Logan

Hugh Jackman's swansong as the X-Men's main man finds a grizzled, scarred Wolverine pared to the bone, often literally with his mutant ability to heal on the wane. Director James Mangold's fabulous follow-up to The Wolverine is set in 2029 when the X-Men are gone, no mutants have been born in years and a jaded Logan is lying low south of the border, along with a decrepit and psychically unstable Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart). However, their desert seclusion is shattered with the arrival of Laura (His Dark Materials' Dafne Keen), a mysterious chip off the old mutant block (claws, surliness, anger issues), and a pursuing army of cyborg killers led by Richard E Grant's sinister scientist. The trio is forced to hit the road, but only after a bloody, no-holds-barred confirmation that this X-tale is not for kids, what with the salty banter and ferocious confrontations (in an Oklahoma hotel and at a backwoods farm) that see Wolverine and Xavier unleashed like never before. The allusions to western classic Shane border on sentimentality, but that's a minor quibble. Mangold and his star have produced a visceral, often moving drama with an end-of-an-era tone worthy of Sam Peckinpah. It also helps that Jackman and Stewart bring A-game performances to a veritable Dark Knight of X-Men films.