Logan

One more comic book movie to round things off – and it’s a pretty different kind of feature. Logan may be remembered as the most artistic and sophisticated of Marvel’s adaptations, if not the most enjoyable. This isn’t just gritty, it’s going for arty – and tragic.

I didn’t think this would be the tone of the movie, but I’m rather glad it was. I respect trying something different, and the thing about comic book movies with multiverses is that you can try this sort of thing without it being a definitive ending for these characters – just one possibility of many. From the snippets I saw, I thought it would be another action-backed movie with the adventures of Wolvie and X-23. It certainly wasn’t that.

Things are grim as we open. Logan’s healing factor is failing him – clearly not omega-level in this universe – and he’s scraping together a living working as a limo driver. Professor X is 90 and degenerating fast. Motor Neurone and Alzheimer’s have him not only seizing but causing hugely painful surges of psychic energy for all those around him. No other X-Men are about, though a version of Caliban very different from the one we saw in the Apocalypse movie – or the one from the comics - is also helping out.  They plan to get a boat and go out onto the ocean where Charles can’t harm anyone.

Into this tragic setting comes more tragedy. Laura, designated X-23, was made with Logan’s DNA, so he’s sought out by the nurse who helped her escape. Thus begins a road trip movie with a lot of remarkably brutal violence – far more realistic than in most other such adaptations, presumably because Deadpool cleared the way for the R-rated Marvel movies – some heavy-handed moments to show Logan what he should really have is the warmth of a family, and ultimately a big cartoonish showdown that’s much more like the previous Wolverine movies.

But as the title suggests, this is a much more humanised version, and seeing Logan suffer and fail to fight off X-24, the mindless clone of his younger self, helps make him more relatable. Laura is likeable too, and the frail, somewhat embittered but warm and paternal Professor Xavier is brilliantly realised by Patrick Stewart.

This gritty tone is backed up by a departure from the usual fun things found in Marvel movies. No post-credits scenes, no Stan Lee cameos, no hints at how things can tie in to sequels or other franchises in the Fox-Marvel universe. Just pain and regret and dirt and very, very bad people – especially the Reavers, led by Richard E. Grant doing the detestable character he seems to be typecast as just now.

Well worth seeing, and certainly moving, I’m not sure it’s one you’d want to see again and again. 

Doctor Strange

After watching Guardians of the Galaxy 2, I thought I’d better catch up with some other comics movies that I’ve missed, and since he’ll be in a few upcoming movies I decided I should get to Doctor Strange.

The movie isn’t the very best Marvel has to offer and I doubt it will get the comic many new fans, but it was a very solid entry for the MCU, boasted superb visual effects and had a little more emotional depth than most of the other origin stories.

The first act, as many have remarked, is basically Cumberbatch doing Doctor House. A brilliant but prickly doctor saves lives and infuriates colleagues with his arrogance. A life-changing accident leaves him searching for healing, and he eventually finds The Ancient One. There’s been criticism of the whitewashing of this role by casting Tilda Swinton as what was originally an old Tibetan man, but I can also see the director’s point that there was no way of escaping the far-left’s criticism here – cast an old Tibetan man and you get criticised for propagating a wise-old-venerable-master stereotype. Cast a young Tibetan and you get accused of simply using another culture like a tool. A woman? Fetishing. I guess he could have gone with a black star and probably gotten less flack, but that, too, is patronising and using a culture as a tool.

In the end, Tilda Swinton brought her usual ethereal spacyness to the character and I thought it worked rather well. Certainly she put in an engaging performance and showed all the different, conflicted sides of her rather simple character. Plus she facilitated the development of Chiwetel Ejiofor’s rather more interesting Baron Mordo character, who I look forward to seeing return in future.

Perhaps the main problem here is that Cumberbatch lacks a certain something. He’s not very likeable, by intention at first but really throughout the whole movie. Somehow he lacks the gravitas he’s had in other movies or his breakout TV show, and too often his character seems to be just Tony Stark lite – which is all wrong for Doctor Strange.

Still, him aside, there’s an excellent supporting cast, a bad guy made far more interesting than his comic counterpart (who I’d never heard of), a fairly clever conceit to defeat an extremely powerful being, incredible special effects that look like something Cyriak might make with a ridiculous budget – something people apparently keep asking him about.

I am interested to see how he and his infinity stone will tie into the larger universe, and I get the feeling I’ll enjoy the character more as a minor voice in an ensemble film than I did with him at the very centre, but this was by no means a bad movie. But certainly it wasn’t as fun as Guardians 2. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

*Spoilers ahead*

Even if I don’t particularly love the comics, I have to say Guardians of the Galaxy so far has been the gem of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Guardians may be peripheral compared to the big-hitters like Iron Man and Cap, but their movies don’t disappoint and are actually more fun to watch.

Guardians 2 matched up to the legacy of the first movie – and now that we have a gang fully assembled, it’s time to develop them, and this movie focuses on family. Do blood ties make a family? Could gruff father figures actually have acted with kindness all along? Should a gang of misfits start to consider one another a family?

The film does a lot, but ties the threads in well. There are three major storylines – the pursuit of the Guardians by the slighted Sovereign, Quill discovering his origins and Rocket’s escape from the rogue Ravagers who have mutinied against Yondu. All of them provide exciting scenes and all of them in some way build up the film’s conception of family bonds.  

The climax is a pretty standard battle of good vs evil and Ego’s plan for the universe seems a bit daft, as it seemed a bit strange he had to cover the worlds he’d visited in killer goop, but everything is wrapped up in satisfying style, with a touching self-sacrifice and final fireworks display that are classic tearjerker elements.

But what has become the signature of Guardians films is bathos, and here there are two superb examples centred on the idea of not focusing on what would seem to be the most important element. One is during the final battle, Quinn goes on a search for some tape. The other is the opening sequence, when the endlessly adorable mini-Groot dances his way past an epic battle, which is not only fun and entertaining but also a tour de force of CG. ELO provide the upbeat soundtrack to this scene in one of several masterful soundtrack choices, with other fantastic moments coming courtesy of Cat Stevens, George Harrison and especially Fleetwood Mac. Suddenly, songs friends might consider ‘dad rock’ are in vogue again!

Visually, there are few movies as impressive as this one. The makeup is amazing again, not only on returning characters like Nebula and Gamora, but on new characters like Mantis and Ayesha and briefly-glimpsed Ravagers like Charlie-27 and Aleta. The worlds visited are superb, and there are a number of amusing cameos, my favourite of which being the Watchers alongside a familiar face. References abound to the first movie, from a cybernetic eye to a certain duck, and the name ‘Adam’ is uttered for a possible future antagonist – scrapping the concept of an Easter egg I didn’t get in the first movie, the cocoon of Adam Warlock.

 This was a great sci-fi movie in its own regard, as well as a highly satisfying sequel and, most excitingly, piece of the large MCU puzzle. I can’t wait to see the clash of worlds in the next Avengers movie. I’m certain that it will be much enhanced by the presence of the Guardians.