Logan: Here's what the critics are saying

The reviews are in for Logan, Hugh Jackman’s last go-round as Wolverine, and the film is being well-received, with many hailing it the best film in the Wolverine franchise — for some, of the entire X-Men series.

Getting much of the credit for the power of Logan is its star, as the film is deemed a “fitting send-off” and Jackman’s “best performance to date.”

Most critics are quick to point out that director James Mangold’s film greatly benefits from being unchained from its R rating and being allowed to step away from the continued ongoing mythology of the X-Men series.

As EW’s Chris Nashawaty wrote in his B- review, “James Mangold’s Logan, the third and latest stand-alone Wolverine movie, is a strange contradiction: It’s both the most violent film in the series and the most sentimental one. When it’s not showering you in blood, it’s trying to make you spill tears. It’s much more comfortable with the former than the latter.”

Read more Logan reviews below.

Chris Nashawaty (Entertainment Weekly)

“Logan is essentially a road movie, but it’s a dark one (and a very long one). More than ever, Jackman’s Logan seems like he’s at an existential dead-end, and he’s never exactly been a barrel of laughs to begin with. Mangold shoots the film in a grungy, south-of-the-border Peckinpah palette. There isn’t a lot of hope in the movie. The stakes aren’t grandiose, no one’s saving the world. They’re saving this one special—and very, very violent child (although there will turn out to be others like her). Since Laura’s mutant physical gifts are so identical to Logan’s, there’s a melancholy to their relationship. She’s the daughter he never slowed down enough to allow himself to have. The loner has to learn to put someone else first. It’s both as manipulative and hokey as that sounds, but occasionally it works well enough that you might find yourself getting choked up against your better judgment.”

Mike Ryan (UPROXX)

“You’ll probably see a lot of internet posts where people rank their favorite superhero movies and they’ll now try to fit Logan into that list somewhere – most likely pretty high. But for the life of me, I have trouble even calling this a superhero movie. It reminds me more of a movie like First Blood than it does, say, Ant-Man. If Logan has a fault, it’s that it lays on the dourness maybe too much – but, then again, that’s kind of the point. If nothing else, Logan does try to be the most “realistic” superhero movie. And it does capture a level of realism I haven’t really seen before in this genre.”

Sheri Linden (The Hollywood Reporter)

“Even as the film’s energy drains in the later going, much like Logan’s healing powers, and long after the fight scenes have lapsed into overkill, Jackman makes his superhero the real deal. The actor, who reportedly conceived the basic thrust of the story, takes the ever-conflicted Logan/Wolverine to full-blooded depths, and the result is a far more cohesive and gripping film than his previous collaboration with Mangold, 2013’s The Wolverine.”

Owen Gleiberman (Variety)

“No X-Men movie will ever be great (the material is too derivative), but Jackman, though he’s the Superman of the bunch, has gone deeper into the alienation than any other mutant in the series. The end of Logan is genuinely touching, as Jackman lets you feel the character’s strength and pain, and — finally — his release.”

Kevin Jagernauth (Playlist)

“Unburdened by any obligations to a connected universe, Mangold and Jackman finally create a Wolverine movie that follows its narrative threads right to its organic ends. The X-Men series has always been about pushing forward the message that it’s okay to be different, and to embrace the very things that make you stand apart. It’s taken forever, but the filmmakers are finally taking that advice themselves, and it has resulted in Logan, a Wolverine movie that bravely beats with a bloody heart.”

Matt Singer (ScreenCrush)

“Logan’s momentum definitely flags towards the end, but there are some nice touches in the finale as well (including a final shot that is absolutely perfect). There have been some R-rated superhero movies over the years, but Logan might be the first that doesn’t simply use an adult rating to drown the viewer in ‘adult content’; it’s a mature consideration of the ideas underpinning its comic-book motifs. It’s also easily the best Wolverine movie of the three, and an impressive sendoff for Jackman’s version of the character.”

Matt Goldberg (Collider)

“Logan is a unique film. It’s not a game-changer for the X-Men franchise or the superhero genre as a whole. It could really only be done with Jackman signing off and with Mangold being given the authority to really cut loose and present a clear, uncompromised vision. The result is a movie that does have a few faults (like most X-Men movies, it’s a little too long), but overall Logan provides a fond farewell to Jackman and the character he defined for a generation.”

Alonso Duralde (The Wrap)

“It’s a journey we’ve been on before, but Mangold makes it an entertaining (if slightly overlong) one. Perhaps it’s just the novelty, but that explicit violence and salty language (Professor X turns out to be quite the potty-mouth as well) adds a bit of much-needed fizz to the Wolverine sub-franchise.”

Logan hits theaters on March 3.