James Mangold’s Logan has gotten pretty much universal acclaim from critics and fans alike, many going so far as to call it the best superhero film ever made. Often cited is its stark and gritty realism, words that aren’t often paired with flicks based on comic books (outside of Nolan’s Batman trilogy and the DC films that have tried – and failed, IMO – to replicate it), and it has been compared to the best of neo-noir, a kind of No Country for Old Mutants wherein superpowers take a back seat to character, that facet of utmost importance when it comes to great storytelling.
Make no mistake, Logan is great because Logan is great, both the iconic character born in the pages of Marvel’s X-Men, and the manifestation of said character by Hugh Jackman – who’s played the cranky Canadian in eight previous films – under the steerage of writer-director Mangold, who saved the character from the dregs of X-Men Origins first in The Wolverine and now in Logan.
Jackman and Mangold’s elevation of Logan out of the realm of costumes and codenames and into a pantheon of all-time great film characters is the subject of the following video from Film in the Making. Taking a character who’s already iconic and not only continuing that legacy but expounding upon it, taking the character into the realm of the immortal, is no small feat or easy exercise. But Jackman and Mangold pulled it off with aplomb. Press play to learn, in part, how they did it.
Related Topics: Hugh Jackman, James Mangold, Logan
