Logan Trailer Breakdown: Hugh Jackman’s final outing as Wolverine

THE first teaser trailer for Logan, the next instalment in the X-Men franchise dropped on Friday evening and tears were shed all around the globe, in what is set to be Hugh Jackman’s last appearance as the badass mutant Wolverine.

However many fans are debating whether it will disappoint cinema goers as, let’s face it, 20^th Century Fox’s X-Men universe doesn’t have the best track record. Yes, Deadpool was hilariously original and stuck directly to its comic book roots but Bryan Singer’s X-Men Apocalypse was less for fanboys to shout about as it was a frankly bland attempt and provided us with nothing we hadn’t seen before.

So can Logan provide us with the action-filled, yet emotional send off to our favourite mutant? Let’s break it down.

From the outset of the trailer we can see this is a completely different tone to what we have seen in any X-Men films as Hurt by Johnny Cash’s is filtered over the top and we are shown a dystopian desert setting. Already we can see inspiration being taken from the Old Man Logan comic book, obviously we won’t see a straight up adaptation but if they can capture the grittiness of the comic we are on to a winner.

We are then treated to what was a surprise to myself and many others as we hear the voice of Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Logan claiming that the world has been rid of mutants which opens many questions as where have they gone and are they the only two left?

We then get our first look at Jackman as Wolverine, now sporting a beard, he looks very weathered, much like his comic book counterpart. This a complete contrast to what we’ve seen in his previous six movie outings, the normally handsomely grizzled Jackman looks completely broken down and can be shown with scars on his body. This suggests that they have borrowed from the 2015 comic series Death of Wolverine, where Logan is left without his healing factor and some obvious borrowing is seen with the bearded Jackman donning a tuxedo.

Same can be said for Xavier who can be seen shaking in a hospital bed in what looks like the remains of cerebro. Stewart synonymous with Professor X and to see him for the first time on screen without his X-Men opens a unique take on the character.

This teaser also introduces us to some never seen before characters in the X-Men universe, we see a young girl who Charles states is very much like Wolverine. This suggests the big screen debut of fan-favourite mutant X-23 played by youngster and relative newcomer Dafne Keen. For those who don’t know X-23 is the female counterpart of Wolverine, she basically possess the same healing powers as Logan however instead of three adamantium claws she has two. In a later scene in there is a hint of the pairs impending clash with Jackman seen defending himself against a two blade attack.

Throughout the rest of the teaser we get a lot of action sequences which show a car chase with Xavier and Logan being thrown around in the back of a jeep as well as hint of the cyborg villain of the piece played by Boyd Holbrook (there is little known about his character at this time). As well as this we can see Logan trying frantically to get to X-23 who appears to be being restrained by a group of villains.

The end scene of the trailer shows Logan standing alongside X-23 looking down at what appears to be a grave. Now considering Xavier is seen throughout the trailer, we can guess that this is the burial of Stewart’s iconic character. If this is the case I feel it has been sloppy on the studio’s part to reveal such a spoiler in the opening teaser however if this truly is the Jackman’s last hurrah, it would seen Xavier will not be the only death in this film.

Overall I am quietly confident that Logan will both deliver energetic action and the heart-wrenching emotions. From the trailer alone I pick up on themes used in dystopian thrillers like the Road and Children of Men which are so intriguing when you throw them into the superhero genre. I believe it would be a real game changer in the superhero genre if they are able to pull this off. With fewer characters in comparison to other X-Men films, Logan could deliver a real character driven piece focusing on a broken and weathered superhero, something that Zack Synder tried with Batman in this year’s flop Batman v Superman.

Although trailers can be deceiving (yet again I turn to Batman v Superman). Director James Mangold is trying something different and is an obvious fan of the character shown by his first attempt in 2013 with The Wolverine. But Logan’s setting and tone seems so indicative of Mangolds previous work with Walk the Line and the remake of 3:10 to Yuma which are both impressive films. This venture seems to have distance itself from the louder and boisterous set pieces in the franchise, for hopefully what becomes a very personal story.

So finally we will get to see Wolverines rage shown in its full bloody glory like it is in the comics! Here’s hoping that when audience leave the theatres on 3^rd March 2017 we have tears of despair for the final goodbye to a modern cinema icon and not tears of anger like we did for X-Men: The Last Stand. Please 20^th Century Fox don’t mess this up!