This is definitely not a superhero movie. Nobody wears shiny costumes; the fate of the Earth is not in the balance; there are no great CGI spectacles. It is a sci-fi tinged road movie, gritty and downbeat.

AKA Wolverine, the indestructible X-Man with foot long retractable steel claws bursting out of his knuckles, played by Hugh Jackman as a cross between Clint Eastwood and Freddy Krueger.

This is his standalone movie; reviewing the previous one, I remarked that Logan’s problem was being a 15 certificate character stuck in 12A movies. Not any longer. In what will presumably be the end of Jackman’s Logan run, Fox have been persuaded to really let rip and let no area of flesh go unshredded. It’s like an action slasher movie.

The story finds Logan in the year 2029, working as the world’s most surly Limousine driver in El Paso and popping over the border to Mexico to look after a dementia suffering Professor X (Patrick Stewart) who is being cared for by mutant Caliban (a surprisingly effective Stephen Merchant). They are forced to flee when a young mutant girl (Dafne Keen) with familiar powers turns up, hunted by legions of government goons.

This is definitely not a superhero movie. Nobody wears shiny costumes; the fate of the Earth is not in the balance; there are no great CGI spectacles.

The characters are the last stragglers from the glory years. It is a sci-fi tinged road movie, gritty and downbeat.

There are some similarities with Terminator 2, in terms of it being a fantasy situation that isn’t afraid of real emotions, and the relationship between a killing machine and a kid. It takes itself very seriously but also has a sharp sense of humour, that is used to make the situations and characters more credible.

Logan is being greeted as the Wolverine film fans have been waiting for, and it is certainly a reward for making it through the terrible X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the feisty but muddled The Wolverine.

I have to confess I don’t get the big obsession for having Wolverine solo features. Outside the X-Men ensemble he seems a bit limited: all he can do is not die and slash people and be tormented about his upbringing in an experimental weapons programme.

Even though they’ve made him not so indestructible here, there is still a lack of variety plot wise and the action sequences get a little same again but in a new location.

Visit halfmanhalfcritic.weebly.com for longer reviews and a look at Japanese rockumentary We Are X.

Rating: 3/5 stars