Cape Town - For anyone who is a fan of X-Men, the tormented, but gentle-natured Logan, or Wolverine, is one of the most difficult to love characters from the group.
He is stubborn, rubbish at communication and a terrible team-mate, but after following his life story – which has guided the narrative of the X-Men series – it’s impossible not to empathise with his messed-up life and draw parallels between his and your own.
At some stage everyone has to look in the mirror, like he does, and ask what the world has made you into. What sort of mutant have you become? In Logan, the latest offshoot of the X-Men franchise, we fast-forward 12 years into his future to find a man who is broken, and a worse Wolverine than he has ever been – drunk, dirty and extremely dangerous, a mutant who has run, and hid, from the world.
It’s classic X-Men, and up there with the best of them.
But the film is not, like so many are saying, “the best X-Men film ever.” Yes, it has all the magic, action and danger that the films have become known for, but it also features a cast of children whom I can’t help but feel uncomfortable sharing the company of such violence with.
For the first time, I cringed having to see the extremely brutal blood and gore that their cute little faces are dragged into for the sake of the drama.
Still, for anyone who has watched the films, this is essential viewing. It’s super-gruesome, superhero popcorn to the max, so take something (or someone) to hide behind.