Fitting end to the franchise

Logan comes face to face with the bad guys.

By Tania Phillips

Logan (MA15+)
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Doris Morgado, Boyd Holbrook

It’s 2029, and a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide-out on the Mexican border.
But Logan’s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces.
Suddenly he, the professor and Laura (Dafne Keen) are on the run and trying to escape Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook and a whole heap of nasties.
It was hard not to draw comparisons to buddy movies, Terminator and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
But ultimately – at its heart is a very human dilemma and a very human story, told with a lot of heart and realism.
Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart give their best performances in the XMen universe in this Western/science fiction (but not in a camp Cowboys vs Aliens way) crossover.
Violent, dark and full of emotion this is not a movie for children, there are no brightly-coloured spandex suits and “fun” montages.
This film is gritty and realistic – what would happen if mutants were real rather than “Oh, let’s imagine there are mutants”.
Holbrook’s bad guy is menacing and stops just short of being too stereotypical but it is the central three characters that really drive the narrative here and make this movie worth watching (despite the gut-wrenching gore).
Dafne Keen is pitch-perfect as the young mutant that does and doesn’t give Professor X and Logan a new purpose.
This is a comic book movie at its most real and most raw and is a fitting finale for Stewart and Jackman in this universe (or so they say).
– Tania Phillips