Logan

One more comic book movie to round things off – and it’s a pretty different kind of feature. Logan may be remembered as the most artistic and sophisticated of Marvel’s adaptations, if not the most enjoyable. This isn’t just gritty, it’s going for arty – and tragic.

I didn’t think this would be the tone of the movie, but I’m rather glad it was. I respect trying something different, and the thing about comic book movies with multiverses is that you can try this sort of thing without it being a definitive ending for these characters – just one possibility of many. From the snippets I saw, I thought it would be another action-backed movie with the adventures of Wolvie and X-23. It certainly wasn’t that.

Things are grim as we open. Logan’s healing factor is failing him – clearly not omega-level in this universe – and he’s scraping together a living working as a limo driver. Professor X is 90 and degenerating fast. Motor Neurone and Alzheimer’s have him not only seizing but causing hugely painful surges of psychic energy for all those around him. No other X-Men are about, though a version of Caliban very different from the one we saw in the Apocalypse movie – or the one from the comics - is also helping out.  They plan to get a boat and go out onto the ocean where Charles can’t harm anyone.

Into this tragic setting comes more tragedy. Laura, designated X-23, was made with Logan’s DNA, so he’s sought out by the nurse who helped her escape. Thus begins a road trip movie with a lot of remarkably brutal violence – far more realistic than in most other such adaptations, presumably because Deadpool cleared the way for the R-rated Marvel movies – some heavy-handed moments to show Logan what he should really have is the warmth of a family, and ultimately a big cartoonish showdown that’s much more like the previous Wolverine movies.

But as the title suggests, this is a much more humanised version, and seeing Logan suffer and fail to fight off X-24, the mindless clone of his younger self, helps make him more relatable. Laura is likeable too, and the frail, somewhat embittered but warm and paternal Professor Xavier is brilliantly realised by Patrick Stewart.

This gritty tone is backed up by a departure from the usual fun things found in Marvel movies. No post-credits scenes, no Stan Lee cameos, no hints at how things can tie in to sequels or other franchises in the Fox-Marvel universe. Just pain and regret and dirt and very, very bad people – especially the Reavers, led by Richard E. Grant doing the detestable character he seems to be typecast as just now.

Well worth seeing, and certainly moving, I’m not sure it’s one you’d want to see again and again.