the movie, he does not want anything to do with her and now he is risking his life to save her. When Logan took that medication, he became raw and it was very fascinating to see Logan “young” again. He was still old but he was a lot more agile and aggressive and had an energy boost which was very fascinating to watch.

The final final fight/ending scene is probably one of the hardest scenes to watch in the movie. Logan is protecting the kids from X-24 but X-24 is too strong. He takes Logan and impales him with a tree limb in the chest. At that moment, a part of me died inside. In other parts of the movie, you would think, “Oh he is gonna walk this off…” When he got stabbed, you know, deep down, there is no walking this one off and this is the end of Logan. Laura shoots and kills X-24. She comes to Logan’s side one last time. He tells her “Don’t be what they made you.” This is referring to how his whole life, he has not been able to have a normal life. He has always been a weapon and even in his old age, people only remembered him as the weapon. She calls him “Daddy” as tears are streaming down her face. At that moment, my heart broke. To see a young girl be with her father as he dies. And then his last words, “So this is what it feels like…” Is he talking about death or peace? In my opinion, I think he was talking about death. In “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” it shows that he was born somewhere in the 1800s and this movie takes place in 2029. Logan has lived for at least 200 years and has always been able to regenerate his health. He is finally getting to experience death.

The burial of Logan is just a brutal scene to watch. Not so that it is all disgusting. It is hard to watch the man that has been Logan for 17 years be put into the ground. They bury Logan and there is a cross at the head of his grave. As the other kids walk off, Laura turns around and tilts the cross on its side to make an “X.” The writers for this movie were not holding back. They wanted to see just how much they could make adult men cry…and it worked. The turning of the cross shows that he was an X-Man and that it is over for him. The great thing about this movie is they stay on his death. There is sad music in the background. All the kids are crying. You are crying. It is just sad and that is what makes it great. In other Marvel movies, a character will die and you will be sad for maybe two seconds. In this movie, they draw out his death and you really do feel the pain that Laura is feeling because she lost her father. The movies ends on them zooming in on the “X” over his grave and I think that is the greatest way to say farewell to Hugh Jackman playing the role of the character.

Overall, this movie was fantastic and should definitely be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. The cast, the story, the action were all just phenomenal in this movie. As Hugh Jackman said, “My goal for this movie is after my fans see this movie, they say, ‘That is the Wolverine movie we have been waiting to see.’”

I rate this movie: 9.3

Yes, I would recommend to a friend.

I know you are probably thinking I am a cry baby, but I am not … only certain things make me cry. Like superhero movies … and puppies.

Photos from: IMDb