The Wolverine masterpiece we deserved and needed.

Rating: 9/10 (3 March 2017)

The third time is the charm where we I can finally say we have a Wolverine movie that is memorable and tonally right for the character. This isn't just the best Wolverine (which is ironic that's not the title) or X-men movie but arguably the best superhero movie since The Dark Knight. James Mangold's The Wolverine I thought was close to being great but was held back by the pg-13 rating, weak third act and an awful cgi boss fight. Mangold this time is no longer constrained by a studio's need to feel like past superhero films and makes the movie that is a perfect reflection of the title characters's dark history. If this movie came out just a few months before the 2017 Oscars and wasn't labelled as a comic book film, I think this movie could seriously be in the nomination for Best Picture.
This is probably the bleakest and most realistic movie set in the X-men universe. While both films had an R-rating, Logan is a different animal in tone compared to last year's Deadpool. Logan uses its swearing and violence to elevate the seriousness and drama of the situation rather then for laughs. The bleak future that Mangold shows isn't a post-apocalypse setting like in Days of Future but a slightly heightened version of today's post-2016-election times that just so happens to take place after mutants became infertile. Mangold shows how harsh reality can be especially when it comes to characters that we've known from so many past X-men movies. These aren't the happy endings where the heroes save the day and live happily ever after. This shows what happens when the heroes are no longer who they once were. They learn to face the reality of their own consequences and mortality that every regular person deals with from Logan's decreasing healing factor to Charles Xavier's unstable powers caused by his seizures.
This is by far not only the best performance Hugh Jackman has given his mutant character but arguably one of the best performances of his career. The mature themes of Logan allows Jackman to unleash his full acting skills to show how flawed and damaged the titled character really is. Rage and frustration are not just present in his character but also this sadness and internal (as well as physical) pain that we have not seen before. This is Logan at his lowest and most desperate point in his life. The same can be said with Patrick Stewart as Professor X. Stewart gets to take his character in a direction never seen before. Like Jackman, he gets to show more range in his character as a mentally unstable senior Charles who becomes a more dangerous and unpredictable person then even Wolverine himself. Also a shout out to the new talent introduced like Dafne Keen, Boyd Holdbrook and Stephen Merchant. Dafne Keen as Laura/X-23 is a force to be reckoned despite her young age. She shows so much ferocity and wit with just a single stare without needing to say a word which doesn't come until the latter half of the film. As far as the usual predictable villain that comes in these superhero movies, Boyd Holbrook is an improvement. His character Pierce is not a complex mastermind like Heath Ledger's Joker but works very well as this slimy, cruel henchman thanks his charismatic performance. Stephen Merchant surprisingly worked very well as Caliban with some great back and through dialogue with Logan.
The pacing of this movie is slow and probably has the least action of any X-men movie but works because it puts all of that extra time into exploring the characters and the way they evolve throughout the movie. The action, however, when it finally comes is worth it because this is what makes the r-rating the most exciting. When you got a guy with blades coming out of his hands, that's when the violence and gore are expected. It is so relieving to finally see a Wolverine impaling, dismembering and decapitating those that get in his way.
As far as flaws, there are very few. I do wished some characters could have been explored more because they are given so much backstory and there are some X-men products that I feel were forced in.
This is the best conclusion I have seen to any comic book character on film. This does not end with a bang but with a whimper. By the end you will feel like you have reached the end of this long and emotional journey with Logan and it becomes hard to say goodbye. There will be new actors to play Wolverine but I think Hugh Jackman will always be remembered for his portrayal of the character especially with how he brings it full circle in this final chapter.