'Logan' takes a bold risk, turns a 'superhero film' into a western

I've long felt that superhero films, when they are at their best, share a certain DNA with the western genre -- with their penchant for angsty, reluctant heroes, damsels in distress and seemingly insurmountable odds for victory over the villains.

Logan, the new Wolverine film, and purportedly the last one to star Hugh Jackman, takes my contention to a new, refreshing extreme -- it pretty much is a western -- an overt homage to Shane, one of the most iconic American westerns of all time.

I haven't seen either of the previous two standalone Wolverine films, but this film is so self-contained I don't think I've missed anything too significant. I've never been a huge fan of the big screen X-Men films either, although I thought Jackman has been consistently strong as Wolverine, and he gives a great, gritty performance here (on par with his underrated work in Prisoners) in what should be a memorable swan song for a role he first played nearly 20 years ago.

The big screen X-Men films have been too hit or miss, introducing too many characters and now incorporating time travel subplots that only serve to distance viewers even further from their emotions. I think a mistake was made early on to give Wolverine more development and screen-time than the other mutant heroes, but alas this may be why Logan feels like more of an event than it probably should.

This brutally violent film earns its R-rating, but unlike Deadpool, which seemed to revel in violence and profanity for the giddy thrill on it, the gore in Logan serves the story this time around and it's a riveting, exciting one -- a chase film and a road movie -- where Wolverine, an ailing Professor X (a terrific Patrick Stewart) and a mysterious new young mutant are on the run from bad guys who want to harvest their skills but control their population.

It's hard to view any movie right now outside of the political context in which we're living -- and the X-Men comic book's original concept being a metaphor for racism -- still rings true here and takes on new proportions (the young heroine is Hispanic).

However, this isn't a film necessarily wearing a message on its sleeve, and it is less interested in selling toys and future installments, than delivering a purely satisfying, one-off action film experience.

There are some terrific, well-staged battles in this one, the kind of unbroken, fluid action that was a hallmark of Mad Max: Fury Road. And Jackman, while still a very formidable physical specimen, genuinely appears over-matched here and that lends the film a credibility, pathos and genuine tension that is sustained throughout the movie.

It's definitely a grisly affair, but unlike so many superhero films, it feels like something really is at stake and the pacing -- which again, feels like a western -- doesn't bombard you with bloated action scenes. It gives you time to get caught up in the characters and the story and what grandeur the movie has to offer emerges gradually, as it keeps the more potentially sentimental moments from feeling clunky.

I have no idea where the X-Men films are headed from here. There have been a lot of starts and stops and having not seen the last, poorly reviewed installment, I genuinely have no idea when they are taking place anymore and what characters will go on and which ones won't.

But this film, more than any of the others I've seen, really gets at the essence of what makes Wolverine such a fascinating and cool superhero and it's a great place to start and end for fans of the comic book, as well as the animated series.

It's still early but 2017 at the movies is getting off to a stellar start.