Finally, Wolverine reaches his massive, dark and brutal potential

FILM REVIEW: Logan
Director: James Mangold
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Stephen Merchant, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Dafne Keen
Rating: ✭✭✭✭½

By JAMES MANTON

Warning: Contains spoilers

Major movie franchises have a tendency to drag on these days, eking out every last drop of their creative juices before spluttering over the finish line, with the inevitable recasting or reboot not far into the future.

With this in mind, Logan offers an exquisite meta-ending for Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Professor X (Patrick Stewart).

Loosely based on the Marvel comic series Old Man, Logan tells the story of the now aged and decaying Logan living out his days caring for a mentally unwell and near-death Professor X in a rundown mill in Mexico.

No new mutants have been born in the past 25 years and those who did exist have either been killed off or are in hiding.

While working his job as a chauffeur in Texas and scrounging prescription drugs to keep Professor X's seizures under control, Logan is approached by a Mexican nurse who tries to convince him to take her daughter, Laura (Dafne Keen), to a mutant haven in North Dakota.

Logan is initially uninterested, only wanting to take care of his former mentor and wait out the rest of their days, but before long a private security force known as the Reavers come after the girl and the former X-Men are reluctantly dragged into a conflict spanning the United States.

While the film has many of the elements present in most modern superhero movies, Logan is unlike any comic book movie seen before.

There are many characters with incredible strength and powers, but the storyline is not about what fantabulous feats they can achieve or whom they can maim. Rather, it focuses on the drama between the characters as they navigate the United States.

Logan is no longer the Wolverine we have seen over the past 17 years of X-Men movies – he is a husk of the man he used to be, essentially giving up on the world and waiting for the adamantium inside his body to kill him. His only real objective is to try and keep Professor X alive, yet sedated, for as long as possible.

He is still able to conjure up enough will to decapitate the odd henchman here and there, but the toll of his previous exploits and his crumbling body are all too apparent as he lurches from one fight to the next.

When the nurse's daughter, Laura/X-23 (who is actually the lab-created, biological daughter of Logan) falls into Logan's care, he is forced back into his former life for one final adventure, with the film taking significant inspiration from movies such as Unforgiven (1992) and Shane (1953) – so much so that Professor X and Laura actually watch the final scene of Shane while waiting in a hotel in El Paso.

If ever there were an appropriate way to send off two of the most popular and storied fictional characters of the 20th century, then Logan is it.

The R-rating gave director James Mangold the freedom to showcase the ultra-violent potential of Wolverine, which has been far too muted in previous titles, as well convey story structure unique to the genre.

While the movie is primarily a character drama, it is also the most violent and gory in the X-Men universe.

It may sound rather perverse, but there is almost a 17-year-long catharsis that comes with seeing Hugh Jackman and 11-year-old Laura decapitate and maim fully-grown men.

The action scenes are used somewhat sparingly, but this just helps give extra weight to the significance of each as the relationship between Logan and Laura grows.

The performances by Jackman, Stewart, and Keen work fantastically together as the two veterans seem closer to father and son than former colleagues, while Keen offers one of the best performances a child actor has ever given on the big screen.

One of the best compliments this movie could recive is that in a genre that craves creating connections and expanded universes, Logan is an excellent standalone film that does not require any, or at least much, prior knowledge.

Much like Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), it is a phenomenal example of its art and genre.

Don't go into Logan expecting the usual spandex-clad adventure that is commonplace in nearly every other superhero movie, nor an uplifting and motivational storyline.

It's far too good for that.