"There's no living with the killing..." -Shane (1953 film)
Throughout the 20th century, humankind gave birth to a class of genetic mutants with fantastic powers, who were generally hated and feared by ordinary humans. Now in the mid-21st century, mutant births have ceased, and most mutants have died out, along with the bloodshed done to and by them. Two surviving mutants are a clawed drifter named James Logan “Wolverine” Howlett and a telepath named Professor Charles Xavier, who once ran a school for young and exiled mutants. Logan is finally losing his ability to heal from any injury, and Charles’ advancing ALS is making his telepathy a danger to those around him. Together, with Logan as caregiver and Charles sliding into a second childhood, the two old men are quietly preparing to die in Mexico. But the discovery of an impossibly young mutant named Laura, with abilities and a temper much like Logan used to have, forces them into their last chance to be role models in a world that hated, then forgot them. The resulting journey is a test of how much they would sacrifice to save not the world, but one young life.
Throughout the 20th century, humankind gave birth to a class of genetic mutants with fantastic powers, who were generally hated and feared by ordinary humans. Now in the mid-21st century, mutant births have ceased, and most mutants have died out, along with the bloodshed done to and by them. Two surviving mutants are a clawed drifter named James Logan “Wolverine” Howlett and a telepath named Professor Charles Xavier, who once ran a school for young and exiled mutants. Logan is finally losing his ability to heal from any injury, and Charles’ advancing ALS is making his telepathy a danger to those around him. Together, with Logan as caregiver and Charles sliding into a second childhood, the two old men are quietly preparing to die in Mexico. But the discovery of an impossibly young mutant named Laura, with abilities and a temper much like Logan used to have, forces them into their last chance to be role models in a world that hated, then forgot them. The resulting journey is a test of how much they would sacrifice to save not the world, but one young life.
I don’t normally review movies, but this one deserves an
entry for two reasons: it captivated me, and it gives me a chance to talk about
superhero violence.
Superhero comics are an inescapable part of the body of
modern speculative fiction. They have one key difference from novels, including
most graphic novels: they are designed to continue forever. This requires them
to embrace a bizarre marriage of predictability and ever-increasing flashiness
in order to keep selling issues. (Or it did until comics became a way to market
movies.) It also requires that superheroes always defeat their villains in the
end. Typical comic book heroes refuse to kill their conquered villains both as
a statement of moral superiority, and as an opportunity to recycle those
villains in years to come.
Superhero movies are different. Because they are iterated
with far less frequency than comic books, they pack their punch by killing the villain. Even the more moral heroes who, like
Spider-Man in his first two film iterations, try to minimize casualties, are
nevertheless burdened by a villain who accidentally dies as a result of his own
hubris or sacrifices himself as an act of redemption. A notable exception to this rule is the X-Men’s Magneto, whose death would have
martyred him.
Into this same franchise steps Logan, whose abandonment of the
codename “Wolverine” has come with a humanizing of a character who, unusual
among comics when he was first introduced, was unafraid and sometimes even
eager to kill. He was animal-like by nature and enhanced to be a military
weapon, leaving little room for any human personality but a gruff, cool
exterior and the occasional current of passion for romance and saving innocent
lives (by killing antagonists). In the movies, of which he has appeared in
nine, his signatures are stabbing faceless foes with his unbreakable metal
claws, and receiving sickening wounds that heal before he has a chance to
bleed.
This changes in Logan,
which features blood aplenty. The former Wolverine is old and tired. He does
not eagerly leap into battle like superheroes are supposed to do. Of the three
main characters, he is the most battle-hardened, yet actually the least deadly;
Laura fights with sickening savagery, and Charles’ condition can cause him kill
anyone around him regardless of moral categories. The audience is invited
to question our own appetite for violence by sequencing the deadliness of these
protagonists. Our opening scene features a drunk Logan beaten half to death
before he sloppily dismembers his attackers. Charles’ first seizure is
emotionally depressing, full of grating lights and sounds. Finally, once Laura
bares her claws for the first time, we receive the heart-stopping, choreographed
action we’ve learned to expect from a Wolverine movie—only to realize the scene
we’ve been anticipating shows a child being gored with a harpoon, among other
atrocities.
Kurt Vonnegut has written that writers should put their
characters through hell in order to see what they’re made of. Logan does this to all its characters,
“good” and “bad” alike, and many new sides surface to characters who have
remained essentially the same for over a decade of films. It also does this to
its viewers, who watch superhero movies to experience the catharsis of watching
seemingly relatable characters perform incredible feats and beat the snot out
of people who deserve it. I acknowledge that this kind of release is a major
reason I enjoy comics. Logan does
nothing of the kind, but it does offer the catharsis of knowing that no matter
how bleak things get, redemption is always possible in the pursuit of simple
acts of kindness for the people you least expect.
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