19. Logan (2017)

It’s fair to a degree, to criticize comic book movies for trying to keep things going too long and not having an ending or send off in mind (Endgame bucks this to a degree though). Back in 2017 though Fox wrote the perfect send off to one of the big screen’s most iconic comic book protagonists, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. The X-Men movies are a completely mixed bag. When they’re good, they’re utterly fantastic (see X-Men, X2, First Class, and Days of Future Past), when they are bad though they are pretty fucking laughable and terrible (The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Apocalypse). With Logan we get hands down the best one in the series and it isn’t even close. Fox’s R-rated gamble turned out to be the best things it ever did as the move allows Logan the freedom to be true to the character while also giving fans what they want. The story is also utterly fantastic, a beautiful and heartbreaking send off that Jackman more than deserved after playing Wolverine for almost two decades. James Mangold’s script also shines, even transcending the murky optics that comic book films face come award season to pick up a Best Adapted Screen Play nomination (it probably should have won). Also, there’s way to say this without being at least a little pretentious, but I’ll be damned. Bonus points here for the release of Logan Noir a black and white cut of the film that Mangold released on blu-ray on DVD. The alternative cut’s use of monochrome is moody, atmospheric, and fits the story perfectly.