"As I live and breathe, the Wolverine."

Rating: 10/10 (5 March 2017)

"Logan" is the final farewell to Hugh Jackman as the iconic X-Men superhero, Wolverine, who wouldn't be so iconic without his performance. Jackman hangs up the gloves in "Logan" and in a grisly fashion. "Logan" is everything we ever wanted in a Wolverine film, a hard R-rating with bloody violence and over excessive language. The film follows Logan as a limo driver trying to support himself and Charles Xavier as they live in an abandoned factory a couple of miles from the border to the U.S. in Mexico. One day a mutant girl (X- 23/Laura) finds her way into the lives of the two men as she is being chased down by the Reavers, led by Donald Pierce, and the man Pierce is working for Dr. Rice. Soon Logan and Charles are sucked into the situation and take it upon themselves to protect Laura by any means necessary and getting her to safety.
"Logan" might be the most realistic and mature superhero film that has ever been made. It's really hard to categorize this film under the superhero genre because the film is so grounded. There are no big budget explosions or people wearing spandex suits, this is an in your face film about what happens to superheroes when they are no longer superheroes. Logan is a heavy drinker and is slowly losing his healing ability and his powers are slowly draining. Charles Xavier has violent seizures which cause tremors and has lost all hope in what he is and was. This is a very depressing film where there is no glimmer of hope in these characters, all hope is basically lost.
The opening scene of the film where Logan fights off these gangbangers trying to jack his limo is not only awesome and violent but very depressing. You see Logan struggling with his powers and getting his butt kicked around a lot, even though he comes out victorious there's no feeling of relief or success. The Wolverine we know and love is gone, he's not making sarcastic jokes, or buffing up his ego. All of that is gone and all that is left is a broken man.
The acting is spot on. Jackman and Stewart do their finest works in this film and Dafne Keen as Laura/X-23 was great, she is a very talented little girl. Boyd Holbrook as Pierce did a very good job, he was very cool and calm, and brought so much life to the character. Stephen Merchant as Caliban was so great in the film. You felt so much empathy for his character and it wouldn't have been the same without Merchant's performance and the fantastic writing and character development.
The film has a lot of action, blood, and gore. This is a very unconventional superhero film in that the action is very grounded there aren't any explosions and most of the action heavily relies on the hand to hand combat the characters face. The opening scene of the film just shows the grisly violence it has in store for us. It was just awesome to watch, I still have goosebumps thinking about it.
James Mangold returning to direct this film did such a fantastic job at it. He really created a Western drama disguised as a superhero film and it very much does feel like a Western. Mangold's vision for the film was spot on, it just shows how far gone the world is and the state the characters are in. Mangold directed the previous solo Wolverine film "The Wolverine" (2013) which I found to be quite underrated, Mangold did a good job with that film took what worked best about it and brought it to "Logan".
"Logan" in my opinion is the best superhero film that has ever been made. It tackles so many themes in the superhero genre that haven't been touched upon or even noted and does it masterfully. Mangold's direction and Jackman's performance is what really brings this film together and in the end the best portrayal of the Wolverine.