SPOILERS
If you have not seen Logan and do not wish to have most of the film spoiled for you then please do not read the rest of this article. Unless, of course, you don’t care… then feel free to proceed.
The Plot
If you are reading this, then clearly, you have either seen Logan or you don’t care if the film is spoiled for you. This is your last — I repeat, last — time to leave the article.
The plot of Logan is very basic. Five years after the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past Logan is finally getting old. With his advanced age, his healing factor is starting to diminish. Mutants are supposedly on the brink of extinction, with no mutant births since 2004. An elderly Charles Xavier is suffering from a degenerative brain disease that causes him to momentarily lose control of his powers. This caused him to kill most of the X-Men and injure several citizens of Westchester, New York, a few years back. He and Logan have been on the run ever since, with Logan keeping Charles hidden in the Mexican desert while he works to save up enough money to buy a boat for them to go out to sea. In the midst of this, Logan meets a woman who offers him more than enough money if he will escort her and her daughter to Canada. He reluctantly agrees, and from there we get into the bulk of the film.
First off, this plot makes no sense, and I have several reasons as to why. One: why would Logan and Charles be on the run and saving money? Charles was very wealthy, and if he had some degenerative brain disease, then he has more than enough money to get the intensive care needed to aid him. Two: Logan has a healing factor. Even with it being on the fritz, he could have easily robbed a bank to get the funds he needed. Moreover, if he was confronted by any cops, it is unlikely that they could have stopped him. Three: they live in a world where we have serums and special containment units that inhibit a mutant’s powers! This should have been the first resource Logan looked into for helping the professor.
Lack Of Other Mutants
Where are the rest of the mutants? This is a question I kept asking myself during the entire film. I understand that the film reveals that Transigen developed a formula to suppress the mutant x-genome 25 years ago, but where are all the other mutants? If a mutant hasn’t been born in 25 years, then where are all the mutants that were born 26 years ago and before? The earth should still be full of mutants, powerful mutants, who should be all over the news. This is a timeline where, due to the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past, mutants are a normal aspect of life. We saw Mystique save President Nixon from assassination in the ’60s. We saw in X-Men: Apocalypse that they are learning about mutants in schools. Even in Deadpool, we saw that they have a formula to activate the mutant x-genome in normal humans. Transigen should have been able to develop a mutant army without going through the trouble of raising them from birth or cloning them from DNA samples.
The Big Bad
This was the most disappointing part of the film. The Big Bad was a clone of Wolverine. I understand the message of Logan having to battle his inner demons therefore battling himself, but why a clone? Why would a company clone Logan? He is a Beta level mutant. If you want an unstoppable mutant killing machine, then clone Professor X, or Magneto, or Jean Grey, etc. The list could go on. There are so many other, better choices that they could have made. Technically, they did a better job with the Big Bad in X-Men Origins: Wolverine! That version of Deadpool had multiple powers. Why didn’t Transigen create an X-24 with multiple powers? It’s 2029, and they clearly have the technology.
The Ending
So, Logan dies in the end. That’s understandable since Hugh Jackman wanted a definitive ending for his character. But did he really get one? Logan was killed by X-24 and X-24 was killed by X-23. Logan had a diminished healing factor so enough damage to his body could easily kill him if he didn’t get help. X-24, however, was shot in the head with an adamantium bullet. His healing factor was working perfectly. His bullet wound, while quite large, would eventually heal and he would awaken with no memories of what happened. Maybe this was intentional, for it would allow Hugh Jackman to return in another Wolverine film if Fox ever decided to make one. In addition, burying Logan before they crossed the border seemed wrong. He should have at least made it to Canada, his homeland, to be buried. Speaking of Canada, we never actually get to see who was waiting for the children over the border. It would have been great if it was an older Rogue, bringing everything full circle for Logan. Alas, that is not what we got.
Lack Of Connection To Other X-Men Films
As I have made evident in my entire article, Logan was pretty much excluded from the rest of the X-Men film series in both time period and story. Charles killing several of the X-Men makes sense with his powers, but there’s no way he killed all of them. Of all the X-Men, Jean Grey should definitely be alive. She had a mind more powerful than Charles, so his seizures should not have affected her like the others. Sure, we got to see Caliban, who also appeared in X-Men: Apocalypse, but no one else. No Rogue. No Magneto. No Deadpool. I read that Sabretooth was in an early draft of the script, but didn’t make the final cut. It does not make sense to me why they would cut him. We know from previous films that he and Logan are half-brothers. That part of the timeline has not changed. He would have been a perfect tertiary character for the film. Heck, making X-24 a Sabretooth clone would have even been acceptable. To quote John Campea, “Fox cleary has a sign in their offices that says CONTINUITY SCHMONTINUITY”. Hopefully, Hugh Jackman decides he wants to come back so that we can get a proper final Wolverine film.