It’s been a few weeks since the release of Logan. Up to and after its release the word masterpiece was thrown around quite a bit, along with a few choice praises of equal or greater weight. I finally got a chance to see it with a friend after stewing in the headlines of great reviews. Going into the theater, my mind fully loaded with words of adulation, I couldn’t help but wonder what constitutes a true masterpiece? And could Logan truly rank up there with the great masterpieces of the world? Thats a lot of pressure.

The film begins headlong into drunken confrontation, in a post mutant world of 2029, where no new mutants have been born in 25 years. The Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) had been downgraded to an Uber driver (well, Uber Black) while he plays caretaker to an aging professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) who in recent years suffers from seizures that could kill others around him. In effort to live isolated, the two shack up on the outskirts of El Paso, across the Mexican border, in an abandon tobacco processing plant. To care for Xavier while he is away, Logan gives haven to an albino tracker Caliban (Stephen Merchant), whose abilities include sniffing out other mutants. At work, a woman (Elizabeth Rodriguez) with a child tracks him down and begs him for his help in getting a young girl to North Dakota in exchange for money. The young girl, subject X23 born Laura (Dafne Keen), is an escaped mutant from a corporate facility testing mutant cloning to be used as soldiers. They want her back. Desperate for money and feeling morally obligated, Logan takes the job.

This isn’t the story you would expect of an X-Men based film. Go ahead and recount any X-Men film story and see if you find this level of intimacy anywhere. Make sure it’s devoid of mutants on a large scale. No giant bridges to lift with magnetism or super-powered jets to fly. You can keep all the images of Chrysler (that will make sense when you see the film). Even if you just looked at the previous Wolverine films (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Wolverine), you really don’t get sense of how down to earth this film is going to be. And from that, the most surprising aspect is that this film begins and ends without ever taking the time to launch into an explanation about mutants, the X-Men universe at large, or anything else that would help an audience who knows nothing of the X-Men. The impressive thing is, it didn’t need to. The story is so well self contained and so much about the human aspects of being a mutant that a drawn out explanation would have tied it too closely to the high flying, PG-13, adolescent fanfare of the previous films and detract from the raw emotion Jackman finally gets to bring to the long lived, suffering Logan. For the fans, the important ties are laid into the script; for newcomers, an intriguing slew of world building lines.

As for masterpieces, truly only time can tell. Calling something a masterpiece in the moment is more of a forecast than a fact. I came up with my own criteria on the masterpiece forecast formula. First, people around you have to actively dislike or misunderstand the film on a fundamental level. It sounds crude and judgmental, but I found this to a pretty good measure of a film’s long-term impact. This was actually inspired by the fact that the friend I went to the theater with fell asleep twenty minutes into the film, not because they were tired, but because they felt they couldn’t connect with any of the characters, the acting, nor the central plot. All of these things I found to be unbelievable. But they also went into the film with high expectations and no idea what the film was actually about. I found Jackman and Stewart’s portrayals to be some of the best put to screen and in their careers, especially when looking at over 17 years worth of material in just this franchise alone. There isn’t a disingenuous moment. I was especially skeptical the ability of such a young child actor to portray and evoke the emotions of tortured science experiment, but there was so much power in her face and so much confidence in her step. There is an overwhelming sense of balance across the entire film.

Second, does it redefine the expectations you have for film in the current era? Any fan of film has their standout favorites on one list and another list of films that, despite their personal opinions, they can see merit in. Sometimes those lists have some crossover (the real nutjob’s lists are one in the same), but often there are only a few. While it takes multiple viewings to make it to my personal list, the merit list is all about the immediate impact. Logan makes you rethink the focus and depth you want from the superhero genre and the originality and leaps of faith you want from film in general. All too often this generation, you find yourself in films strapped in for the same ride with few new surprises, because the safe bet offers monetary returns but tends to lack critical return and longevity. Logan is sure to become the shining example of translating the graphic page to the screen. When moving from pure fantasy to fantasy set in reality (real people, real dirt, real stunts), you have to have some give and take. Comic fans and the general public have largely been given a undersaturated, malnourished version of great comics in an effort to appeal to everyone. Because comic films are a translation and not a wholly original work, the translation is constrained by the fantastic and vibrant world of the comic, where words and ideas are free to be as big and grand as they want without sacrificing budget. Logan proves that humanity in conjunction with fantasy is a potent formula for the box office and critics.

Logan is a triumph of the comic heart transplanted to film. It explains to outsiders why comics are so loved. They are free to be anything. And with proper care, a real and raw interpretation can be brought to life. There will be groups who don’t understand it or appreciate it, but everyone you do reach will feel it right through the heart.

~* 9.5/10 *~