Wolverine’s ultimate film adventure, “Logan” takes the form of a western where the central characters are limited. An important choice for James Mangold, who in no way wanted to multiply the presence of superheroes and villains in the film.
Logan : Wolverine’s swan song
In 2017, Hugh Jackman bowed out as Wolverine with Logan. Third collaboration between actor and director James Mangold after Kate and Leopold and Wolverine battle of the immortal, the feature film takes the form of a western set in 2029, where the former X-Men appears as a broken and dying old man, whose appearance is reminiscent of the Old man logan thought by Mark Millar.
Now a limousine driver, Logan secretly takes care of Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) on the US-Mexico border, with the help of Caliban (Stephen Merchant). In the grip of increasingly violent and dangerous crises, the professor is isolated but still manages to come into contact with a young mutant named Laura (Dafne Keen).
Believing his former trainer to be a victim of dementia, Logan doesn’t take him seriously until Gabriela Lopez, a nurse at pharmaceutical company Alkali-Transigen, asks him to protect Laura. Finding himself with the eleven-year-old girl created with his DNA, Wolverine tries to escape a commando led by Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook), in the service of mad scientist Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant).
From this leak, Logan turns into a road movie located somewhere between Ruthless, A perfect world and The man of the lost valleys, which he openly quotes. James Mangold focuses on the burgeoning relationship between his hero and his daughter, as well as the particularly moving development of Professor Xavier, while constantly looming the appearance of threat and death.
No infill for James Mangold
To highlight his protagonists and this farewell story that smacks of Americana, James Mangold was keen not to no concessions. This goes in particular by the fact that the feature film avoids cameos and limits the presence of X-Men as well as their enemies. Mentioned during pre-production, the return of Saber-toothed by Liev Schreiber thus been deleted. Elderly Magneto’s interpreter Sir Ian McKellen has voiced his disappointment at not appearing in the film.
About these artistic choices, the director explains during an interview for Le Point Pop that the R classification gave him more freedom. He specifies :
Once the studio knows the movie will be rated R, so it also knows it won’t be able to target kids. Therefore, he cannot force me to include characters in the story that the children would like and who would help sell toys. (…) It is also impossible to demand that I remove from the script ideas that are too difficult for a kid to grasp, such as suicide.
Regarding the minimal number of central characters, the filmmaker adds:
I listened to the complaints of the fans, who asked me to cram more and more X-Men heroes into the Wolverine universe, and I thought about doing it. But I’m tired of this arms race of condensing more and more superheroes into a movie. If you have ten superheroes in a 120-minute movie, you’ll get 12 minutes of screen time for each at best. And again, on condition that the generics are fired!
Mutants are the future
However, Logan do not do not disregarding mutants, far from there. In a deeply touching dinner scene, Charles Xavier and Logan recall their years at Xavier School for Gifted Young People. A dialogue for which James Mangold left Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman improvise, which wonderfully symbolizes the 17-year cinematographic adventure of the two actors.
In addition, the conclusion of the film clearly leaves room for a new generation of mutants led by the young Laura, who unfortunately did not have the chance to make a comeback in theaters …
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