Review: Logan

Logan, the latest installment in the X-Men franchise, is the last time Hugh Jackman reprises his role as Wolverine and it's the best Wolverine we have ever seen.

The movie takes place in an alternate timeline in the near future where mutants are all but gone. Logan hides with an aging and ailing professor x and caliban, a mutant who can sense and track other mutant. He is resigned to drinking, caused by some tragic event in his past that isn't explained until late in the movie, just keeps his head down and tries to earn and save up some money to escape from the US, where mutants are hunted. This all changes when a young mutant Laura with the same powers as Logan, who is hunted by a private army of mercenaries, crosses their path and they are forced to flee.

The movie is rated r, which is made clear in the first 5 minutes. The violence is amazing, finally we get blood and chopped off limbs. It's the Wolverine we always wanted to see. The tone of the movie is so different to all the other comic book movies, it's a drama as much as a modern western. It switches between hard action, heart warming moments of Logan slowly warming up to Laura and incredible moments of touching sadness and loss. Hugh Jackman gives the best performance he has ever given in an X-Men movie and Dafne Keen is great as Laura, but it is Patrick Stewart who probably gives the best performance in that movie. His fragility was so convincing, his comedic moment was spot on, he elevated every scene he was in. I would really like to see that performance be rewarded by some award.

The villains are a bit generic, except for a surprise halfway through, the movie has a few slow parts in the 2nd act and the ending is a bit telegraphed, but these are comparably small complains in a great movie.

Overall the movie is fantastic, a bold twist on the genre and almost perfect movie. Go watch this movie!

We couldn't have asked for a better sendoff for Wolverine...

My rating: 9/10

until he's recast, which he will.