A Beautiful End to Wolverine's Saga

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2017)

Bryan Singer's X-men hit cinemas back in 2000, when the superhero genre was still recovering from a certain case of "Batman and Robin". It was hard to take comics seriously, but Singer brought the X-men, a team of superheroes that faced problems not many other heroes face (that being discrimination) to the big screen in a grand sort of way. An allegory for the struggle many minorities, especially the LGBT+ people, face in the real world, audiences empathised both with Charles Xavier's pursuit of protection of the Mutants, and the education of the masses that these Mutants aren't as bad and scary as they may seem at first, and Magneto's pursuit of vengeance against the people who abused him almost his entire life.
And in the centre of this broader narrative is Wolverine, a man that, while youthful in appearance, is hundreds of years older than any of the other main characters in the story, but cannot remember his past beyond a name. An unstoppable killing machine fuelled by rage, pain and distrust, he is brought into the fold as a broken man, with the promise that Xavier would help him rediscover who he really is.
Hugh Jackman's Wolverine is arguably one of the best cast and most famous characters brought from comic book to screen. Even in the films that were brought down by mediocrity in other areas, Jackman played Wolverine with power and precision. But no matter how good he was in his past movies, nothing matches up to his performance in Logan.
Logan is the last Wolverine film. Hugh Jackman said so himself that it would be his final portrayal as the Wolverine, and while it's entirely possible in the cynical Hollywood market that produced three different portrayals of Spider-Man within 10 years, I highly doubt Jackman would go back on his claim.
The plot of Logan seems to be separate from the broader X-men franchise, sort of like how Deadpool wasn't really a part of the established continuity. Unlike Deadpool, which was a goofy, vulgar and crass film (still good though), Logan is gritty, sincere and tragic. Both films have the same amount of violence and gore, but while you laugh as Deadpool cuts a man in half, you don't laugh here. You feel every single cut and bullet in this film. Both physical and emotional.
The heart of the film is the relationship between Logan, Xavier, and a new character named Laura, who is revealed to be Logan's biological daughter, and exhibiting similar powers. Laura, having just escaped from a government facility, is being chased by Pierce, a mercenary with a robot hand. What follows is an action packed road trip across the continental United States from New Mexico to North Dakota. I won't spoil the details, for this movie is worth watching all the way.
Logan is what I was hoping for in every way when I heard of an R- Rated Wolverine film. It is not simply an excuse to add some CGI blood and limbs coming off Wolverine's victims (although there is plenty of that if that's all you're looking for) but it also works as a fantastic culmination of Wolverine's character arc throughout all of his portrayals. Logan is a beautiful film in all the best ways. Emotional, visceral, and entirely separate from any extended universe of films. There is nothing hinging on this film, canonically speaking. You should enter this film not expecting something that will play into later films, but as an entirely separate film that allowed everyone involved to explore a story and characters in an isolation chamber of sorts. It is one of the best superhero movies of all time, and definitely the most mature and grounded one since The Dark Knight.
10/10