So after watching the BP trailer, I'm pretty hyped for the bad guys. Andy and Michael look like they're going to be bringing something really cool, and when THOSE two are your big bads? Man, I hope this might even help fix Marvel's villain problem. Assuming Michael Keaton and Cate Blanchett don't already do that.
Marvel doesn't have a villain problem.
Anyhow...
Just saw Logan last night, thanks to the Redbox. I have been hugely disappointed in the X-Men related films since...pretty much forever. I have never even bothered to see them all, because the last few I saw were pretty unmemorable and didn't really do anything for me.
That said, Logan was pretty good. I wouldn't say it was "great," but it's hard to articulate why, since it had so many great elements. Probably the best thing about it was the character portrayal of Logan, Xavier, and Laura. Xavier, in particular, was brilliantly played. I liked Patrick Stewart as an actor before, but he really did an amazing job here. There's something about an actor playing an older version of a familiar character that so often doesn't come across as completely genuine in film. None of that applies here. Stewart just nailed it 100%. What a job!
I thought Jackman did a good job with Wolverine. I wouldn't say he was exceptional, but it seems that he has done a pretty consistently good job with the character, and he had a good script to work with here. He definitely pulled off the role.
Really impressed with the character of Laura and her arc. For the first half of the film, she was rightly creepy and impersonal. And the movie came SO close to making her completely unrelatable. But I think that really enabled the emotional payoff of her character arc in the film. So often, child actors aren't able to carry the emotion needed for a film like this. She did a brilliant job. The only issue I have is that it really is a dark, unsettling, disturbing film in many ways, which makes me question the ethics of using kids in the first place, and the toll that such a role may take on them. But that's a different topic, I suppose.
I also really like the gritty, almost Western-y at times, feel of the film overall. There were also so many settings that it was at times hard to keep one's bearings. But given that it was a "heroes on the run" type of film, that felt appropriate.
Anyhow, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Part of it was low expectations. But the other part is just how well done it was.
Good review here that pretty accurately sums up a lot of my thoughts:
https://www.avclub.com/review/wolverine-series-gets-superb-sendoff-brutal-r-rate-251147