After the unexpected success of Mad Max: Fury Road two years ago, it’s starting to look like any film can be an Oscar contender if the reviews are good enough. And the early word of mouth on Logan was very promising.

Now, I haven’t seen any of the other X-Men films. (Unless you count Deadpool.)  I debated whether or not to watch some of those films beforehand, but I ultimately decided not to. After all, the Academy has never embraced the X-Men movies, so if they could respect this film without knowing much about the franchise, then so could I.

So I walked into the cinema knowing only the basics about the X-Men. Despite that, I was honestly surprised at how much this film affected me.

Some critics have compared this film to The Dark Knight, and it’s an apt comparison. What both films do that sets them apart from other superhero films, is that they focus on telling a meaningful story that just happens to star comic book characters.

Director James Mangold is not focused on making superheroes look cool, instead he makes them feel human, which os so much more effective. He also gets superb performances out of Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and Dafne Keen. You could make an argument for all of them for Oscar recognition.

This whole film could easily be embraced by the Academy in a number of different categories. From the gorgeous cinematography to the minimalistic score, this film does just about everything right. I don’t know if it will earn a Best Picture nomination, but it certainly deserves it.

**** out of ****