Logan

I started writing this review in March of 2017 - I added a little bit more today.

Logan a.k.a. Wolverine isn't a very complex character.  As Professor Xavier notes in the film Logan, Wolverine was found wasting his abilities bar fighting in the Pacific Northwest.  He's forever been the reluctant hero, in the vein of Humphrey Bogart (in just about every one of his films).  The director, James Mangold is able to make a film that's compelling in spite of the fact that the central character hasn't changed much in the last 137 years.  What Mangold does with Logan is boil down the formula, dispensing with all the convoluted elements that typically accompany X-Men movies, making a film that's really about a man on a quest to protect someone he truly cares for.  I think we like this type of movie because it's like comfort food; we all know that the calloused alcoholic brute is really a cuddly teddy bear at heart.  Maybe that's an exaggeration, but our satisfaction with these stories corresponds with how extreme the transformation is from antihero to hero.  Most importantly, Mangold gets the underlying elements of filmmaking, character and story, correct, but Logan is also a visual achievement for film with comic book origins.  The action, stunts, special effects, and makeup is a jolting departure for the genre.  Unlike some other recent comic book movies that use graphic violence to shock the audience (or to cater to a desensitized demographic), the style of Logan fits with the story that is being told.  Logan is abandoning his colorful Uncanny X-Men compatriots - he never was really one of them to begin with...