With the new “Power Rangers” film drowning in lukewarm reviews, and with the Zack Snyder-tainted “Justice League” trailer leaving me (ironically) only interested in seeing Jason Momoa as Aquaman, I turned to a few weeks ago, when I was reminded that, yes, superhero movies can still have souls.

“Logan” is the latest installment in the X-Men franchise, and it is, without a doubt, the best one yet, a fitting final curtain for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.

Other X-Men films have ranged from great (“Days of Future Past”) to worth watching (“X-Men” and “X2: X-Men United”) to eliciting drawn-out shrieks of “Why?!” (“X-Men: The Last Stand”), meaning “Logan” realistically could have fallen anywhere on that spectrum.

But “Logan” delivers in fine style, steeped as it is in genuine emotion and tension, and featuring the strongest performances the X-Men series has seen thus far.

Set in a near-post-apocalyptic future – or at least, post-apocalyptic for mutants, who have almost entirely been wiped out – “Logan” follows its titular character as he’s asked to escort a super-powered young girl (Dafne Keen) to safety. 

Perhaps the first thing worth mentioning is that “Logan” thoroughly earns its R-rating, but not gratuitously so. Rather, the violence and profanity in “Logan” fits perfectly for an animalistic and classically rage-filled character with knives on his hands. 

Through all of the other films, Wolverine has been reigned in for PG-13 audiences, barely spilling a drop of blood and dropping only a single F-bomb per movie. 

At long last, he’s been truly unleashed.

“Logan,” as one might glean from the title, is about more than the superhero side of Wolverine – yet while we get a more human study of the character, it’s also about much more than just Logan himself.

A major source of emotional weight – and stellar acting – is Patrick Stewart’s turn as the now-senile Charles Xavier, who has all but lost control of his telepathic powers as a result of a debilitating neurodegenerative disease.

Thus, while the film allows Wolverine much-needed leeway to be himself, it’s also grounded in the relationship between him and Professor X – as the two mutants who’ve featured in almost the entire franchise, they’ve been through a lot. 

In fact, most aspects of the film feel grounded. It’s hard to apply the “realism” label to a superhero movie, but this isn’t a story about a bunch of ridiculously overpowered heroes saving the entire planet. Rather, it’s a significantly weakened Logan and a senile Charles Xavier trying to save a single girl.

The film isn’t without problems, of course, the most significant of these being certain areas of tonal inconsistency. 

This is a near-universal Marvel movie flaw – in an effort to appeal to a wide audience, the films will often put comic-relief scenes where they definitely don’t belong, oftentimes immediately after emotional moments, which creates an awkward and distracting juxtaposition. 

“Logan” has very limited instances of this (and, for obvious spoiler reasons, I can’t be specific here), but it’s still annoying because it somewhat tarnishes the fact that this is the first Marvel film in a long time (maybe ever) where we feel anything at all for its characters. 

Another general Marvel issue is the headache-inducing way they tend to film action sequences, with more shakiness and cuts than a barbershop in an earthquake, such that the audience can barely tell who’s hitting whom. 

Thankfully, though, not all of the scenes are like this, and one of the final action sequences features a brilliant long take, the camera tracking Wolverine as he sprints ahead, gutting bad guys along the way.

And, expectedly, the villains aren’t well-characterized (one of them being that vanilla political-corporate-type that comes standard with Marvel), but at least Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook) is genuinely menacing – and this isn’t the focus of the film anyway.

So “Logan” isn’t a masterpiece, per se, though it’s hard not to call it that when comparing the film to recent Marvel movies and superhero fare overall. 

But it’s an excellent and engaging character study with enough action to provide an adrenaline rush – and enough emotion for this to be the send-off Wolverine has more than earned.

“Logan,” rated R, is now playing in theaters. Like my reviews? Give me a shout on Twitter at @MovieMuseSean