What is it about?                                                                                                                           Logan is the newest addition to the X-Men franchise, and is the story of an old, aging, Wolverine in a new, standalone, X-Men timeline. In 2029, a weary and hopeless Logan cares for dying telepathic Charles Xavier in a hideout on the Mexican border. All mutants have perished, and Logan is trying to escape somewhere safe with Charles. He soon finds a little girl named Laura Kinney, or X-23, with the same powers and deadliness as him, and is forced to (reluctantly) protect her from dark forces following them.

How is it? 8.9/10                                                                                                                               Logan is an amazing movie. However, I have to put A DISCLAIMER: Logan is Rated R, and contains SEVERE violence, gore, and language, as well as dark and mature themes. 

Logan marks Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart’s final performances as Wolverine and Charles Xavier, respectively, and is a very satisfying and fitting conclusion.

The Ups:                                                                                                                                            The overall tone of Logan is great. It knows what it wants to be and is unrestricted: it can be dark, grim, and hopeless, but can also be warm, funny, and uplifting.

The acting is top-notch throughout the cast. Hugh Jackman is fantastic and perfectly portrays just how hopeless, tired, and dying Logan is. Patrick Stewart is great, as he shows Xavier off-his-rocker, guilty, and sad. Finally, newcomer Dafne Keen, who plays X-23 is my favorite performance, as she manages to kick butt, and give a heartfelt performance just through facial expressions. She awakens the hero in Logan, which brings out his better, younger self.

The action is brutal (I really can’t emphasize this enough), but executed spectacularly, and the cinematography and editing assists it. The score by Marco Beltrami was a small detail that I enjoyed, and it helped with the tone of the film.

Although I mentioned earlier that the movie could be grim, it still had humor from the dynamic between Laura and Logan, and even Xavier.

Logan never ceases to be enthralling and constantly keeps you on the edge of your seat, even when there isn’t a huge action sequence: many of the movie’s better moments are quiet, small interactions between the characters. Through these moments it manages to even bring emotion.

Logan explores many grim, sensitive themes that you want to talk about long after the credits have rolled. Through carefully exploring its characters, it delves into the ideas of death, aging, sadness, family, love, and even guilt. These really establish it as a drama first, and a comic-book movie second: it’s very grounded.

The Downs:                                                                                                                                   There are few problems I have with Logan. There is a minor pacing issue with this movie around the middle: sitting at a lengthy 2 hours and 21 minutes, there are certain scenes around the middle that could’ve been trimmed. However, the vast majority of Logan serves a point and all builds up to the finale.

It also slightly overuses it’s R-rating. Even though most of the violence is well-deserved and built up to, there are certain aspects where the gore was overused. Also, there was a subplot that serves a purpose, but goes over-the-top. I understand why it was kept, but it causes the movie to lose some of its grounding.

Logan is not only one of the best comic-book movies of recent years, but also one of, if not the most meaningful. However, discretion is advised, as the movie can get quite violent and gory.