Not bad, yet pretty flawed

Rating: 6/10 (31 March 2017)

At first it may seem like a perfect match - a Wolverine-movie rated R/16. After all, Wolverines iconic claws are rather violent weapons, and he is a rather hot-tempered, brutal fighter. Even in the comics, him using those claws has resulted in some more and more bloody results in recent years, so it makes sense to have him in an R-rated movie.
The movie is set in 2029, and while there are hints, we are not sure exactly what happened to the other X-men. The world does not look as dark, sinister or dystopian as we might expect , but then again, its obvious that mutants are pretty much gone, and Logan and Xavier have aged.
The movie looks great, and IMO, both Jackman and Stewart put in a very heartfelt performance... I guess because for both of them, it's their swan-song in the Marvel-movie franchise after many years of being part of it.
X-23, the other protagonist, works great. The actor portraying her does a great job, and some of the action-scenes involving her look impressive. YMMV, as some may be bothered by the scenes of a young girl brutally obliberating others.
The ending is quite touching, and is a great send-off for Logan. Sure, it would have been nice to have an equally nice ending for the other X-men, yet, after all, this is a movie mostly about Logan, his attitude/outlook on life and his relationship to Xavier.
Now, unfortunately, this movie has quite a few flaws.

The plot is INCREDIBLY CLICHÉ! We have seen this SO many times. Gruff hero is introduced, appears to be aimless/hopeless. New protagonist enters, usually looking for help. The gruff hero is unwilling to help at first, then is either forced to or changes his mind for some other reason. The bad guys appear, usually they are borderline sadists, enjoying their job way too much, so the viewer wants them to fail and hopefully get punished/killed. The heroes escape, seem to find a peaceful spot. The villains return with more/better weapons, the heroes get hurt, lose one member of their team, have to flee. Eventually, it looks as if all hope is lost, until they turn the situation around.

This is incredibly cliché, yet this is what happens. Logan is asked to help X-23, is unwilling to do so, yet is forced to eventually. The bad guys are right out of the "cliche book of movie villains, 1986-edition". Sadistic, smirking, arrogant, enjoying their mission way too much. There also is the brainless, almost unbeatable henchman, plus the cold-hearted, grim leader who has to have his little speech at some point, wasting too much time so the hero has time to prepare a counter-attack or at least get in a good punchline.
So the plot and the villains are very VERY clichéd. Now add quite a few plot holes. - Logan doesn't seem to care much about killing people. The threatening (and arrogant, yawn) villain is knocked out, Logan asks his buddy (who is allergic to daylight, and this is during the day in the desert) to put him into a car and kill him somewhere else. He could have done this himself, and even though he wants the guy killed, he doesn't kill him while he is knocked out to make sure he doesn't wake up in time. So at this point, you know what cliché is up next. Of COURSE the villain wakes up just before the sidekick manages to kill him and captures said sidekick. 1964 called and wants its plot-twist back.

Logan and X-24 fight each other, and due to their adamantium- augmentations, they can't kill each other so easily. Yet, X-24 manages to rather easily impale Logan on a branch...

The whole thing about Logans healing factor faltering and, as a doctor hints at, something poisoning him isn't explained well enough IMO. So the whole time, one is left wondering what happened to his amazing healing factor.

After Laura/X-23 easily beat up a ton of "mutant hunters" earlier in the movie, when those guys start to hunt the children on the way to the border, she is apparently unable to easily take those guys out... even though she had some other capable young mutants with her now. However, a few minutes later, she takes on the much stronger X- 24 and even holds her own against him for some time.

There is more, but that is not the point. Even with plot holes like that, a movie like this can work quite well. The problem, to me, is the insanely unimaginative plot itself... the "been there, done that 8000 times" type of plot we have seen so often, mixed with clichéd villains. Sure, its a superhero movie, yet there have been several better and more creative plot lines and antagonists in the Marvel movie franchise, so this is rather disappointing.
So, to sum it up: + R-rating fits Logan and his powers/approach well + Some rather great and apparently heart-felt acting by Stewart and Jackman. + X-23 is done well and actually works, and who knows, the character might get developed more. + Nice send-off for a popular superhero + Not too much unnecessary reliance on CGI/blue screen, it's rather easy to follow the fights instead of them being a total, confusing mess.

Horribly clichéd plot, going by a movie blueprint that appears to be from the 80s at best. - Horribly clichéd villains, so very boring and predictable. - While it's nice to leave some things to the imagination or not explain every tiny bit of backstory, several things IMO weren't explained enough.

6/10 unfortunately, and those are mainly for the acting of Jackman, Stewart and Keen, and for the ending.