An excerpt from my script review for Logan which will be available 12/18/17:
4.) Dialogue and Description
Both portions were really well done.
This film set a really high bar with the following trailer, one I wasn’t sure it was going to come close to.
One of the things that made me nervous was the R rating, where I wondered if expletives and over the top violence would be shoe horned into the story just to make maximum effect of the rating and because we’ve never seen it before in the franchise.
I was pleasantly surprised because we are given a “just right” scenario that doesn’t overwhelm the good story.
(Especially after seeing the first half of the film on HBO, where the action was definitely more graphic than the previous films, but not anything that would register as “gorey” with typical audiences of this rating.)
Fans will still be happy that they got a “graphic novel” portrayal of Wolverine, but general audiences won’t have to cringe every time there’s a fight sequence.
Page 3:
Now might be a good time to talk about “fights” described in
the next 100 or so pages. Basically, if you’re on the make
for a hyper choreographed, gravity defying, city-block
destroying, CG fuckathon, this ain’t your movie.
In this flick, people will get hurt or killed when shit falls
on them. They will get just as hurt or just as killed if they
get hit with something big and heavy like, say, a car. Should
anyone in our story have the misfortune to fall off a roof or
out a window, they won’t bounce. They will die.
As for our hero with his so-called eternal life and healing.
Well, he’s older now. If you keep reading, you’ll discover
Logan’s about to get his ass kicked. But before we get to
that, we should make it clear his abilities ain’t what they
were. Yes, he’s a drunk, but he’s also fading on the inside.
Adamantium implants leeching into his system, causing chronic
pain and diminished healing, hence booze as painkiller.
So by all means, go ahead and worry about him.
Now where were we? Oh, yeah–
Raw, gritty, and as realistic as a superhero movie can be, and more real than we’ve ever experienced The Wolverine.
Page 8:
PIERCE
Y’know, you got some buckshot in
your door.
(plays with the liquor
bottles in back)
I heard you were in Phoenix.
Food’s better there by the way. But
then, last night, some friends in
Texas H-P called, told me they
found three dead cholos in a
pullout out on 54. Not unusual,
except one was missing a hand.
Another a leg. Multiple parallel
lacerations. Slashes, femoral,
thoracic. So, they’re thinking it
was either an escaped Tiger or
Freddy Krueger… but neither of
those can drive, one being
fictional the other extinct.
I really enjoyed how Pierce toyed with Logan. This intro suggests he’s going to be a fun bad guy to watch hunt down Logan…
Page 13:
Charles stares at the pills.
LOGAN (CONT’D)
How ‘bout you blow on them to make
them safe.
Charles looks up at Logan.
CHARLES
Fuck off, Logan.
LOGAN
So you know who I am now.
CHARLES
I always know who you are.
Sometimes I just don’t recognize you.
LOGAN
Take the pills.
We’re going to witness a “gauntlets off” view into The Wolverine and Professor’s relationship. One that was both entertaining and intimate.
Page 37:
This little girl has been created, designed and trained for
one thing and one thing only: killing. And she’s a virtuoso.
I love shit like this. Entertaining your reader by sprinkling unique description into your blackspace is never a bad idea.
Page 38:
— and we prepare for a
classic action movie fence smash.
LOGAN
Hold on!
BUT THE LIMO HITS THE FENCE, BENDS THE SUPPORTS AND GRINDS TO
A PATHETIC HALT, TANGLED IN MESH. As it would in real life.
Remember the note from the opening pages. This shit’s going to be brutal and real world.
Logan’s not just going to shrug carnage off this time around.
And lastly, foreshadowing the ending…page 62:
LOGAN
Easier? There’s nothing easy about
you.
CHARLES
Yes, Yes please, be like the rest
of the world and blame someone else
for your boring shit.
LOGAN
Yeah, I know, Pop, I’m such a giant
disappointment–
CHARLES
Self loathing. Anger. Disdain.
Cowardice. Oh yes. Your peaks and
your valleys. Mostly valleys– it’s
all so Goddamn boring.
Laura looks from one to the other, nervous for the first time
since she climbed into the car with these two. She starts
flicking the locks again.
CHARLES (CONT’D)
You honestly derive no sense of
purpose from what we’re doing?
LOGAN
What are we doing?!
CHARLES
There is a young mutant. Sitting in
our car. And where we are taking her, there
are more of them. Does that mean
nothing to you?
Serious? Can you use that as an adjective for a Marvel movie?
Very satisfying ending for both Mr. Jackman and his dedicated audience.
(*Sidenote* How awesome is it that “most of” Marvel is all in one universe again? Hugh Jackman signed up for an Avengers movie? What speculation!)
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