If you are expecting a super-hero movie, don't go but if you want to see the real Wolverine, book now.

Rating: 8/10 (8 March 2017)

In this James Mangold (Walk the Line, Girl, Interrupted) directed and written - along with Scott Frank (Minority Report, The Wolverine) and Michael Green (Green Lantern, Everwood) screenplay - film, Hugh Jackman (The Prestige, Prisoners) stars as Logan/Wolverine, a now drunk and in pain shadow of his former self. He drives a limo to earn money and hides out with Professor X/Charles (Sir Patrick Stewart: Star Trek, X-Men) who has the beginnings of dementia and Caliban (Stephen Merchant: The Office, Cemetery Junction) an albino tracker mutant. Charles tries to warn them that a new child mutant needs their help, but until he meets Gabriela (Elizabeth Rodriguez: Miami Vice, The Drop) during a funeral, he just thinks she is another potential job.
When Pierce (Boyd Holbrook: Milk, Gone Girl) threatens him unless he tells him if he has contact with Gabriela, he ignores the advice, but when Gabriela is killed and he sees for himself what the child, Laura (Dafne Keen: The Refugees) can do, he realises why Pierce wants her.
She is the product of a secret series of experiments on children by Dr Rice (Richard E. Grant: Withnail and I, Corpse Bride) and she wants to go to over the border to Eden, where she hopes to be reunited with the others.
It's 2029 and in this new world, where mutants have been exterminated and there are few of them left hiding, Logan is a man adrift in a world that no longer needs him. Caring for his former mentor who he has to control for his own good, he is a man without a true purpose and who is hurrying towards death.
Unlike other X-Men movies, there are fewer nods back to earlier films and it is stronger for this. We are able to delve deep into the characters of Logan and X, plus see what they, and new mutant Laura, have missed out on in life that others take for granted. A particular poignant storyline involves the Munford family, Will (Eriq La Salle: ER, Coming to America), Kathryn (Elise Neal: Hustle & Flow, Scream 2) and Nate (Quincy Fouse: K. C. Undercover, The Goldbergs), who bring this home with stark reality.
Ever since Deadpool, movies seem obsessed with using gore and violence, seeming not to understand that why Deadpool worked was not just that, it was the kick-ass smart-mouth and there were moments of that, but nowhere near enough to justify that level of brutal death. I suspect this is because in this movie, they wanted to be true to the comic Wolverine and if this is the case, then yes, they delivered with bells on. It's just a pity they didn't do this earlier when Jackman was younger and Logan would not have been in need of a special injection to boost him up to his best.
If you are expecting a super-hero movie, don't go but if you want to see the real Wolverine, book now.