Since the first X-Men film, Wolverine has been Hugh Jackman’s character, and he brings his A-game here through and through, giving the mutant a touching sendoff that is easily among his best performances. He’s equally as rough and ferocious as we’ve seen before, but with the addition of the fact that his healing powers are beginning to wear down from old age, leading to a lot of pain both inside and out. If this is truly the last time audiences are going to see Jackman as the cigar chomping, mutton chopped mutant from the north, it’s a hell of a way to go, and one that feels completely earned. Patrick Stewart is also back as Professor Charles Xavier, the only other still surviving mutant that we know from the past, and here the paternalistic relationship he’s shown towards Logan is insistently foregrounded. Xavier’s sense of empathy for taking care of others that moves the plot forward and while it’s Logan’s story, Xavier is unquestionably the backbone. Young newcomer Dafne Keen ends up being the breakout role of the film as Laura/X-23 – while giving an otherwise muted performance, she does a lot without saying much, especially when kicking ass alongside Logan. If there’s anything in Logan that feels unconvincing, it’s the range of antagonists that feature throughout. The most villainous of these is Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook), a cybernetically enhanced head of security for a team of equally enhanced super soldiers. This aspect leads to a lot of well choreographed action scenes, but the character itself is not very memorable, even when Holbrook chews the scenery to no end.

Like countless others, I've grown up with the X-Men films for most of my life, since seeing the original film in 2000 when I was very young. This fact dawned on me in the moments where Logan and Charles reminisce about their first encounter all those years back, and seeing them now at the end of their respective journeys is quite endearing. This particular series kickstarted the millennium comic book adaptation boom, which is why it's so interesting to now see this particular installment that envisions the characters we know and love in a different light, especially of a more adult tone. With that in mind, the deliberate intention to make this the final chapter for Logan makes everything feel and hit much harder - it's the kind of film that many never expected would happen, but now it's here, and it works in tremendous fashion - a near-masterpiece of the subgenre that succeeds in spades.