Logan

There's something truly stirring about faded heroes using their waning strength to fight the good fight as best they can, and that gives James Mangold's Logan an impact that is both immediate and lingering. 

There's so much at stake in this last stand of the comic book character Wolverine (aka Logan), played with incomparable physical and emotional intensity by Hugh Jackman, and every victory or defeat along the way means something. It means something to the characters, and because they're so richly written and portrayed it means something to the audience as well.

That welcome substance will give Logan the kind of staying power that'll have people revisiting and recommending it for years to come. But the film's more surface pleasures shouldn't be disregarded either: this is a fucking fantastic action movie, distinguished by taut storytelling that explodes into bravura scenes of confrontation and carnage.

It's the year 2029 and everything sucks, especially for Logan, stuck eking out a living as a chauffeur when he's not caring for his mentor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart, giving his best-ever Professor X performance), whose mighty telepathic mind has become a "weapon of mass distraction" as dementia has taken hold.

Time has taken its toll on Logan as well, the adamantium reinforcing his bones is leaching into his blood and slowly killing him. He dreams of escape, either via a boat he can't afford or the bullet he carries in his pocket. But when he encounters a desperate woman seeking help for Laura (amazing newcomer Dafne Keen), a young girl with remarkable powers, he's drawn into one last battle that has him taking on an army of enemies and quite literally wrestling with his own past.

Mangold and Jackman previously teamed up for 2013's The Wolverine, a sleek and sinewy solo project for the character. It's a terrific film, but they've exceeded it and then some with Logan, creating something that should stand proudly in the company of the best action-adventure dramas of the last half-century.