Movie Review – Deadpool & Wolverine
Principal Cast : Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Aaron Stanford, Matthew Macfadyen, Karan Soni, Brianna Hildebrand, Shioli Kutsana, Dafne Keen, Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes, Chris Evans, Channing Tatum, Jon Favreau.
Synopsis: Deadpool is offered a place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by the Time Variance Authority, but instead recruits a variant of Wolverine to save his universe from extinction.
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This review contains major spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine.
In September 2022, Ryan Reynolds did his best to “break the internet” when he dropped an announcement trailer involving his popular fourth-wall-breaking comic book character Deadpool, in which he surprised fans by indicating that fan favourite, Hugh Jackman, would reprise his iconic Wolverine (last seen and supposedly killed off in Logan) in a team up movie. Naturally, the fast-talking mutant and his adamantium-powered X-man associate seemed like a perfect team-up, although a sequel to both Deadpool and Deadpool 2 had been stymied somewhat by the eventual acquisition of 20th Century Fox by entertainment behemoth Disney, the owners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in 2019 just prior to the release of Avengers: Endgame. The ongoing “celebrity war” between Reynolds and Jackman, whose jibes and ribbing of each other in their respective private lives, as well as the continued the prodding of Reynolds’ Deadpool towards the reluctant Jackman reprising his iconic character, had fans salivating at the through of these two appearing in-continuity and on-screen together, not to mention wondering exactly how Marvel might manage to bring the foul-mouthed mercenary across into the PG-13 MCU proper. To suggest that Deadpool & Wolverine has a lot to accomplish within its violent, vulgar adventure is an understatement; thankfully, what Reynolds, Jackman and director Shawn Levy have delivered will satisfy most fans of these characters as well as comic book fans generally.
When he learns that his universe is about to come to an end, Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool (Reynolds) is given an opportunity by a rogue TVA agent, Mr Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) to become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a long-held dream by Wilson, although it will mean the deaths of everyone he’s ever known and loved. In order to save them, he must somehow return to life his universe’s “anchor being”, in the form of Logan (Hugh Jackman), to reset the timeline. Trouble is, the Logan of Deadpool’s universe is really, truly dead (as flashbacks of Logan indicate), so Wilson ends up finding an alternative Logan to save the day. However, when things go wrong, Logan and Wilson are transported to the Void, where the remnants of the 20th Century Fox Cinematic Universe have been sent to die, and confront the powerful mutant Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), who seeks to destroy all timelines including the Sacred Timeline (that contains the MCU proper). While in the Void, Deadpool, Logan and a gaggle of former big screen variants of popular Marvel characters, notably Blade (Wesley Snipes), Elektra (Jennifer Garner), and Gambit (Channing Tatum), must take the fight for their respective timelines to Cassandra in an effort to save Deadpool’s, even if it means sacrificing themselves.
Populated by a swathe of cameo appearances, a couple of legitimate surprises, and the easygoing chemistry of the Ryan Reynolds/Hugh Jackman bromance, Deadpool & Wolverine is a vulgar, violent, discombobulating meta-romp as only the fourth-wall breaking antihero can muster – this is the definitive Deadpool film, thanks largely to superb comic delivery, some jaw-dropping action sequences, and an emotional coda to what surely must now be Jackman’s final time playing Wolverine in any lengthy capacity. As a send-off to the 20th Century Fox stable of Marvel characters, of which Wolverine and Deadpool were the most well regarded by the fan community, Free Guy director Shawn Levy, Reynolds and the three other credited writers of this thing have performed something of a public service not only to the long-suffering superfans but almost nobody else at all. My non-comic-book-fan wife, who saw this film a week before I did as part of her job, remarked that with the exception of the TVA, a returning conceit from the Loki television show on Disney+ that she’s enjoyed, she had almost no idea what was going on or who anybody was (other than, of course, the title stars), which means that folks going into this movie without a comprehensive understanding of both the on-screen history of the likes of Jennifer Garner’s Elektra, Wesley Snipes’ Blade, Aaron Stanford’s turn as Pyro, or even Chris Evan’s pre-MCU turn as Johnny Storm from Tim Story’s Fantastic 4 films, will likely be agog with incomprehension at what transpires here.
The film references almost every aspect of the Fox X-Men franchise, plays up the addition of Channing Tatum’s famously aborted attempt to get a Gambit movie made, dances across the carefully assembled scaffolding of the MCU’s current “multiverse” storyline (as well as suggesting it’s all sucked until now, in a massive LOL to Kevin Feige), and allows both Ryan Reynolds’ verbally unchallenged Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s angry, violent psychopath Wolverine to slash, dice, slice and tear their way through an avalanche of faceless henchmen – and each other – in one of the bloodiest comic book films ever made. The film overflows with gore and body-shredding violence, a particular delight of the Deadpool franchise and an ante well and truly upped with Levy’s endeavour here, commencing with a gratuitous opening credit sequence set to the Backstreet Boys “Bye Bye Bye”, perhaps indicative of the “grand finale” tone the movie takes overall. After all, it’s rare that a major motion picture attempts to placate and pay homage directly to the fans, but Reynolds’ ability to play up this often fractious relationship with the notoriously picky core base means he really has a lot of latitude here to absolutely take the piss.
The script’s central plot is an absolute nonsense and really means little other than getting us into the frame with former Fox-owned characters, and several of the franchise’s favourite stars return in extended cameos or legitimate co-starring turns. It made me smile to see them give Jackman and Logan co-star Dafne Keen another moment together, following their emotional work in Jackman’s seminal turn as the character, while the addition of Channing Tatum as the superpowered Canuck Gambit, a longtime favourite of comic readers, gave me some warm fuzzies of nostalgia, as well as PTSD from reading Aintitcoolnews.com. It might be safe to criticize Deadpool & Wolverine as pandering in almost every respect, and pander hard it absolutely does, but there’s a soft-hearted affection remaining for Jennifer Garner’s ill-written Elektra, or Wesley Snipes’ outright arrogance towards Reynolds whilst filming Blade: Trinity that seems to set the world right here, so perhaps underneath the glut of wanton destruction and death there’s… I don’t know, genuine love for them all? It puts Emma Corrin’s quite frightening Cassandra Nova, the brother of X-Men favourite Charles Xavier – the film does not see the return of Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Michael Fassbender or James McEvoy as Magneto or Xavier in any form within the narrative, somewhat disappointingly – in the spotlight and as a foil for the star wattage of Reynolds and Jackman she more than holds her own, displaying a particularly creepy power to invade folks’ minds as she sees fit, and I commend Corrin for giving the role a real sinister turn without kneeling into pantomime.
As fun and funny as Deadpool & Wolverine is, and it is quite hilarious at times with Reynolds’ continual meta-referencing real-world events and people as if he walked past them only yesterday, one of the big surprises is just how emotionally resonant it all is. Now, I caveat this statement by referring back to my earlier description of the film’s incomprehensible-ness to those unfamiliar with the deep cuts of the 20th Century Fox era Marvel hero universe, because a lot of this movie’s core emotional underpinning is served by both Jackman’s two decades of portraying Wolverine and Reynolds’ biting satirising and ribbing of it, and that will be a stumbling block if this is your first entry into the Marvel universe – but let’s face it, that’s unlikely even if it is perhaps the biggest criticism I could lay at the film. Shawn Levy’s command of the action is pretty decent to excellent (at times), although he lacks the genuine action sensibility of previous instalment helmers Tim Miller or David Leitch (the latter now the kingpin of the John Wick franchise). There’s also a weird blandness to the film’s colour palette that irked me somewhat, with Jonathan Sela’s cinematography feeling… how to say it… un-atmospheric? Incomplete? It’s as if a sheet of thin white paper was covering the lens the whole time, muting the gaudy colours of Wolverine’s legendary yellow costume (worn by Jackman for the vast majority of the movie, which surprised me) but still managing to make the red of Deadpool’s spandex absolutely pop. The film’s extensive computer generated effects looked seamless on first watch with a few exceptions – and one major one I won’t spoil here – but overall the cinematic quality of Deadpool & Wolverine is of the budget and production value one expects from a major release such as this.
It should also go without saying that the Deadpool franchise’s exquisite needle-drop soundtracks continue with this film, as several supremely funny song choices accompanying various action beats throughout with hilarious comic effect. One might never think about Madonna the same way again, and I’ve been thinking about her in various ways for forty-something years. Key to the fun is just how un-seriously everyone is taking this, juxtaposing some of the best earworm tracks of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s in inventive ways that make one chuckle with the insanity of it all. One suspects that the poking of fun at the stars’ expense became the mantra to the film’s production, with references to Jackman’s musical theatre/film career and Reynolds’ marriage to Gossip Girl star Blake Lively being among the funniest, blink-and-miss-them moments. A key sequence sees Deadpool and Wolverine lay down the smack against an army of multiversal Deadpools, including Lady Deadpool, voiced by Lively, which is one of the film’s standout action setpieces and arguably one of its funniest. There’s a de-aged version of Reynolds’ playing Nicepool, a Fabio-looking version of Wade Wilson who, unfortunately, doesn’t have the power of regeneration to keep him from dying horribly, which is quite fun. And it’s also worth a mention of the inclusion of Britain’s ugliest dog, Peggy the pugese, as the awfully cute (but horrendously ugly) Dogpool; this ongoing gag forced tears of laughter from my eyeballs with its hilarious antics. There’s far too many fun moments to list individually in this spoiler review, but the referential acknowledgement of the Deadpool’s storied history in the comics, not to mention the use of many members of Ryan Reynolds’ family as sidebar cameo performances, is another charming addition.
Deadpool & Wolverine won’t solve the ongoing complaints levelled at the MCU since Endgame that the studio has dropped the creative ball with its Multiverse storyline (a point referenced in-film by Deadpool himself) but it will satisfy long-time comic book movie fans with several sweet sendoffs, a couple of nice cameo surprises, and a universe-shattering plot used simply as an excuse for Deadpool and Wolverine to slaughter half the known universe. In Deadpool trying to save his “family”, including Blind Al (Leslie Uggams, given far too little to do here), Peter Wisdom (Rob Delaney) and former love-interest Vanessa (Morena Baccarin, whose arc in this movie is the most indistinct out of everyone), the film finds itself working best when focusing on the Jackman/Reynolds’ pairing in the forefront, which is to say quite often. It’s crass, operatically violent in the best possible way, juvenile and anarchic, freewheeling with its skewering of intellectual property, and uniting in the way only Deadpool’s multiverse-hopping shenanigans can achieve. A delightfully fun entry into the MCU, without actually nudging the MCU proper into gear (that’ll have to wait for the Fantastic Four, more Avengers, and the anticipated unveiling of an all-new re-cast X-Men subgroup in years to come), Deadpool & Wolverine is a savagely fun payoff to two decades of comic book creativity fraught with disappointment and joy that many will find surprisingly emotional. An absolute blast from start to finish.
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