#the rest of the cast including the Count give him shit for the pirate outfit for the whole episode

[kjwongsbrain]

What's a pirate's favourite alphabet?

The era of comic book movies is now. We're getting like six of them every year thanks to the combined efforts of Marvel Studios, Warner Brothers and DC playing catchup, and also 20th Century Fox's obligations to keep making ones they want to keep the license over. It's not as if comic books never got made into movies before - in fact you can trace back the movies all the way back to the 50s - but they're thriving harder than ever now and are among some of the most profitable films ever to be made.

It used to be an idea that major actors would often refuse to star as recurring superheros in fear of being typecast into that one role, or have their entire career be recognized for donning on a funny outfit and doing silly moves on camera instead of what some would consider 'true acting'. Some actors often tried breaking out of the mold of Superhero by doing things completely different from that previous role, either by taking on a serious dramatic role, or going to stage shows in order to establish their abilities as an actor instead of a character.

But I'm starting to wonder if that's the case anymore. Seeing the excitement of people like Chadwick Boseman and Tom Holland on being inducted into the ever growing cast of actors that make up the MCU, and then looking at the sheer popularity and success of the movies as well as the genuine appreciation the fans show leads me to believe that maybe the ultimate role for an actor these days is in fact a superhero. The mark of a great career should be one that has a superhero in it. At least once. Only now that Marvel is issuing 6 film contracts, it won't just be once most of the time.

Back before actors signed multi-movie deals with studios like Marvel, I used to worry when an A-list actor was cast as a recurring character in a Marvel movie because it would mean it would be near impossible to get them to come back for another one. Take for instance the current Limbo that Red Skull is in because Hugo Weaving isn't doing it again. Chris Evans has long expressed a desire to finish playing Captain America and move on to new things. Hemsworth on the other hand seems to be enjoying the role just fine.

All that leads us comfortable to Hugh Jackman who now holds the record for playing the same superhero character the most times at 8 (counting the little cameo in First Class). Not only is Jackman one of the most respected castings in superhero history, it's also the role that's really cemented his career in history forever. And if you watch some early interviews with Jackman, he took the gig not knowing how big the role was really going to be.

And so it is with a huge thank you - the kind audiences do for retiring pro wrestlers - that we now come to talk about Logan.

But before we get into it, I must go back to the thought I began with. The era of comic book movies that we are in now can really be traced back all the way to two films that helped really establish what the genre was capable of and what it was going to look like for years to come.

Everyone of course remembers how big and pivotal the Tim Burton Batman film was but there's another one that was equally responsible for studios finally willing to shift a proper amount of resources into making these films - Blade.

Yes, Blade was one of the first few comic book movies that was a proper commercial success. And also the thing Wesley Snipes was famous for before the tax dodging. Blade was a demonstration that comic book movies could be taken seriously and not be too campy and targeted at children, but also staying true to the source material. A lot of people forget just how pivotal Blade is in regards to the shape and feel of comic book movies today.

That being said, in this almost 30 year period now since Batman and Blade, comic book movies have done a lot of evolving. With Blade and Batman being the first commercial successes, studios started thinking about the ingredients in those films that led to their success. This is the primary factor that influenced the design of the first really big superhero film, the first X-men. I love the first X-men. I have a very special place in my heart for it because of how many things it did right, and how much it helped usher in the world of the MCU we have today. But I've always felt that the early X-men movies missed a beat by taking what Blade and Batman did and applying it too directly into what was originally a bright and colorful world.

This would later be fixed when Marvel took its chances by delivering Iron Man and audaciously painting him bright gold and red instead of turning him black like the new Robocop. Marvel took steps into bringing the look of the original comics back into their world and the move was celebrated by fans. Fans, like me, were incredibly excited by the vibrant image the new era of the MCU presented, especially in comparison with the much darker, bleaker, and paler DC universe.

This went on to make Disney and Marvel billions of dollars in ticket sales, and also in the ridiculous merchandising arm of the franchise. But with that merchandising arm being such a big factor, there also was the long debate about content rating in the movies. While children were buying the toys in heaps and droves, it was really the adult comic fans that were propelling the series forward. Their loyalty to the franchise was something that was consistently bankable and Marvel knew this.

The problem now was that Marvel had to toe the line between creating films that were family friendly, but never straying too far into the kid friendly content of the early years (pre 1989) that the adult fans would lose interest. And they have done so brilliantly, but that involved navigating around and away from some of the grittier material that comics have long included in their storylines.

Then came Deadpool. Which isn't the first R-rated comic book movie by any chance. Heck, the genre defining Blade was R-rated. But there wasn't an audience as big as the one today to celebrate the fact that R-rated comic book movies could be great. And so the evolution of comic book movies has now come full circle. With dozens of movies already hitting the merchandisable market, fans have been clamouring for movies to adopt some of the more adult themes and presentations that they've enjoyed for years in the comics.

And so Deadpool delivered. It was the right time and piece of material for it to be a smash hit success. With studio executives still nervous, Deadpool's success meant that directors and actors who dreamed of making some of the more adult-themed material had the guts to push for it. And so we have Logan. And Logan's a big big hit looking at the opening weekend. And I think that rather than helping make the film better, the R-rating really made things worse for Logan.

Hear me out.

The first fifteen minutes or so were probably in the film solely to piss off some producers who went into the meeting thinking that they could still rein in Jackman and Mangold who were hell bent on making an R-rated film. What with the outrageous amount of violence in the opening scene, and then the outrageous amount of swearing between two characters that have never done so in the history of their appearances on screen. I don't find it difficult to watch Logan run his mouth, but when Charles and Logan are having a spat at each other, swearing like sailors, that ruined the moment for me.

It's not that I don't believe either of them were capable of it either, but it's simply that without any progression from one incarnation to another, it almost felt shoehorned in there solely to validate the R-rating. And then after those ridiculously out of character fifteen minutes have gone by, the film actually starts out properly.

That bummed me out harder than anything. And as the movie went on, the only question I had to keep asking myself was whether the R-rating was necessary. And I think it really wasn't. Wolverine has taken down his enemies 6 times prior to this film and nobody complained. Nobody complained that you couldn't see his claws rip people's heads off and spear through different body parts. Wolverine has existed without the necessity for on-screen violence in this capacity without complaint. And so, by that logic, none of the extra violence really added anything to the film. The strengths of the movie rested in the three main characters of Charles, Logan and Laura. And that story is actually a beautiful story. There were heavy emotions played out as Charles dies full of regret, and as Logan comes to terms with his humanity and death. And all of those could've been done without a single ounce of gut splatter on screen.

Now why is this such a big deal? Why am I complaining about how unnecessary the R-rating actually is? Isn't it a great way to show just how far comic book movies have come after all these years and isn't great that we can have these films like Logan and Deadpool made?

Yes. Deadpool was perfect. Deadpool is a ridiculous character that genuinely needed to be expressed in a ridiculous way in order for it to work.

Logan? Nope. Just think about it for a second. If the scenes that made Logan an R-rated movie were simply ingratiating violence and language, what did it do to make the movie better? The best parts of the movie were the ones that had nothing to do with any of that. Sure the scene of Logan swearing and bashing the shit out of his car helped convey some raw emotion concerning the death of Charles, but hundreds of movies have done the same without uttering a single word even.

And this is a problem because people are celebrating Logan for the wrong reasons. Pretty soon we'll want an R-rated Batman. And then an R-rated Avengers simply because we think that the R-rating is a gateway into better stories and still maintaining financial credibility.

And then what will we give our children?

I made this similar argument when people were celebrating Adi Shankar's ridiculous Power Rangers short. The adult thinking that everything is immediately improved by making it darker, grittier, more violent, and more sexual. It's the natural growing up of the things we've enjoyed as children. And the same people would lament that kids these days don't have the same kind of complex characters that we did.

Well, how the heck do you share Wolverine with your children if his greatest achievement is buried in Logan? Imagine your kid watching the new X-men cartoons and coming to love Wolverine as a character the same way you did, and then finding out that a brand new Wolverine movie came out and hearing how great it was, only to be told that he or she can't see it.

Look, I get that there's a natural divide that will always happen when stories like these appeal to the widest of audiences of all cultures and ages. But I do personally think that going R is never the right thing to do for a character that is as important and incredible as Wolverine. There are always more ways to approach adult themes and messages in a movie that do not have to resort to R-ratings. Take 'A Monster Calls' as an example. That movie deals with some of the most difficult themes even I as an adult have seen on screen, and it does all this with the appeal of a fictional monster and a PG-13 rating.

And without the R-rating hook to rely on, Logan becomes decidedly average. I'd say it was almost identical to 2013's The Wolverine in terms of story, pacing, and design. It would seem that Mangold really didn't do much to improve The Wolverine other than tack on a whole bunch of on screen slashing and swearing. It wasn't boring enough to send me to my phone, but it wasn't exciting enough to really keep me interested. There were some mysteries here and there like the events a year ago at Westchester, and also the real cause of Logan's illness, but none of them really had any bearing on the story at all.

And so Logan lands in the pit of 'meh' for me. Not really anything to shout about. It will be sad saying goodbye to perhaps two of the most perfect pieces of casting ever in the world of Marvel. It is also a bit of a mystery as to what the future of the X-men franchise will look once the final movie between the two major X-men casts is fleshed out. Will we see the new mutants? Will the entire X-men universe reboot itself? It's hard to know.

A fun fact to end this piece is something I just learned recently. Some of my friends were lamenting that Hugh Jackman never once donned the famed Wolverine black and yellow suit and mask. But, it was teased in an alternate ending in The Wolverine. It actually makes an appearance instead of just a snarky joke mention and it looks beautiful. Go check it out.

In the meantime, here's to waiting for 2017's MCU showings to finally hit the screen.