PLOT: When his timeline is threatened by a rogue faction of the Time Variance Authority, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) hops into the multiverse to find the only man he believes can help him – Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). YES!!!
REVIEW: Have you ever been to a concert and wished that your favourite band would stop playing their not-as-good new stuff and play the hits? That’s exactly what Marvel is doing with Deadpool & Wolverine. After a rough run of movies, with many saying their Phase 5 has been disastrous, this feels like an everything but the kitchen-sink attempt by the company to win back those fans who feel alienated by the new direction the company seemed to be heading in. With this, you have a rock ‘em, sock ‘em thrill ride that delivers fans exactly the movie they wanted to see, with nary a message to be found amidst all the charred, sliced and diced corpses our heroes leave in their wake. It’s glorious fun.
To be sure, Deadpool & Wolverine’s success depends on going in relatively unspoiled. Sure, the endless series of trailers have given away a lot (too much, in my opinion), but the best cameos haven’t been spoiled yet, and there are some doozies. I went in thinking there wasn’t much they could throw up there on the screen that would surprise me, but there were one or two here that made me cheer out loud, despite being at a press screening with nary a Marvel fanatic to be found. This is the kind of movie where the public screenings are gonna be raucous, and I envy anyone who gets to see this for the first time with a theatre full of fans. This is going to rival Spider-Man: No Way Home in terms of their adoration.
Despite all the easter eggs (and the movie itself is one big easter egg), it’s centred firmly around our two titular heroes, with this feeling less like Deadpool 3 than something else entirely. It’s a buddy cop movie through the lens of the MCU, and Reynolds and Jackman, who’ve always been pals offscreen, bring their chemistry to the big screen under a director (Shawn Levy) whom they’ve both worked with time and time again.
Levy has closely studied all of the 20th Century Fox Marvel movies and clearly has a lot of affection for them. There are some loving digs, but none of the movies they reference are trashed. Many fans have been concerned that with the Disney/ Fox merger, all of their favourite Fox-Marvel films will be regulated to the cinematic dust heap of history, and the film is very self-referential in that regard. It puts a button on this era and hints at a possible reset in the current MCU ideology, and for the first time in a while it may leave fans excited about where things are going.
Through it all, Reynolds seems like he’s having a whale of a time reprising The Merc with a Mouth in all his glory. Wholly embracing the Hard-R rating, this is just as violent as any other film in the Deadpool saga, although the overall comic vibe does dilute the carnage somewhat. This isn’t meant to be taken too seriously, but I honestly found myself enjoying it more than the first two films (which I was cool on) and certainly more than anything I’ve seen from the studio lately. The thing is, Levy has a good sense of exactly how to make a movie like this. He keeps it well-paced, at just over two hours, and it doesn’t feel too roomy. It ends before the buzz of seeing all this crazy stuff on screen wears off.
So, how does Hugh Jackman fare as Wolverine? Despite giving the character a perfect send-off in Logan, Jackman seems to be having so much fun going toe-to-toe with Reynolds that you can’t hold it against him wanting to return to the fold. Whether or not this is a one-off remains to be seen, but Jackman, as always, is perfect in the part and seems delighted to be there spewing off F-bombs in a way he rarely could in his Fox movies.
The rest of the ensemble is solid, although given how jampacked a movie it is, it does suffer from one all too common Marvel failing – in that the villains are weak. Matthew McFayden’s Mr. Paradox is a riff on his role from Succession, with him too much of a buffoon to be taken seriously. Emma Corrin’s Cassandra Nova has a dynamite look and vibe but isn’t given much time to establish any real sense of menace. The film is too amusing for that, with it loaded up with so many gags and needle drops that this is the closest thing Marvel has ever done to a pure comedy. That statement may irk some fans, but the vibe worked well for me, as it’s a movie filled with so much infectious joy that Levy sometimes seems to almost be daring you not to have a good time. He knows you’ll love what he’s doing – and gosh darn it – I sure did.
So do yourself a favor and skip reading any more about Deadpool & Wolverine until you’ve had the chance to see it yourself. I’m certain this is the one MCU movie that’s going to please even those fans who have totally gotten lost in the never-ending sea of Disney Plus TV shows and sequels. Again, this is Marvel playing the hits, and it’s probably the most fun you’ll have watching a movie this summer.