In 2029, an aging and ailing Logan (Hugh Jackman) is nursing an increasingly frail Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) when they’re introduced to an 11-year-old girl (Dafne Keen) with extraordinary powers; soon, they all have to run for their lives together…

Director James Mangold’s second Wolverine movie is designed to be the last and really feels like it. Built more like an indie thriller than a superhero adventure, this one is far more grim and down-to-earth than the X-Men movies.

Almost depressingly cruel and drags a little at times, but gets a tremendous boost from its earnest approach, Jackman’s tortured performance and his rapport with Keen as a younger version of himself.

2017-U.S. 137 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by James Mangold. Screenplay: Scott Frank, James Mangold, Michael Green. Cast: Hugh Jackman (Logan/Wolverine), Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier/Professor X), Dafne Keen (Laura Kinney/X-23), Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant.

Trivia: Also released in a black-and-white version titled Logan Noir. 

Last word: “My greatest focus in getting an R-rating was not being able to jam a claw through someone’s skull. That was an added asset! But the real thing – and it helped that the fans wanted to see Wolverine unleashed, the berserker rage. That helped me make the argument. But I knew that if Hugh and I could get an R, then we’ll have the freedom to make an adult film. Because the second the marketing arm of a studio realises it cannot market to children, five or six creative things happen. The scenes can go deeper, and can be written for adults. Not just language, not just [violence], as you’re saying, but the themes can be more interesting, the words you’re using can be more complicated. The ideas can be more complicated.” (Mangold, Den of Geek)