Logan (5/5 Stars)

The resiliency of comic book franchises rests on the enormous wealth of material that subsequent installments of the franchise may draw upon. Whereas a franchise made originally for the screen like a Rambo or a Die Hard often face a narrowness of choice (in chronological order and with bigger explosions), something like the X-Men franchise has an extraordinary versatility in the types and time periods in which the story-lines take place.

After three movies that took place in the early 2000s (X-Men in 2000, X2 in 2003, and X-Men: the Last Stand in 2006), the next movie took place in the 1960s (X-Men: First Class), another one simultaneously in the 1970s and the apocalyptic future (X-Men: Days of Future Past), another in the 1980s (X-Men: Apocalypse) and two Wolverine centered movies (X-Men: Origins Wolverine, I think in the 1980s and The Wolverine (set in 2010s Japan).

Now we have Logan, which is set in the future in 2029. Logan, like all the others, is based in part on a comic book. Like all the others, it does not feel like the intuitive choice for the next movie in a franchise (i.e. in chronological order and with bigger explosions). It’s tone and style is very different, more Western than Superhero blockbuster, which says much about the incredible diversity in X-Men literature. I’m sure there are nerds out there fretting what the presence of “Logan” does to the canonical X-Men Universe. These movies don’t always fit together. (In fact, I think because of the time paradoxes of X-Men: Days of Future Past, the events of the third movie X-Men: The Last Stand has now officially never happened.) Who knows what the installment of “Logan” will do to the status of the overall story, given that it is particularly dark and according to its plot, all the mutant X-Men are dead.

What is left in the dusty world of bleak 2029 is an aged Wolverine who is slowly losing his powers of indestructible healing, a now dangerously senile Charles Xavier (played again by his old counterpart Patrick Stewart), and their albino housekeeper named Caliban (played by the comedian Stephen Merchant.) They live right across the Mexican border on a dusty farm. Charles is being housed in a giant steel tank and takes knock-out medicine. His mind is too powerful and unstable to focus. Technically the government now considers it to be a weapon of mass destruction.

Everything is bad and then it gets worse. Logan is found by a nurse who has absconded with a child that was created with mutant powers by an evil corporation with the evil intent of patenting the mutating genes. She asks Logan for help, Logan is reluctant to help, Logan reluctantly helps, and many people die in the aftermath.

“Logan” is a great movie masquerading as a comic book blockbuster. It directly reminded me of the Christopher Nolan “Batman” movies in style and tone. There seems to be almost no digital effects. Everything is down to earth and gritty. The movie was written and directed by James Mangold who has shown before the ability to not confuse spectacle with drama (“3:10 to Yuma,” “The Wolverine”).

Hugh Jackman, as Wolverine, puts in his best performance out of the now nine times he has played the character. He also has never looked so much like Wolverine. Patrick Stewart makes a great case for why a man of his dramatic talent should be in a superhero movie at all. Stephen Merchant, best known for being a comedian, is an inspired choice of casting for the dramatic role he plays. And then there is Daphne Keen who puts in a performance that should not be possible given her age. I feel like I need to see a documentary in the quiet revolution of child performances in the past twenty years that make something like Ms. Keen possible. For those of us who remember Macauley Kulkin being the best child performer of his time, it is a revelation to see children pull off the myriad of great performances in “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Looper,” and now “Logan.”

Over the soundtrack the sound of old Johnny Cash plays. It is a fitting end for a great character.