Note: This article contains full spoilers for the new Film "Logan".
"Logan" upon release has achieved almost universal acclaim. It is a bold new step in Superhero movies, and due to its success, it may revolutionize the entire genre.
"Logan" asserts itself as an entirely new beast in the first five minutes of the film. It starts with Logan (Hugh Jackman) trying to stop a group of thugs from trying to steal his limousineIn the ensuing fight, he violently kills them all. Limbs are cut off, people are stabbed, and, there is blood, realistic blood (a rarity in superhero films).It is brutal, and while every superhero film is littered with fights, this one seems authentic, the violence here is not stylized.
This bleak bloody tone continues until the last frame. It is a dark, humorless film, innocent people (including children) are violently murdered, Charles Xavier, a character who is usually the moral guiding force of the X-men is killed when defenseless, and it is suggested that he may have accidentally killed the X-men himself.
It is also without a doubt the best of the X-Men films, and may well be the greatest superhero film yet made.
The maturity of an immature concept
There is a difficulty to the film. Though Logan, Wolverine is perhaps the clearest example the archetypical noble savage, a vicious killer with a conscience. He was conceived as a children's character. He is someone who fought in the US civil war and Vietnam, someone who can walk off bullet wounds (though in this film his ability to heal is significantly diminished) has a metal skeleton with retractable claws.Though this is a science fiction/fantasy film, there is a ludicrousness to him and the other super-powered characters that ultimately stands apart from the ultra-serious feel of the film.
The nature of superheroes
This is not a criticism of the film, indeed it is hard to imagine a superhero film being better made, and you do not doubt it or any of the characters for a second. Yet when the superhero is shown in such a light, an authentic, serious light. You begin to re-evaluate the concept of the superhero itself (although Wolverine being such a violent killer is more of an anti-hero).
The superhero is a fairly immature concept, they function best in the ultra escapism of the "Avengers" films. As a character who decides to fight crime with violence is, as Alan Moore, the writer of "Watchmen" said in an interview "is a vigilante psychopath". This isn't questioned in most mainstream media as the violence dealt by the superhero is largely consequence-free, and almost always bloodless. Logan with its bloody violence makes you reconsider this and the nature of these characters.
