Almost great, anti-hero tropes pile on too thick

Rating: 8/10 (22 April 2017)

This is nearly 2/3rds of an almost great film; a personal, brutal, honest, original take on the superhero myth. But the final act is a letdown; like something from an inferior mundane take and one that undermines some of that which was built up to that point.
What's strange and transfixing for a while is how deeply cynical this film is. The mutants are dead, Xavier senile and hurting those he loves, Logan is dead inside; an alcoholic husk taking care of his dying father in some abandoned silo in the desert. Until of course, life intervenes (through a child no less) and he's forced to find his humanity once again.
It is built into the structure of the movie that this is another one of those false hopes. That they lived their whole lives for this cause which didn't' work and which never truly saved Logan's soul. Xavier makes it his duty to try one last time. In this sense, the cynicism and brutality is earned and just. It doesn't just shock and awe, but conjure mood and distaste; it drives a stake through the "angry dude with a heart of gold" byline that normally accompanies Logan - here he's a bit of a sadist with no carnage filter anymore.
Yet, after a soulful mix of scenes involving an old-fashioned family and their farm, the movie kicks into manic superhero vs. villain let's save the world mode. The deaths pile up too fast; the poor Munson family is slaughtered, yet in the face of Xavier's death and all the other action we don't get to feel the full weight of this collateral damage and we are supposed to take it at face value and keep rolling with the nihilism.
Then there's a lot more mind-numbing violence at the end, too much and too chaotic for it to register as much more than useless noise (unlike the earlier fight scenes). Logan wants to save the kids from having to kill yet they do that just as well here and you're supposed to cheer. Logan gets a fitting death, finally at peace by destroying the demon within, though you wonder how much is really his fault at this point? Is this a fitting metaphor for him?
A good man who has killed many bad guys. The movie seems to say that bad guys have to die but you're still killing them, so that's bad so you're bad so beat yourself up about it and tell the kids this is conflicting stuff so don't mess with it. But the kids have to kill bad guys anyway (comic book antics and special effects...). The anti-hero tropes have been piled on too thick by now, and I think a little more sanity may have helped out in the end.