Logan (2017)

Intended as actor Hugh Jackman's swan song performance as Wolverine, the character he built his career on, Logan is easily the grittiest, most violent, and yet most reflective 'X-Men' movie yet. Based, apparently quite loosely, on 'the old man Logan' story line from the comic books, Logan is set in the year 2029, with mutants on the brink of extension owing to an as yet unexplained 100% drop off in their birthrates. Logan is living in northern Mexico where he is hiding a ninety-something year old Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who appears to be in the early stages of dementia. Leaving Charles in the care of and albino mutant named Caliban (unusual but effective casting of Stephen Merchant), Logan is working as a limo driver across the boarder in El Paso, hoping to raise enough money to buy a yacht so he and Charles can live safely out at sea.

Wanting above all not to be noticed Logan is annoyed when a desperate Mexican woman and her mysterious 'daughter' come to him for help, followed shortly thereafter by cyborg security personal from a multinational corporation in pursuit of the two. The 'daughter' turns out to be a young (12ish) mutant, and before long, Logan, Charles, and the girl are being persued across country and headed for reported sanctuary at the Canadian boarder. The bulk of the film is an unusual 'on the lamb'/ 'on the road' movie, though thematically its pretty much a western, something its director James Mangold is pretty upfront about, at one point Charles and the girl (new comer Dafne Keen, impressive) are shown watching the 1953 classic Shane.

This movie is quite different from earlier X-Men fair, with the exception of Mangold's pervious film in the franchise The Wolverine (2013), which this movie seems to combine tonally with Mangold's 2007 remake of 3:10 to Yuma. There is a rough, weather-beaten feel to the whole proceeding, from Jackman's slightly aged look, to the near future society in slow decline depicted around the characters. This is to Marvel what the Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan Batman films were to DC. A satisfying benediction on Jackman's 17 years of playing Wolverine, a character who is much more interesting for having been played by him. ***1/2

Not for kids.