Logan

#StokerScore 9.5/10

I know I'll probably get some stick for deducting half a mark, but hear me out first, ok? What do these characters have in common; An Egyptian posing as a Spaniard*, A British secret agent**, an Irish policeman***, a Russian submarine commander****, and a Greek king*****? Yes, The same accent, courtesy of the one and only Sean Connery.

There comes a time in your career when just being cast is what's important, not the accent that you bring with you. Connery has long been cast for his acting and his name, not his ability to drop that shtrange accshent of his.

There are countless examples of bad accents, that I'm sure I must have mentioned on here before, but there are actors who only bring their name, not an ability for mimicry. Tom Cruise is another who springs to mind for never trying different accents (with the glorious exception of Tropic Thunder)

Logan is the movie that every Wolverine fan wanted to see. It has Jackman finally being allowed to sink his claws all the way into various body parts, all in the knowledge that this Wolverine, who should be virtually immortal if you have been following the other movies, is looking his age and isn't healing.

The sunset is beckoning and references to the deaths of colleagues and watching the final scenes of the old Alan Ladd movie Shane all seem to suggest that Hugh Jackman was being honest when he said it was time to hang up the claws after nearly 20 years. 

The movie brings on a great variety of bad guys and introduces us to the lttle-girl-lost we saw in the trailers. Patrick Stewart tries to steal every scene that he's in and almost succeeds but for Logan's presence. Everything moves along at a pace that doesn't feel rushed or leave the viewer bored. Instead, it adds to the mythos and legacy that someone else has to try to fill.

I loved this movie. Everything about it, well nearly everything. There's one character that appears in this movie who was also in X-Men Apocalypse. The problem isn't the actor he's played by in either film, it's the accent the Logan version has. It's the actor's real accent and it's a perfectly reasonable accent to have, but the continuity of having the character leaving the USA and immersing himself so deeply into the Bristol area of the UK that he now sounds like a native of that area who has then gone back to Mexico, I can only assume he had had enough of the Bristolian way of life. He's just not quite at the stage of his career where I'm prepared to forgive the part/accent combination.

It's a tiny, tiny thing but mattered enough for me to take the half point....