The Director’s Cut: Logan- second time is always the charm

Spoiler free as usual. SPOILERS EVERYWHERE. Be warned.

Read the original, spoiler free review here.

Logan was simply nothing short of incredible when I seen it on release day, and when I found out I was seeing it again in Liverpool’s Picturehouse at FACT (to kick off my big tour of the North West’s cinemas, more details on why I’m doing it will come next month), I was very happy. So to kick off another new strand, let’s dig into some of the details that couldn’t be talked about due to the risk of spoilers. Do not hit that ‘keep reading’ button if you haven’t seen the film yet.

X-23 is a legit bad-ass

It’s not often that the sight of a girl walking with the head of a man she has just decapitated incites a gasp of awe from an audience- but the sight of Laura (X-23) doing her thing is one of the best bits of the film. It’s one of the main reasons why the film recieved an R rating (or a 15 in ‘Queen’s English’ BBFC certificates), and as I said in my initial review, I can easily see a solo X-23 film as the character feels so well developed as a result of some great writing here.

Farewell Professor X

Patrick Stewart has officially left the X-Men franchise. And none of us were expecting him to go out thanks to everyone’s favourite Wolverine clone X-24. Just the way that sequence was shot made everyone in that screen realise that some serious stuff was going down, and it’s here that the writing is top class. But what that now means is that James McAvoy has an even bigger act to follow when he reprises his role as the younger Xavier in the next main X-Men film.

The death of Logan

One of the most pivotal scenes is the death of Wolverine. I thought that Mangold handled it beautifully, bringing together 17 years of films to give a send-off worthy of a legendary character like that. The references to the Western are in full flow here, and with the use of the lines from the classic Shane ringing out over Laura’s farewell to her father figure, this was one of those rare moments where a piece of cinematic history was made, and many of my friends who have seen the film since it came out on March 1st here in the UK have left their screenings needing several boxes of Kleenex to stop them crying. It’s emotionally charged, quickly done, and paced so well that the film ends in just the right tone.