The cracked pavement, the broken bottle-strewn empty lots, the unfinished construction projects, the unwashed masses huddled together as the sun goes down in front of the Valero…welcome to Oklahoma City, circa, um, today.
Regardless of how many people champion the continued “renaissance” of the Downtown area as they gulp down their overpriced cups of coffee, let’s be honest: for the most part, Downtown OKC really does look like we tried to “future” it up a bit, but kinda gave up after we built the Chesapeake Arena and it’s Blade Runner-esque illuminative signage.
This past weekend, as I took in a screening of the latest X-Men film Logan, I was surprised that much of the film not only took place in a futuristic version of Oklahoma City, but one that was alarmingly better than the one we have now. It only took about 50 years of one cent tax raises and the retirement of Mick Cornett, but whatever version of MAPS that Oklahoma City is implementing in the year 2029, it’s working!
Loosely based on an extraordinarily dumb Marvel mini-series that featured inbred redneck Hulks and a character called Spider-Bitch, this filmic version of Logan is more streamed-down and uber-realistic, with an aged Wolverine and a dementia-riddled Professor X helping a young girl (with Wolvie DNA, you see) get to Canada. Meanwhile, on their tail are some mercenaries and you know the drill. Snikt snikt, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.