Few trailers have moved me as much as the first official trailer to Logan. You may think that silly of me, but it's true. There is an art to cutting good trailers and James Mangold the director of Logan has got it down to a fine art. This trailer is masterful in its conjunction of music and visuals; the lyrics and dialogue of which complementing each other, adding layers of depth and emotion one upon the other blurring the lines between poetry and screenplay.
The visuals in the trailer convey a beautiful sense of desolation in their themes of loneliness, age, infirmity and loss. The acting is sublime with every inflection in voice, movement of body and facial expression carrying with it a kind of nobility, whether savage or refined. A sense of nobility that comes with bearing the mantle of two of the most beloved and iconic comic characters in the X-Men franchise for 16 years. It's as if the actors Hugh Jackman and Patrick Steward metaphorically are able to clothe themselves in the skins of these characters.
This trailer is a piece of art. A self contained piece of art. As in any work of art there is an inherent beauty to it, an aestheticism that is intuitively enriching and enlivening. I am not a film critic. I am a layman. But, I have a sense of beauty as we all do. This trailer appealed to that sense of beauty in me. I would go so far as to say this trailer is even an example of high art. You could contest that, and perhaps I am just ignorant of what real high art is. However, I think this trailer elevates the comic book genre. Relative to its genre, I believe this trailer has managed to transcend how we view "superhero" movies. As James Mangold explained regarding the tone of the trailer;
“Hugh and I have been talking about what we would do since we were working on the last one, and for both of us it was this requirement that, to be even interested in doing it, we had to free ourselves from some assumptions that had existed in the past, and be able to change the tone a bit. Not merely to change for change’s sake, but also to make something that’s speaking to the culture now, that’s not just the same style — how many times can they save the world in one way or another? How can we construct a story that’s built more on character and character issues, in a way as if it almost wasn’t a superhero movie, yet it features their powers and struggles and themes?” (Empire)
I think Mangold's philosophy is the correct one. In so doing, I believe this trailer has been able to invoke something deeper, something more profound than your average comic book fare. As Mangold said they had to free themselves of some of the assumptions of comic book movies, and if ever the idiom 'the gloves are off' bore figurative meaning it is surely with the character of Logan. Batman v Superman was a zeitgeist film in many respects and one which was not afraid to broach real world issues. Yet, as much as I love that movie, Logan captures something special in its focus on character. Even the name of the movie 'Logan' speaks volumes to the focus of the movie not being on the superhero Wolverine, but on the person of Logan himself, thus stripping the movie of much of its superhero trappings and distancing itself from the X-Men movies that came before it. The trailer and marketing campaign are far more nuanced and subtle than Batman v Superman. Even the first official poster was ladened with meaning.
So far the marketing campaign for Logan has been flawless. The young girl's hand holding Logan's symbolises vulnerability, dependence and guidance; not to mention affection and tenderness. The simple act of holding someone's hand is one of the most profound expressions of love and affection. Then there is Logan's hand that is simultaneously nurturing and protecting. His claws are protruding symbolising protection and yet his hand is not clenched into a fist thus showing care and affection. Logan has fresh wounds on his wrist, knuckles and thumb indicating that he has recently had to protect her and also that he is doing so without the full strength of his regenerative healing abilities, making his actions even more an act of love and self-sacrifice.
As I said, the photography of this movie both motion and still is absolutely beautiful. There is a true sense of majesty about them. While this movie will no doubt contain scenes of violence, even graphic violence as the red band trailer suggests, nevertheless there is still a sense of the majestic about this trailer. I believe the sense of aestheticism connected to this movie (and all other forms of art as well) comes from the image of God in us. God is beautiful. God's creation is beautiful.
Psalm 27:4 says;
One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple.
Psalm 96:5-6 say,
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Our hearts have a natural inclination toward beauty. And even though the beauty of this trailer is but a dim reflection, a faint shadow and a hollow echo of God's divine beauty, it nonetheless contains something of the divine beauty by virtue of it being made by divine image bearing people. Yes this movie will contain sin and the distorted morality of a fallen people, but it also contains truth and beauty in its own limited way. Logan is a character most known for his unique adamantium clawed hands; hands which in this movie are scarred and wounded. There was another man whose hands were scarred and wounded for the sake of others, whose hands were pierced on our behalf. And while his death was torturous, the redemption that it accomplished was truly beautiful.
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