Home Video: 'Logan'

Even if you never, ever watch superhero movies, you should consider checking out Logan (out now on 4K Ultra HD,Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD). It's the final chapter in the tale of the X-Men's Wolverine, but the movie is more of an R-rated western than another chapter in the increasingly complicated Marvel tale.

In fact, this R-rated movie plays more like Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven or last year's Hell of High Water. A lone gunslinger (well, clawslinger) meets his spiritual heir as he faces the end of his ride.

Deadpool broke the barrier on R-rated superhero movies last year, but that one was all about satirizing the genre and celebrating just how much cursing and how many dirty jokes they could cram into one movie.

Director James Mangold and star Hugh Jackman agreed to make one more Wolverine movie if they were given the opportunity to do exactly what they wanted and they created the kind of elegaic western that Mangold previously delivered in his 2007 remake of 3:10 to Yuma.

%embed1%

You don't really have to know everything that Logan and Professor X (Patrick Stewart) have gone through in the other X-Men movies to appreciate the relationship they have while living in hiding somewhere in the desert. A young mutant (Dafne Keen) is being chased by shadowy forcers (led by Boyd Holbrook) and Wolverine is forced to come out of retirement to face the threat.

The movie's extras include Logan Noir, a beautiful black-and-white transfer of the movie. It's not really a necessary addition but Logan is the kind of movie you'll watch more than once and the alternate version is worth checking out. James Mangold gives an excellent audio commentary, one that emphasizes just how much thought and care went into this production.