If you know me, you know Logan (2017) is (as of now) my most anticipated movie of 2017. It’ll change in a week for all I know, but for now, Hugh Jackman’s last outing as Marvel’s hateful/lovable fur ball has all my attention. More than Guardians, more than Spidey, definitely more than Justice League (2017), and 1000% more than Ghost in the Shell (2017) (DO NOT see Ghost in the Shell. What they are doing is wrong, backwards, and unsettling. Do yourself a favor and watch the original if you have not.) The first trailer for Logan had me floored. Cutting it to one of the best Johnny Cash songs gave me chills and it looked like the least X-Men-looking movie in the best way possible. I was pleasantly surprised to discover, when I came into work at 9:30 this morning, that not only was my boss not going to be in, but that a second (maybe even final?) trailer for Logan had come out.
Great opening, first and foremost. Dafne Keen looks like she’s going to own her role as X-23 as she maliciously lashes out at a store clerk who’s simply doing his job. Then Logan, himself, comes in to reprimand her in a very fish-out-of-water fashion… only to steal a few cigars on the way out. We’re then treated to a very meta nod to the X-Men comics as we find out that the superhero group has become pop-culture with a comic line. Logan nods to the fact that about a quarter of it is accurate, but in the real world people die. First, this could not be more true when it comes to comic books. Just about any comic book hero you can think of has died at least once in the comics and come back in some sort of way. It all started with Death of Superman and the Man of Steel’s death/resurrection, and from then on, it became second nature that comic book characters can come back just as quickly as they die (UPDATE: I was just educated by my friend that Jean Grey actually jump started the character death/resurrection trend back in 1986).
The trailer is certainly a little more commercial than the first one. Kaleo’s “Way Down We Go” isn’t as chilling as Cash’s “Hurt”, but it does its job in hyping up jackass nerds like me for what could be the best movie in the entire X-Men franchise (X2 (2003) is the benchmark for me). It has a bit of a Little Miss Sunshine (2006) feel to it as Logan, Charles Xavier, X-23 and a few other outsiders travel together and show Logan the meaning of love and family. This is something the X-Men franchise has unsuccessfully tried to capture since Bryan Singer’s 2000 original. But then the action, in this trailer alone, reminds you that Fox green-lit an R-rating for this movie. I guess Deadpool (2016)’s success did have some positive ripple effects. I understand both Jackman and director James Mangold were adamant that Deadpool would not appear in this movie; but JJ Abrams also promised Khan wasn’t the bad guy in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), so you tell me if I should still be wary.
Logan and Xavier look to be at the end of the road in this movie and mutants are few and far between. A group of mutant hunters called The Reavers are in search of X-23 and it takes a weary Xavier to convince Logan that he is the person meant to look out for her. Does she have a more important role to play in this world? Could she be some sort of cure for mutant kind in The Last of Us (2013) fashion? Regardless, this western/dystopian/Wolverine hybrid has a great deal of potential and with the talent behind it, Hugh Jackman could really bring it home as the curtain drops on his career as Logan. But as a great man once said, “Trailers are dope; but a movie only looks good until it sucks.” (I said that.)
Logan hits theaters March 3rd, 2017.
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