Logan does its utmost to ensure Wolverine bows out with one hell of a howl

REVIEW: As Hugh Jackman has always been a traditional showman at heart, you have to hand to it to the guy for saving the best until last.

Logan is radically different where it counts but always respectfully honouring Wolverine’s hard-earned heritage as a character. Picture: Ben Rothstein / Twentieth Century Fox

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LOGAN (MA15+)

Director: James Mangold (Walk the Line)

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Dafne Keen, Patrick Stewart, Stephen Merchant, Richard E. Grant

Rating: four stars

All sharp things coming to a blunt end

FOR seventeen long years, Hugh Jackman has been gluing on whiskers and sprouting steel blades in service of the movie character he will ultimately be remembered for.

Now the time has come — if we are to take Hugh and the keepers of the X-Men flame at their word — to bid farewell to the legendary mutant popularly known as Wolverine.

As Jackman has always been a traditional showman at heart, you have to hand to it to the guy for saving the best until last.

For Logan does its utmost to ensure Wolverine bows out with one hell of a howl, and no chance of a whimper.

Hugh Jackman in a scene from the new X Men film Logan. Picture: Ben Rothstein / Twentieth Century Fox

Somewhat uncharacteristically for a production stamped with the crowd-pleasing Marvel seal, Logan is a lean, mean and desolate action picture. It most certainly doesn’t want to hug you. At times, it seems like may intend to hurt you.

However, the lightning rod for all the pain that comes to strike here is Wolverine (aka Logan) himself.

Logan has never been better portrayed by a clearly motivated Jackman. Picture: Ben Rothstein / Twentieth Century Fox

The film opens very matter-of-factly in the year 2029, in a future that has been less than kind to Logan and the mutant species as a whole.

With no new members having joined the mutant fold in well over the decade, this gifted species looks to be on a slow and sure path towards extinction.

There is no more telling indicator of their doomed plight than Logan. Now eking out a basic living as a limo driver on the Texas-Mexico border, Logan is a barely-functioning alcoholic with a fatal disdain for the world around him.

To make matters infinitely worse, Logan’s famed regenerative powers — which allow his body to instantly repair itself — are fading fast. The adamantium steel that constitutes his skeleton and claws has turned toxic.

The film hits so many bleak notes in its opening act — Logan is now also acting as a reluctant sole carer to his former mentor Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) — that it seems as if the movie as a whole is on an irreversible downward spiral.

Thankfully, the movie gradually expands in range and storytelling potency with the introduction of a young Mexican immigrant girl named Laura (Dafne Keen).

Without giving too much way, Laura shares a link to Logan’s long-lost past that compels him to help her make a dangerous journey across the US.

This is not to say Laura cannot look after herself. Far from it. Even longtime devotees of Marvel movies will be taken aback by this young woman’s ferocity across the film’s array of confronting combat sequences.

Dafne Keen’s Laura gets her claws out in a scene from Logan with Jackman and Patrick Stewart. Picture: Ben Rothstein / Twentieth Century Fox

As for Logan (who has never been better portrayed by a clearly motivated Jackman), he is also seen to be giving his all with a feral intent that was never truly present in earlier screen outings.

Overall, this is a surprisingly strong entry in the X-Men canon, radically different where it counts, but always respectfully honouring Wolverine’s hard-earned heritage as a character.