Superb and a fitting close to Wolverine's movie life

Rating: 10/10 (15 May 2018)

Logan's mutant healing factor is finally being poisoned by the adamantium in his system. He is working as a limo driver while tending a frail Charles Xavier, suffering from dementia. He is abruptly put in the position of having to nursemaid a mute 11-year old with retractable claws who is on the run from an organisation which wants to recover its investment. He is not happy.
After his breakthrough performance as Wolverine 17 years ago in the first X-men film, Hugh Jackman has played that character in all of them, albeit by way of cameo in First Class and Apocalypse. The intervening period has been such a fertile period for comic-based movies that it is easy to forget that Brian Singer's first movie was a trailblazer for the ensemble super-hero film. But I think it is not unfair to observe that, no matter how good the scripts, how epic the effects, how committed the performances, all these super-hero films have been fairly shallow and superficial. There's nothing wrong with that - what else do we expect from super-powered escapism?
Not so with Logan. The joy of the X-Men films is that the internal continuity and, importantly, the passage of real time outside - and, therefore, also within - these films, have brought us to the position which allows this movie, a movie about familiar characters growing old, to take place. Yes, there is Wolverine action, but the heart of the movie is watching this weary and damaged man cope with his relationship with Xavier, father figure, mentor and, as a feeble but dangerous 90 year-old, a damn nuisance, and then also coping with a mute and feral child, a major problem even without Xavier and the hordes of mercenaries after her.
This is a film about fathers, sons and daughters, and may strike chords if you have elderly dependents and wilful teens in the family. It is also about earning redemption.
Oh, and it's about what the comics refer to as Berserker Rage.
The plot is straightforward. The various trailers have shown the set-up fairly comprehensively, but most of this material is drawn from the first half hour. There are some surprises in what follows, but nothing which will be completely unexpected. This lack of surprise does not detract from the performances: both Jackman and Stewart are superb as Logan and Xavier, adding depths and emotional nuances to the characters which we never imagined from the previous films.
They aren't the only ones giving us great performances. Newcomer Dafne Keen is astonishing as the mysterious clawed child Laura, both in terms of her physicality and the striking performance she gives without dialogue. And lanky English comedy writer and performer Stephen Merchant is a delightfully sympathetic Caliban. Sadly, the villains disappoint. Boyd Holbrooke's baddie Pierce leaves little real impression, and Richard E. Grant's Dr Rice is underwritten. Never mind: this film belongs to the three principals.
I have deliberately been fairly light on the detail, but there are a couple of things I should mention. One is that this movie is NOT kiddie friendly. The first word spoken is "F*ck", and this is repeated frequently, rather too much in my view: I like language to serve the narrative, and much of the profanity here seems to be present simply because F*ck.
The film is also graphically violent. We finally get to see what those claws do, in full and gory detail. So if your kids love the X-Men, treat them to the old TV cartoons, not this one.
I'm not going to spoiler the ending other than to say that it is emotional, especially in its closing note, a beautiful and perfectly fitting touch which caught me by surprise.
I'm sure there will be other X-Men movies - why not? There are many X-Men who haven't yet featured on film - but I doubt there will be one as good as this one for quite some time.