Fitting farewell for flawed hero
influence from classic westerns and it come across on screen; the dusty colour palette, showdowns in scorching sunlight and the aging gunslinger making his final stand all apparent.
Jackman has never been better in the role and seems to relish playing a Wolverine past his prime, and shares several tender moments with Stewart and Keen.
Stewart also claims Logan will be his farewell to the X-Men universe and it’s heartbreaking to witness his transformation from the allpowerful mind manipulator of earlier movies to the dementia-riddled patient here – although his fondness for straight-talking results in a few belly laughs.
Newcomer Keen suggests she has a very bright future ahead of her by tackling her ‘mini-Wolverine’ status with gusto and Boyd Holbrook (Pierce) deserves special mention too for creating a villain brimming with caustic comments in his relentless pursuit of Logan and friends. There’s no skyscraper-destroying carnage ala X-Men: Apocalypse here; instead Mangold tightly frames smaller-scale confrontations that are no less effective for it.
This doesn’t quite extend to the final face-off, however, which lacks the focus of Logan’s earlier escapades.
Thankfully, though, Mangold gifts Jackman a wonderfully touching final goodbye in what feels an appropriate farewell for the character.
Here’s hoping rumours of another, younger star pulling on the claws in the future don’t come to fruition; Hugh Jackman is – sorry, was – Wolverine.