I will preface this review by saying that I am not a big fan of the wolverine character. I thought both previous attempts at making a solo film were terrible. This is not the fault of Hugh Jackman, the script, plots and pretty much everything about those films were subpar.
If I were use one word to describe this film it would be REDEMPTION. This is probably the one movie, outside of Watchman, that story, and acting are on par with any solid film, not just super hero. I have no problem recommending it to see in a theater. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of action, but there is just more substance in this film, than pretty much any super hero film to date.
This is not your typical super hero film. Gone are a majority of the "over the top" CGI special effects. Instead is a serious drama about Logan's struggle in dealing with his past, all the violence and pain he has caused, and feeling of self worth. How much killing is too much, we watch Logan deal with the pain every time he has to be violent, he has reached his limit. At that point he has to push himself one more time to kill to make this right and help him find peace. Hugh Jackman surprised me, his portrayal in this film is on another level, especially in the way he displays how much pain, both emotional and physical he has to deal with and the internal turmoil forcing him to do it again.
An added surprise is that the female lead, Dafne Keen does quite well with limited dialogue and has to rely on facial expressions and her eyes to showcase her emotional states for her character X23, and in that, she does an incredible job. My initial thoughts is that it would be cheesy to see such a little girl do such intense fight scenes on film (granted I am sure they used stuntmen) but it came across as some of the best fight scenes of the movie.
(Professor X) This was hard for me to watch, I mean that in a good way. He was the leader of the X-men and Patrick Stewart has been in some of my favorite films and TV. To see his character so frail and having to deal with real issues of someone his age (Dementia. etc) causing him to be unable to control his abilities due to it, was also very compelling.
I had low expectations on this film and had to be talked into seeing it. I came away surprised on how complex and meaty the content of the script was. I almost don't want to call it a super hero film as the connotation associated with that title does not do it justice. It is a drama, first and foremost set in the backdrop of a x-men movie.
On a less serious note, YOU MUST NOT BE LATE to watch this movie. Unlike pretty much all super hero movies of the past, where you have to watch the ending credits to see next movice scene spoiler, Fox has opted to move that to the beginning of the movie instead. There is an opening credit, as opposed to the ending credit for DEADPOOL. It is good
Fantastic Movie
