That's right! And Rice is all "yes, I believe you did." and then he starts in with the monologuing.
I guess it just never occurred to me it was supposed to be a Stryker reference. But I was basically watching it like a pre-Craig Bond movie... continuity doesn't really count.
I think Logan might have even said something like "Your dad is the man who put this poison in me", referring to his claws, which makes it about as explicit as can be. Not really sure why that sort of callback is necessary at a time like that though.
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In general, I thought it was a very good film hampered by a few niggling problems that, some 15 hours after seeing it, I still can't quite put my finger on.
Most immediately, is this film
too bleak, as in, bleak for the sake of being bleak, to the point of near nihilism? This is an actual question that I don't have the answer to, but I'll be goddamned if this isn't the bleakest blockbuster I've perhaps ever seen. We're talking a film where fan favourite, wise, always reliable mentor-father-figure Charles Xavier is stricken with dementia to the point of being mostly a hindrance physically, has inadvertently killed hundreds of mutants (which is a direct counter to his entire life's work and drive), and is murdered unceremoniously in his near-sleep. Logan can't even muster the words to sum up this guy's grand, brave, heroic life. He's just... put in a ditch and left there.
Logan, too, is a man who's lived for what, 150 years or something? A guy who's been tossed around institution after institution as an experiment and tool his entire life, never learning to bond, never learning to love. And for a time, he manages to stumble into the arms of genuinely good people at Xavier's school, and he learns to value things like friendship. You could even see him settling down to have a family eventually. But by
Logan, he's back to square one, bitter, angry, lonely and being called upon one last time to do a job he wants no part in. At every turn, he rejects others' compassion, even when you can see it killing him inside. And then, he too, dies unceremoniously, albeit with a touch more compassion shown from X-23 (and the classy + to x rotation). But by showing us the apathetic faces of the other kids at the funeral, the film almost made special effort to show how little this guy will be remembered by the larger populace. He's left some positive imprints on a precious few people, most of whom I assume are dead by now.
So you end up with these two longstanding heroes who just fade into the darkness, heroes who have had such rough lives, such tough challenges, who succeeded for a while, helped so many people in the purest way, but ultimately failed in mostly everything they ever desired (Logan a chance at peace and love, Xavier to help and nurture those in need).
There's hope in the film, sure, but it's
such a sliver of hope. Both Logan and Xavier die with a fragment of peace in their hearts, but in both cases it seems fleeting. Xavier had a warm, soulful dinner with good people, but he's by no means at peace with any of the horrors he's committed. He goes to his grave unfulfilled and ashamed, despite all the incredible things he's achieved in the past. I like the idea that Logan has potentially created a path of peace and love for X-23 that he was never offered the luxury of, effectively saving her life where his was so mishandled. That's a nice sentiment, but he doesn't really seem like he ever really 'gets' compassion, even in death. I felt like Logan ultimately empathised that a little girl shouldn't be caught up in a harrowing situation like this and wanted to save her on those merits, rather than any sort of personal love or warmth for her. Him snatching his arm away when X-23 goes to hold it during Xavier's funeral scene was a good setup for what I assumed will be a later moment where
he chooses to hold her hand, indicating a growth of his compassion, but it never came. He just tears up, smiles and dies.
And so I'm just wondering, for what purpose? What are we communicating by being so brashly bleak? Maybe the ultimate point is "Even in the face of complete hopelessness and complete failure, complete breakdown of our spirit and complete apathy for those around us, there's always something or someone worth helping" which isn't so bad I guess, but goddamn is it a fucking downer to get here.
