Logan review

Following on from 2009’s missable X-Men Origins: Wolverine and 2013’s The Wolverine, this solo outing for the grizzled mutant takes place in the near future, where we find Logan/Wolverine battle-weary and ageing, working as a limousine chauffeur and taking care of an ailing Charles Xavier (Stewart). Hiding out from the world with the help of fellow mutant Caliban (Stephen Merchant), Logan finds himself pursued by bad guys who are hunting a young mutant girl named Laura (Keen) whom Charles wants to protect.

Far bleaker, darker and more violent than any X-Men movie we’ve seen before (parents should note this is a 15/R certificate movie and is too violent for younger viewers), this is also the best stand-alone Wolverine movie by far. We’re shown a tired, drunk Logan – still able to regenerate when he is injured, but at a much slower pace (even his claws retract sluggishly, and painfully, too) – who staggers across the screen like a cowboy facing his final gunfight, before he takes the girl and grumpy old man Charles (heavily medicated so his mutant brain, now affected by dementia, doesn’t do any damage) on a bickering road trip to escape the bad guys.

En route, there are plenty of fights, with claws slashing through limbs, faces and other extremities, blood splashing across the scenery, and f-words scattered throughout (but hey, if you’d just been skewered by a razor-sharp claw, you’d swear, too). But in the end, despite the violence, this is actually a superbly performed, character-driven movie, about a man who has just fought for too long, and who is tired of trying to be a better person in a world that won’t let him. It’s a tour-de-force from Jackman, and if this really is his final bow as Wolverine, it’s truly a great shame.