Logan

After nine turns in 17 years, Hugh Jackman finally gets to forgo the comic panels and word balloons and portray THE Wolverine as an aging, troubled, serious adult hero more in the vein of Leon the Professional than the frat-boy favorite! And from the opening bell, you know this is THE Wolverine when he uses five “FUCKS” in the first five minutes when he’s awakened by cholos stripping his limo along the US-Mexican border! See, times are tough in 2029: there hasn’t been a mutant birth in 25 years, most of his former compatriots are dead, or in the case of Charles Xavier, in poor health, dependent on the albino cellar dweller Caliban for day-to-day necessities while living in hiding in an abandoned water tower! Logan has become his samurai caregiver, making sure Prof. X takes his meds to suppress his senile psyche blasts which immobilize anyone within a five mile radius! All’s fine, playing out like a spaghetti western until Gabriela, a former medical assistant, recognizes and approaches THE Wolverine to accompany her young ward Laura to North Dakota where a safe haven awaits from the government goons pursuing the kid! Absorbing story elements from the Morlocks to the New Mutants, tying directly into both the “Age of Apocalypse” storyline and FX’s new TV show Legion, “Old Man Logan” meets “X-23” when he discovers that Laura has abilities similar to his own. As far as superhero films go, this is more in the vein of Marvel’s first Blade or Milius’ Conan in that it is something more than pure comic fantasy, in fact George Stevens’ western Shane serves as its metaphor on redemption!

[R]