“There’s no living with a killing. There’s no going back from one.

Right or wrong, it’s a brand. A brand sticks. There’s no going back.” – Shane

“Logan,” the ninth and last installment for “X Men” actor Hugh Jackman’s iconic “Wolverine” character, is a sprawling, action-packed, bloody, and exhausting 160 minute thrill ride. It may also be the most honest superhero movie ever produced by Hollywood, at a time when 21^st century Americans could use an urgent “reality check” from the celluloid purveyors of propaganda and silver screen mythmaking. Equal parts action movie, buddy film, family drama, and expose on the excesses of Empire – corporate greed, interracial (and interspecies) relations, wall-building borderlands politics, and meditation on our mythical “regeneration through violence” culture – “Logan” presciently captures the zeitgeist of this unique moment in US history, complete with ubiquitous references to the classic western film “Shane,” which pops up throughout the story as a reminder of our mythical past.

Written and choreographed by western-loving director James (“3:10 To Yuma”) Mangold, and set ten years in the future, “Logan” catches up with Wolverine in his twilight years, driving a beat up black Chrysler Crown Vic limo on the Tejano/Mexico borderlands. Disguised as civilian James Howlett, Wolverine spends his time caring for fellow mutants Caliban the Albino and 90s-rear-old retired professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart, doing his best “wizened yet wise old man in a wheelchair” acting), all the while drowning in a drug-induced depression – adamantium alloy’ed steel claws, it appears, are no match for the addictive power of whiskey and painkillers.

As the film opens, Howlett/Wolverine is harassed by and then brutally dispatches a gang of Mexican cholos trying to hijack his Crown Vic. I grimaced – was this to be yet another “super white man as victim” story that demonizes the dark-skinned Other? I couldn’t have been more wrong. As the film unfolds, Wolverine crosses paths with a mysterious Mexican woman and a mute young girl who appears to be her daughter – refugees from a south-of-the-border corporate laboratory experiment gone grotesquely wrong. Turns out young Laura (exquisitely played by Dafne Keen) is also a mutant with adamantium claws and a gift for aggressive self-defense – as pursuing mercenaries (big buff heavily-armed men all) learn when they try and capture and return her to their HQ. Soon, our small band of rogue mutants – Logan, Laura, and Xavier – are on the run, heading for a rumored refuge of missing mutants on the Canadian border, pursued by a baddie named Pierce (the smarmily excellent Boyd Holbrook) and his merc goons. Along the way, secrets are revealed, relationships are strengthened, and tragi-comedic circumstances ensue – no spoiler alerts, but suffice to say the ride is an epic one.

What makes “Logan” so compelling is Mangold’s focus on two themes – family and mortality. Hollywood always brings back superheroes to live and fight another day, but “Logan” swerves in a very different direction. Jackman plays Wolverine as a mutant/man acutely aware of his own weaknesses and limits, and he inhabits his character with cynical resignation, challenged by new and unexpected discoveries as the story unfolds. Stewart’s Xavier is in how twilight years, too, and struggles to control his own destiny in the face of death. The appearance of young Mexican girl Laura changes up both Wolverine and Xavier’s sense of limits, and introduces a surprisingly fresh layer of multiracial family possibilities – without giving too much away, Mangold’s move here makes “Logan” a standout movie. How the film plays out I will leave for you to discover, but trust me when I say you will stumble out of the theater in need of either a nap or a good stiff drink. Kudos to Mangold and his cast for delivering one of the freshest super hero films of our time. RIP Wolverine.