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Court of Cinema Podcast
Logan (2017)
Deadpool and Wolverine is almost here and with that movie comes over 10 years of X-Men cinema to tap into. This week we tapped into Logan (2017)
Brian Tallerico Review
Sam Naught Review
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SPEAKPIPE
there are films and there are movies. It's kind of scary to think that Deadpool and Wolverine is this week. ever since I've been born, watching X Men movies. To see this movie happen Deadpool Wolverine on the same screen together and one massive ultimate x men movie We don't know anything quite yet about what's happening with this film, but we do know it's gonna be massive.
It's gonna be big It's gonna really live to the hype now What's even scarier than Deadpool Wolverine is the fact that I have like four more films to hit through For this series I decided to do was it a regret that I definitely have absolutely I shouldn't have done this series But you know I signed a contract, I made a promise.
So, we're gonna go ahead and get through it. And today is even more special because we're going through Logan from 2017. And in case you didn't know, my name's Logan. Kind of a fun thing there. And this movie also is, you know, spoiler alert, the best movie inside of the entire X Men franchise. Not even close, not even a debate.
I mean, Logan is one of the most impressive movies to ever come out, mainly because of the time that it came out in. I mean, this film's coming out during, like, one of the peaks of the comic book subgenre. And, you know, we have big movies like Avengers, also, uh, we have DC popping off, Batman vs. Superman, Man of Steel, etc.
It's a very massive time for superhero films. They're really growing in. A lot of franchise movies as well, really pushing their way to the forefront. So that being said, a film like this, deciding to deconstruct everything, make it a lot smaller, a very gritty and intimate neo noir western movie, with Logan, Wolverine, it's just really incredible, it's really masterful, there's not enough I can say to make this movie any much better.
It's incredible. It speaks for itself. That's all you need to know about the movie. It's great. It's not a masterpiece in my opinion, but it's definitely very, very close to it. And like I said before, climate of this movie, a very heavy climate. 2017, so we have Thor, Ragnarok, Spider Man Homecoming, Wonder Woman.
Also, Planet of the Apes, War for the Planet of the Apes, an incredible film as well. This is a very contested year for films and very contested for comic book films, also franchise movies as well. War for the Planet of the Apes, a ending to a triumphant trilogy. Spider Man Homecoming, the brand new movie for Sony's new MCU mashup Spider Man film, and also Thor Ragnarok, a very incredible movie as well.
Wonder Woman. Don't like that much, but still a very respectable movie. So this movie coming out and being as small as it is in a very stacked year is huge. It's very, very important. This movie does really good. And of course, how did I feel about the movie going into it? Obviously, named Logan, had a lot of hype for being named after myself, and I really liked it.
I love this movie a lot. When I first saw it, saw it in theaters with my dad, and it was very different. It was a very different movie. I was really, as a kid, Push out of my comfort zone, because you know me, I'm only used to at this point, you know, Avengers, MCU, really light hearted, fun stuff. And this one is radar, it's gritty, a lot of blood, a lot of gore, and a lot of very depressing themes and subtext.
So I liked it, but it definitely made me uncomfortable, which is not a bad thing. It's a really good thing, and I actually really welcome it. And as for release and reception, this movie made 670. 16 million dollars against a budget of 97 million dollars a very huge success for movie rated r That's very huge.
Very massive. Very very good This movie also ranked number 15 on the year which once again Very impressive very good. And like I said before this film is rated r. So that's a very big factor Also this year for film 2017 a very big year for cinema. I mean we have baby driver lady bird coco blade runner dunkirk You Return of the Jedi, no, Return of the Jedi, Last Jedi, Homecoming, Ragnarok, Wonder Woman.
The list goes on. It's a very stacked year for film. Not only indie stuff, but also more mainstream stuff. We also have Lego Batman this year, a very stacked year for film, and cinema, and comic book movies. So, yeah, I'm very happy this movie did anything at all, because really, for any other year, I don't see it really doing this good.
And as for the critics, what do they think about this, audiences and critics alike? Over on Rotten Tomatoes, this film has a 93 percent critic score and a 90 percent audience score. Very solid, very respectable. I definitely understand it, and I absolutely agree with it. I can't say the same thing for other movies that we've been doing through in this series, but 93 percent critic score, 90 percent audience score, makes sense, it's understandable.
Hopefully Deadpool and Wolverine is close to that. I think it's gonna be a mid movie, but I definitely have faith in it. We have one review here from the Roger Ebert website, and Roger Ebert sadly passed away before this movie came out. But we do have one review here from Brian Tallarico, who gave this film a 3.
5 out of 4 stars. Definitely a very high score, one that I understand and respect. And this review here I chose because it has age like four stars. fine wine and Brian actually wrote this review back when it first came out and he did a really good job with that. We respect it. He wrote that Logan is the rare blockbuster that can really be a game changer.
It certainly will change the way we look at the other DCU movies, also MCU films, and don't get me wrong, I do love a good popcorn superhero movie as much as the next guy, but Logan shows just how deep one can go with the genre if they approach it in a different way. In that sense, Logan deconstructs the modern superhero movie, and it will be hard to put it back together again.
And that whole review has aged really well, the MCU in a very steep decline, and also the DCU is dead. There's no more of that DC Extended Universe being rebooted by James Gunn. So, yeah, it shows a lot of what's happened since this movie came out. It really did destroy everything, and now it's all being rebuilt in a very much brighter light.
I mean, look at stuff like The Boys, even though The Boys was very mid in Season 4, it still, you know, shows that it's one of the best things out right now. Also, Invincible being really, really good. And then you also have The Batman, a darker, grittier Batman story. Also, Logan, a little bit, you know, further back, but still, it has aged incredibly well.
People still love the movie because it's truly that good. It's very clear and very apparent that the genre is shifting in a different direction, like, you know, a darker, grittier, 18 kind of thing, which is different, it's not the exact status quo, but maybe this is the best thing for the genre to grow into a new light.
When we saw that the Western movies have all died out, and at one point, the Westerns were maybe as big, if not bigger, than the MCU stuff. That was really the main thing with cinema, and now, that died out a very long time ago, and now the MCU, is dying out as well, a little bit. And the DCU is being rebooted, but maybe no one exactly cares anymore.
Just make them care by really catering to their needs a little bit. But that is a different conversation for a different day, and this movie is just really, before even diving into the main film, it's very dense for the context of what this movie's doing, and how it did it, and how it is still affecting us and living with us, even many years later.
I do recommend you read Brian's full review over on the Roger Ebert website. I'll make sure I leave a full link down there so you can go and read it, because it's a really fun read from start to finish. Over on Letterboxd, we have a 4. 1 average, definitely very respectable. We have a review here from Sam Knott, who gave this film a 5 out of 5 stars.
And he says that Logan will rip your heart out, throw it on the ground, and curb stomp it 57 times. Definitely true. Didn't cry this time, but the first time I watched it, I did cry a lot in the theater. This time around, I'm a little bit more emotionally stable, so I didn't get to cry, but, you know, it's very sad, a very depressing film that makes me feel very depressed for weeks on end, like I am right now.
Alright, so with all that egregious prologue gap time out of the way, it's time to go start diving into Logan from 2017, the neo noir western masterpiece that we all know and love, that I really can never get enough of. I never asked for this, all right? Charles never asked for this, Cowerman never asked for this, and they are six feet under the ground.
I don't know what Charles put in your head, but I am not whatever it is you think I am, okay? Okay, so before Logan begins, we have a bit of context to get through a little bit here. This movie takes place about five years after that ending for Days of Future Past. So, In Days of Future Past, Logan comes back to the future, or the present, I guess, in that sense.
And he takes over that Timeline's version of Wolverine, and then This film takes place roughly five years after that. This movie is definitely very, very broad. The state of this universe to save the X Men is really an entire episode in and of itself. Going through the timeline of everything, the real state of who's alive, who's dead, what exactly happened.
That's a lot to really get through. So this episode, I'm going to try to just keep it purely about Logan, just for the sake of, if I dive into everything else, it's going to be like at least two and a half hours long, which is a lot. This movie and the subtext of everything is a lot to go through. Can't blame them.
This is a state of everything, but it's not exactly what we're here for here for mainly Logan. That's what the film's doing. It's mainly a story about Logan, but still. The subtext of everything is a lot to go through. Recommended going through like airbox's video on new rock stars or There's probably like a bunch of other cool, you know, Logan timeline stuff, episodes out there.
So recommend, go watch those, listen to those. Definitely do a better job than I can ever do. But with that fair disclosure out of the way, starting off with the very beginning of the movie. And this is the very start of the movie, the very first frame before a shot of Logan in the film, we have the title card for the movie, a very fun little tidbit.
I noticed that there's no X Men jingle with this movie, uh, with Days of Future Past, and also we have Apocalypse, there's been that, you know, very fun, very cute little X Men jingle at the end of everything, that's not seen here, and also it doesn't leave that little X behind in the end of the Fox logo, that's something that's been going on for a couple films now, that's not here anymore, which may be, you know, kind of a whatever thing, I may be overanalyzing, but still, I think that just may go to show that the state of the X Men, incredibly broken, incredibly diminished, that it's not even in the opening jingle.
Am I overanalyzing? Maybe a teeny bit, but still a very fun little thing I noticed. Also, the main title card for Marvel Studios, productions, whatever, going in is very X Men theme. It's really like an X Men Last Ride kind of thing, which is very, very cool. Going through a homage of comic aggregate stuff.
Very cool. Very fun. Really just, you know, that accuracy with the suits and everything is extremely well done. A very fun tone setter for how this film's gonna go about the state of the X Men, the state of the future, the state of Logan. I appreciate it. I'm all here for it. And then going into the first frame and that first scene in the movie, Logan obviously fighting off the main goons, tries to take his car.
That opening is really good. I mean, one, there's no flashy title card. It's all just white text against the background. You know, main background of the movie. There's no flashy, you know, cool X Men going into the, you know, portal thing into Cerebro, none of that's here. It's not an X Men film, but still nothing's flashy.
This film is not that at all. It's very departing from all of those, you know, generic X Men fun poppy stuff. It's really just bare bones cinema, which is. Everything that makes this film really good. The next thing I love is the old man Logan aesthetic, the way he walks, the way he talks, the way he fights.
Seeing this, you know, samurai war hero guy that I grew up loving, seeing him really at his lowest point, close to death, is everything. It's a very important tone setter. Seeing him not able to age, seeing him having to struggle with scars and bruises, Him being the Wolverine, that's an extremely big deal.
This film does that incredibly well, not having to do too much, not having to say anything too big or too broad about the state of Logan. Just showing us This is what makes it that much better. Show, don't tell. A very big rule in cinema and a very big rule in filmmaking. That's done incredibly well here.
It seems like within the first, like, 5 or 10 minutes of the movie, with the main opening title card and stuff, then the first scene of Logan, that main fight scene at the beginning of the film, all of this up to this point is a beautiful and incredibly sad, Funeral for what we've seen so far we don't exactly know the state of everything's happening in the movie yet But we know that just from these pure visual observations that this is a funeral for what once was of the past X Men films That's all kind of dead This is kind of like an opening ceremony for a funeral for one Massively sad and depressing film and this opening so far like I said extremely sad But we're not even into old man Charles yet Which may be the saddest part of the entire film seeing Charles Xavier being the main guy for the X Men, the main face of everything, being at this very low point in his life.
Also, again, just like Logan, extremely close to death is very sad to see. As a kid, I grew up watching all these guys on the big screen, whether it's a good or bad movie. I saw Professor X, I saw Logan, I saw the Wolverine, and They're like gods to me. I don't think that they can die. I think they're just purely just immortal, that they can live forever.
And seeing this movie, that's not the case at all, really destroys a certain part of myself seeing this movie, that, you know, everything comes to an end, everything dies, nothing I can do about it. That is a, you know, very hard gut punch as a kid, but just now looking back on it, it makes it something that's very needed for everything.
I feel like, you know, a lot of times, Seeing a character die can be really the bow for the entire life that we've seen them go through. That's what makes deaths so sad, but yet just really one of the best parts of that entire character. I mean, looking at Iron Man in Endgame, a completely different franchise, I know, I understand.
That's a completely different thing. But seeing Iron Man's life, Tony Stark, for 10 years of my entire life, and seeing the death be one of the best parts of that entire character, really seeing that he earned that one moment, is what made that character just that much better for me. And now, in this movie, exact same way.
Seeing a goat, seeing a legend die, Is what makes it just that much more entertaining. Yes, it's sad. Yes, I would have loved to see one little rock fumble at the end of that funeral scene for this movie. But, yeah, that's not gonna happen. It's not real life. And that makes it really good. But yeah, if there was one word for this episode, it would just be depressing.
Because that's the entire movie. Extremely sad. Extremely depressing. Very just, not demoralizing, but just bringing my hopes down a lot. I mean, just seeing Logan's plan in this movie, which is just to take a boat out to the sea and die. Bye. That's it. There's no hope. There's no more X Men. There's no more big fight back last stand.
It's just to get a boat, get him and Charles out into the water for, I mean, until they die and run out of gas. That seems to be it. Logan in this movie, slowly dying because of the adamantium, and he also has an adamantium bullet. Just kill himself with it. That's it. It's just to die and there's no hope for the world or the future of the X Men.
That's it. It makes sense for the character. This is an actual genuine fluent for the character, which is what makes the ending that much better as well. And what makes this movie just so good is that it's all real for Logan. Seeing him just go through so much to the point where there's no more fight left in him.
He just wants to die. That's all he wants to do. It's gotten to the point where He's seen everything, he's experienced everything, he's seen the pain and the love, and he just comes to the contempt and to the point of none of this is worth it anymore. I can just die happily now. Not happily, but I can die and it'll be just no big deal.
And also, just with the old man Logan aesthetic and the vibe of him being very depressed, not having a purpose, and just wanting to die, the smartest thing they can do is force this responsibility of an X 23 into this movie. I'm not sure if that's exactly in the comics, haven't read it personally, but it is.
If it is or if it isn't, that's extremely smart to do. It really does add a lot more meat and potatoes to the story, and doesn't make it just one very long, sad, depressing film, even though it already is. And also, just going into X 23, an incredibly cool character, I love her a lot in this movie. Just the action, her bringing a severed head to the bad guys.
It really does show that, yeah, this film is really worth radar, and it is really live to that hype. I wasn't exactly quite sure if she would be in the new Deadpool Wolverine film, but thankfully to Marvel's marketing team not really caring too much about spoilers, they have revealed she'll be in the new movie.
Pretty excited for that. That does kind of boost my hype up a little bit more for it. But, I still think Deadpool Wolverine will be pretty mid, but we'll have to see. And also the action, in this whole movie, I didn't really talk about it too much here, but that whole gritty, you know, Logan, old man, just aesthetic to it, with all the blood, the gore, the claws going through everything, really all that, you know, gutsy stuff coming on, it's very disturbing for some people.
For me, I absolutely love it, absolutely adore it. It really works, and it's a very refreshing take on a lot of new things. And also, gotta think, at the time, this is before the boys, and also a time where Marvel's really happy and fun and jolly. Not too much of these kind of films out for superheroes, so it works even better for that aspect.
And also, even though we are straying away from the more modern, you know, Comic book accurate, you know, all fun and jolly rainbow stuff with the superhero things. It is still tapping back into that old stuff of the OG and deconstructing everything and making it its own thing and really analyzing everything.
Critiquing all that old stuff and making something new with it is just what makes it that much more incredible to sit through. Like with the X Men comics in this movie, I'll touch on them a bit as we go through, but I The X Men comics are a reminder to Logan of his past, and his struggle, and who he once was, and who he's supposed to be.
But that's just not what the world is anymore. It's come to a very different, murky, gray light. There's not so much of that, you know, classic, western, black hat, white hat. Everyone's flawed. Everyone has very messed up problems. And that's really what the X Men comics represents. Whenever he has them inside of this movie, He's always just trying to throw him away, say, hey, this is fake, this isn't real.
Trying to denounce what he once was and what he stood for is interesting. It's a very, you know, interesting way to do this movie, him critiquing on himself and really diminishing and denouncing everything that we saw before it is what makes this such a good X Men movie, not just a Logan movie, but just really going into what makes the X Men X Men and having an ultimate final standoff is what makes this just that much better.
And the majority of Logan has that, you know, kind of cliche cat and mouse structure. It's been overplayed a bit. I mean it works really well for films like Terminator and a lot of other movies. That cat and mouse aspect. Yeah, it works. It's really good here. But that's not all that this film is we have a lot of you know These smaller moments that make the film that much better One of those moments, in my opinion, the best scene in the entire movie is the dinner scene with Logan and also Charles in X 23 and that random family they meet.
That may be the single, apparently best scene in the entire X Men franchise, just because of how simple it is and just seeing, just, I mean, just how little they do with that scene and just how effective it really can be. I mean, just having Charles and Logan call back to the, you know, school for gifted youngsters and just going through that entire school and that entire, you know, movies that we have one through three days future pass as well in first class, having them go through all of that and say, Logan was a student there until we got kicked out a couple of times.
That is just so much fun. And it makes me smile ear to ear when I hear that and see that, because I guess I kind of feel like I'm one of the family members at that table with Logan and also presser X and hearing all those stories, like, Hey, I was there. I saw that moment too. It. does make me feel like I'm a part of this film and a part of this family and this journey along with Logan and also just the massive theme and just dichotomy that Logan has going on with this film is that he does still have time to make things right and make his life Kind of worth it and have purpose.
He does have people who look up to him, but still he hasn't really found his life He never really got a chance to live his life He's always been a soldier and always been a weapon to destroy mankind And it may just be Logan being able to get glimpses of these kinds of lives where people are still living their life Even in this post apocalyptic world with a lot of heavy political turmoil environments dying This sounds extremely familiar, but whatever.
We see people still are able to live their lives and live day to day lives of being a happy family. Even though there's a struggle, there's still hope to live life. But Logan still thinks it's just way too late for him. And just as he's sucking Charles into bed, maybe one of the best lines in the entire film, where Charles is telling Logan, Logan, you still have time.
You still have time to be what you And this is what life looks like. Life doesn't have to be you being a soldier, but you can still live life with peace. And maybe not that broad of a purpose, but still live a life quietly and still be happy. And kind of just, you know, skipping ahead a little bit here. I hate to even talk about this, but Charles death later on in the movie is Extremely sad.
I hate seeing this scene. It really made me like bawl my eyes out in the theaters. Because I see that Charles Xavier is starting to remember things. He has heavy dementia earlier on in the film. And seeing him able to remember little glimpses of what happened in his past. And then him saying, This is one of the best nights I've had in a very long time.
But I don't deserve it. And he's really condoling with Logan and what he's going through as well. Saying that, I understand what you've went through. I understand what you've gone through now. And yet, he's not talking to the main Wolverine. And that other evil X 24 kills him in his bed. As he thinks that he's confessing all this to the original Wolverine.
It's tragic. It's extremely terrible. It doesn't feel good. It's not a happy death at all. Like I said previously before in Endgame. We have, well Captain America doesn't die, but Iron Man does pass away. A very happy death. I mean, everyone's there. This is his moment and his triumphant death to really propel that character into just extremely incredible hypes.
With this movie, with Logan, the funeral scene and the death scene of Charles Xavier should be really flamboyant and really just go out in a ball of fire. Since it's Professor X. He's kind of like, well not Marvel with Jesus, that's kind of Deadpool. But still, for the X Men, he's like that guy. He is the Jesus for the X Men, to an extent, here and there.
Sometimes there's just some random guy, like Apocalypse, literally like a god, but still, for what Professor X stood for, and what he was seen as in the mutant community, this is the mutant. This is the X Men for this franchise, and yet his death is earned because he has lived a good life, but his death is earned.
isn't at all very flashy and very happy death. It's a very sad and tragic death. And that makes me really upset and really angry, but yet that's just real life. Sometimes death. Is very sad, and there's no big, triumphant, flashy death for you. And also, the mourning stages of everything isn't always extremely realistic.
Where we just immediately are back up on our feet. It's all very sad, and very depressing, and very sluggishly. With the way we die, and the way we mourn. Which this movie gets right incredibly well. And this entire sequence of X 24, just murdering everyone in that entire house, is extremely horrific. I rarely ever get very, um, comfortable with films, and when I am very uncomfortable, it's immediately like a 9 out of 10.
This movie makes me very uncomfortable, it makes me very sad seeing X 24, this just, very, just hulking and just unstoppable force, just going through that building. It's very hard to watch for me, but you know, still, it's just extremely well done. I love that Logan versus X 24, that X 24 versus Logan. Just seeing this sheer just force of this character, and just seeing that X 24 can absolutely just murder Logan.
Which, yeah, that's just something that I don't really see too often with the character. Logan and Wolverine have gotten packed up in the past, but this version of Logan, he's a lot older, a lot more sluggish. This version of X 24 is like, Prime prime Logan, so he just is not able to beat him in any regard, which is what makes him just that much more intimidating.
And even though, I guess X 24 is more of a metaphor for Logan going up against Logan, and really just being a movie about the antagonists. is in the movie, but it's really just a very, you know, mental movie about Logan trying to master his mind and really just come to peace with himself. Still, X 24 works as a great metaphor for that.
And he is just really a very threatening villain. And in most movies that come out today, many superhero films, the villains have not been hitting. I guess last year we had Guardians of the Galaxy volume three, great villain, and also no way home. They kind of cheated there because you're gonna be using, you know, older spider man villains This is definitely one of the better depictions for a villain and just one that's done incredibly well I mean later we had thanos as well, which was very good killmonger came out Next year, which is 2018.
So yeah, we had Logan, then Killmonger, then Thanos, also Hela, very good villain. But most of the time after that, we haven't really gotten a really good villain, even in Deadpool Wolverine. There seems to be a villain there, but it's not really important. I haven't seen Deadpool Wolverine yet. The premiere is very, very soon, so I don't know, but the villain for Deadpool Wolverine is Isn't even important which is odd because this film has a villain It's supposed to be the sister for Professor X but yet no one's talking about it Which is definitely understandable because the movie is so much bigger than the villain which I mean You don't exactly need a villain to make the film good But in this sense when you have Deadpool Wolverine, that's just bigger than like anything else even coming out this year So having a villain It's immediately just in the shadow of this concept of this massive, massive movie.
So it's kind of a benefit and also kind of a con for Deadpool Wolverine, not even out yet. That will be a critique that I have for the film, I can almost guarantee it. But in this movie, X 24 isn't the main big bad for the movie, but one that's done incredibly well and one that I really appreciate a lot So i'm still running along here charles dies and he has a funeral logan and also x 23 They bury him and the funeral for charles.
Xavier is one that I thought I remembered as being This really nice symbolic funeral and then I watched it again recently and I realized that this funeral for charles. Xavier was You Not that good, and it is real, because Logan is struggling to even put words together to really elevate this character of Charles Xavier, which is extremely realistic.
In most movies, we have a character say some few words for a person who died in a movie, and they give this big speech, and sometimes in life that can't happen. Other times, when you're at a funeral, you're just lost for words. I mean, let's think here that Logan and Wolverine, they've known each other I don't know the timeline.
They know each other in this setting for about at least a decade, maybe over that. And this is definitely Wolverine's closest thing to a father figure as well. And also losing one of the last pieces of his life, of the last life that he lived as an X Men, as this real hero and real symbol. The person that really elevated him to that level just died.
So yeah, it's understandable that he doesn't really know what to say, that he's struggling to Come to peace with what's happening and that the funeral scene Having to do all that of carrying the person that is like your father and then bury him and now having to say a speech About him isn't exactly realistic to even happen to anyone So it's a decision that is very easy to critique I mean you can say all you want about how Logan really not being able to say anything about Charles Xavier Just shows how bad of a person that he is But for me, it's a decision Seeing this character for like 10 years of my life at this point, I understand him and I feel his pain along with him that I don't even know what to say about the death of Charles Xavier because he just meant that much to that character and also to me as well, so I can't even blame him about it.
And still, we also just keep going back into the comics with Wolverine in this movie, and just how it's him still just running away from his image, saying that all this was just fake, this isn't his life, this isn't who he is, even though he is that, that was him, that's how people saw him and it, and depicted him, it's just not what he believes himself to be anymore, which is extremely effective, once again, for just some little small motif in the movie, is incredibly well done, just does so much with so little.
Maybe the best scene in the entire film is Logan talking to X 23, and she really wanted him to come along with them as their journey across the border, but, I mean, Wolverine still thinks that he may just go around somewhere to some random bar and die. That's his fate here. He's no hero. That's not what he asked for.
And once again, something that's very, you can say, is selfish and very wrong for Logan not to go along with them. I think it's realistic for the character. We see that Logan, throughout his entire life, never asked for any of this. I mean, he was born a mutant with this curse, this disease. Then he killed his father.
Then his entire life is just pure hatred and pain and sadness with him hurting people, him losing people. Him never asking for this life of pain and war, and being a soldier, and being a weapon for mankind. That, yeah, it's understandable that his only thing left here is to die, is for suicide. He tried to be a good person, he tried to be a hero, yet none of it ever exactly worked out and panned out.
Because everything always ends at the end of the day, there's no happy ending. So at the end of this movie, when we see him not go along with them, is that because, yeah, his life's over, he's had enough, he's exactly just tapped out of life, it hasn't done anything right for him. Also keep in mind that this version of Logan, and I think Logan maybe in general, is, uh, hundreds of years old, I don't know exactly when he was born, the 1800s, something like that, so yeah, he's like over a hundred years old, he's seen everything, he's tried to give hope to mankind, and yet they fail at him time and time again.
So, yeah. There's nothing left for him anymore. He just wants to die, and I can't blame her for that. All right, but segue into the third act here. This movie is just very broad. I really want to talk about this film like all day, but don't want to run along too long here. So third act really does a good job.
Ties the entire film together. A lot of great action, a lot of great themes and motifs here. But number one, the young mutants is really cool. I love seeing all of them in this movie. They're all really fun. And seeing that this is really the only hope that the X Men can live on, they're, for the most part, all wiped out.
I think that, you know, we only see that there's Logan, and also Professor X, Caliban, and this whole Young Mutants gang, but I think there's actually more. Other X Men out there, but obviously, save the world, it's not really an option for them to be the X Men right now with no Professor X and just really everything being in shambles that there's no real hope for the X Men anymore.
This dream, this legacy is about to die altogether, but yet, in the Stardad, we have the Young Mutants, the really only vision of the future, all in this one group of kids here, and Logan is, Now choosing to fight and die for it, which is beautiful because it's the one thing that he just completely denounced I don't care about this vision or this past of mine.
It doesn't matter to me I just want to die and then seeing him Exactly kind of have this change of heart of going forth and just kind of denouncing his own Beliefs and just choosing to give a spark of hope to the future of the x men is just incredible The thing that he never really loved to be I think that when he was in the x men he was there He kind of stagged along but here we see that he really doesn't care about this He chooses to go out there and fight and die for this vision or for this dream And this is Another thing that makes this just the perfect ultimate X Men movie and also this film being a great X Men movie Also a great movie just for the fight sequences didn't talk about a whole lot But just really the fight choreography for Wolverine all this blood and gore is just just really really good third act Especially taking that serum him going to just prime rampage mode Wolverine for a short amount of time There is just absolutely breathtaking and beautiful And then him going out really in the best way possible, maybe not on his own terms, but still he knew that this was a suicide mission.
He knew he wouldn't come back from this. He knew that this was the one decision that he can make to make his life a little bit better at the end of the day. And his death still hits hard. It still is just a perfect encapsulation for the character and the future of this group of X Men. And I hope they do justice in the new Deadpool movie.
But seeing him laying on his back in his own blood, telling X 23, pretty much a younger version of himself, Don't be what they made you, don't be a weapon, don't be a monster you need to be. That's not what you are, you can be more than that. That's Everything that this movie is trying to be in one little line of dialogue.
It's incredible I saw in the screenplay for the movie We see that they wrote that wolverine in his eyes has a little sprinkle a little glimmer of hope when he sees x 23 and the other new mutants and That's the thing that's never really happened for logan He's always kind of snarky always kind of just an asshole at the end of the day But seeing him really having this little glimmer of wonder and hope for what the future of the x men can be The future of the world That really does show just the growth, and the development, and the beauty of this character in this movie.
It's incredible. I love it. Can't talk about it enough. Then his, maybe, final line of dialogue is, This is what it feels like. This is what it feels like to have purpose. To really live my life with purpose, and passion, and care, and die for what I believe in. I'm gonna steal it from Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve, he knocked out the part for that film, but in Blade Runner, they said that dying for what you believe in, dying for the right cause, is the most human thing you can ever do in your entire life.
This movie is everything, that's exactly what it is here. Logan dying for what he believes in, for a cause, for a purpose, is what makes his character that much better. From not believing in himself, to anything at all, to believing in the future, Of his race is beautiful. That's really everything then the funeral for the x men funeral for the x man The one himself wolverine is beautiful the new mutant line the new generation of mutants Really burying him and really having that torch be passed to a new group of people is incredible.
It's awesome I love it. Then after that credits come up Just a very simple, barebones credits here, black background, white text, Logan, with Johnny Cash playing. That's incredible. It's just fucking incredible. It's just really, I mean, I'm sorry. I know very film bro of me that Logan is this incredible neo western masterpiece, but that's just really fucking incredible.
It's really just fucking brilliant. It's fucking genius. I can't fucking say how great this movie is. Oh my gosh. It's really that good. My final little tidbit for this main feature presentation is that, you know, My life can really suck sometimes. I'm in my 20s right now. So, you know, life can be really annoying.
Really just, I hate it a lot of the time. But, you know, then I remember. My name's Logan. I'm named after the best X Men movie. Also one of the best movies of all time. So, I can't be that mad at the end of the day. But that's Logan 2017. It's really incredible. Really scrumptious. Really just all around an incredible film.
That does leave you with justice. But now, it's time to go into the superlatives. What is that exactly? The most fun you'll have in the entire episode. Really a whole ton of just, you know, laugh out loud, slapstick, incredible comedy. So, A lot of rewards, MVP, best scene, all that good stuff coming up right now.
You're not gonna want to miss it. You are a blowfish. What? Um, Lady, whatever you're selling, I ain't buying, yo. Well, my name is Skylar White, yo. Can I get a spot? Get out! Okay. Okay, so, Forces of Protoss in the movie, what's all the awards here, what's, you know, the best of this and that. Also, who's the MVP?
That's coming at the very end of the episode, so stay tuned for that. But, for the best scene in the movie, it goes to the dinner scene, easily, no doubt about it. That's the best scene in the movie. Favorite quote in the movie goes to Logan when he says that Nature made me a freak, man made me a weapon, and God made it last too long.
That's just utter fucking poetry. So, you know, say what you want about it. So, those are the first two. Best scene, the dinner scene. Kind of sees the entire movie, but that's really the best one. And the favorite quote belongs in the Sistine Chapel. So, you know, that's that. One small change to the movie.
Actually, I have two changes to the movie that I thought would happen when I first saw, but just never really did. The first one, Leafshaver Sabertooth from X Men Origins. I would have liked to see that. Now, obviously, Origins kind of got just like thrown in the trash, a lot of that's just utter garbage.
But, I love Sabretooth in that movie, he really would have fit the western vibe and the western aesthetic. That was, I think, an early draft for Logan, something that they were kind of trying to explore. Having that Sabretooth pull up in the movie would have been really cool, would have been incredible. I would have just died a million times to see that.
But sadly it didn't happen, so that's whatever. Also Something that I kind of thought would happen, but never did it would have been really bad. I don't exactly hate that it didn't happen, but when Logan's dying, I thought that we would have seen, uh, the, um, Fom K. Johnson, Phoenix from the older, and the intro trilogies, the one of Phoenix that Logan really falls in love with.
I thought that she would have popped up when Logan was dying. Would it have worked? I don't think it would have, but I think it's something that's really interesting. Something that maybe could have happened in the movie. I know that in the Wolverine, we already saw Logan having PTSD of killing, uh, Jean Grey.
So that kinda would have been a little weird to do that again in this movie. Also kind of a very weird, you know, kinda just sets the tone very badly. Doesn't do a good job with it. So, it's either A, they couldn't really do it because of the screenplay. Wouldn't really have worked. Or B, maybe Jean Grey died in this movie.
Movie or no, maybe she didn't die. Maybe she died or maybe she's still alive in this universe so Those are three really cool options Once again, this this universe this timeline the setting for logan is a lot to go through So I recommend you just sit down and really just you know Educate yourself on this universe, but still that would have been really cool to happen either two of those things Old saber tooth popping back up or also the old gene gray popping back up Would it have worked?
Maybe not, but it would have been something really cool. Uh, Double Trouble, a really good double feature for this movie. I say go into the Wolverine and then go into Logan, but also I recommend looking up just some movies that are really similar to Logan. There's tons of them out there, tons of really cool Westerns.
One of my favorite Westerns of all time is actually Stagecoach, John Ford. That's one of the best action films I've ever made of all time. I recommend you watch that right now, but really, Stagecoach, really good. But also, there's just like hundreds upon thousands of Westerns out there. I mean, obviously, Good, the Bad, the Ugly, I mean, Fistful of Dollars.
That's just really incredible trilogy right there that you can dive into as well. But just look up Really Good Westerns, that's it's own episode entirely, but, you know, a lot of westerns really inspired this movie, so. Still, look it up, look up a YouTube video, look up a website, you're gonna find a ton of good recommendations on there.
But for what I'd say, for the universe, go to Wolverine, then go to Logan, you'll probably love it. If this film was a song, what would it be? It would be When a Man Comes Around from Johnny Cash. Once again, Johnny Cash, I can analyze him all day, incredible artist, his music is also like poetry, so whatever.
But, yeah. When the man comes around, that like made me cry when I heard that in theaters for the first time, and it's really, it's incredible. Listen to it right now. And then as for Buzz from the Backlot, what is it exactly? Movie Fun Facts, I have three here for ya. Usually, uh, Buzz from the Backlot's like kind of like unbearable, only because we've been going through like Apocalypse, Origins, Last Stand.
So don't throw up by that shit, but here we go. A good movie means a great buzz in the back lot So I have three here for you the first one is that Hugh Jackman said this was the hardest Wolverine movie for which he had ever trained for and That's definitely understandable. He's like very thick in this movie Not that kind of thick, get your head out of the gutter.
Thick in the sense that he's just like a really, you know Hulking figure, very swole. So understandable, hardest he's ever trained. Definitely understandable Maybe like a lot of like, you know rice and like, you know Egg whites for this movie and grilled chicken most likely got really lean, really tough, really bulky.
Definitely, 100%. For the second film, fun fact, Sir Patrick Stewart claimed that much of the dialogue at the dinner table scene in which Logan and Charles Xavier told the family about the school for mutants was improvised by the actors at the request of James Mangold after having filmed takes of scripted dialogue.
That's absolutely true. I mean, look, this scene for the dinner scene is really good. No surprise. Is it improvised? Absolutely. Definitely makes a lot of sense. And for our third and final fun fact, Director James Mangle was so impressed by the commitment of Lara's stunt double, Risa Killer. He decided to give her a role in this movie, which he cast in the role of mutant Pinecone Girl.
Yeah. Pinecone Girl, the mutant. Will she cameo in Deadpool Wolverine? Probably. Maybe. We'll see. So those are all of our buzz from the backlots for today, our overall pretty solid fun list. But one more thing before we get out of here, the MVP is the biggest war the entire night. This is the best actor, bigger than the best actor for this movie.
Who's the best person in this movie? Would it work without them? Absolutely not. And the MVP, gonna save the anticipation, it's Hugh Jackman. Obviously, who else would it be? Doesn't make a lot of sense to pick anyone else. So Hugh Jackman, best actor in the movie. He has like five awards sitting here by my desk right now for all those movies.
So we're gonna try and mail it out to him, I guess. But, you know, we'll see what happens. But hey, until that happens, we just watched the best movie ever. Excellent movie, one of the best films of all time. This movie is rated for me at an A, not an A not an A just an A, right in the middle of the pack. If I watch this like two more times, it might be five stars.
I'm not gonna lie, but for right now, it's four and a half out of five or nine out of ten. Still, 90%, it's an A. It's incredible. And my final big question for you, dear listener, is Can this movie be topped in any way, shape, or form? I think this film just can't be topped in any way at all. It's just really hard to this movie's just not a good x men movie, but also just a very good movie in general that I just Can't imagine within a million years that deadpool wolverine is better than this film will be better Obviously on friday monday's also the premiere so I know then but It's hard to top this film.
I hope they don't touch it at all in Deadpool Wolverine, but regardless this film It's something special something magical. There's no way it can be topped. But until the next time I talk to you We have about three more X Men films to go to so Until that happens, until I talk about, you know, three more mid movies, this is the last good one that we're going through here with Logan.
But, until then, stay swagged out, stay cool, watch more movies, like, every single day, and until next time, I'm your host Logan, and I'll catch you guys in the movies.