‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ hits more than it misses
“Deadpool & Wolverine” is the third Deadpool movie, which is already an unexpected achievement. That a B-list character from a sub-X-Men corner of Marvel Comics would get his own trilogy is no mean feat.
It’s also the first Deadpool movie made under Marvel Studios since parent company Disney bought 20th Century Fox, which had licensed the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters from Marvel Comics before Marvel was bought by Disney. If that’s confusing, it’s reflected in the movie, which is also the only one Marvel will be releasing this year.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” attempts several goals: a) to be an entertaining movie, b) to gently close the 20th Century Fox era of Marvel movies while also c) ideally folding Deadpool into the Disney MCU as audiences know it. To do all of this, though, entails a lot of what might feel like homework. Is it successful? Well, it’s a mixed bag. Box-office wise, it seems to be plenty successful, already bagging the biggest opening weekend ever for an R-rated film.
Directed by Shawn Levy, with whom star Ryan Reynolds seems to have enjoyed working (Levy’s last three movies, including this, have been with Reynolds), it credits five screenwriters, including its director and star.
After using its first few minutes to establish the status quo, in which we learn that Deadpool is more or less retired as a superhero while selling used cars with his buddy Peter (“Catastrophe”’s Rob Delaney), Deadpool gets whisked away to the Time Variance Authority (you know, the organization introduced in the Marvel show “Loki”) where he gets told by Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) that his reality is going to slowly wither away and die because of the death of its “Anchor Being,” a new concept for the MCU sure to give headaches later on.
Turns out Deadpool’s reality’s Anchor Being is Wolverine, who died in 2017’s “Logan,” which makes for a confusing timeline because “Logan” was set in a near-dystopic future. But that’s nitpicking! Deadpool comes up with a plan: get a Wolverine from another reality. More hijinks ensue.
Funnier than expected
Credit where it’s due: This movie is much funnier than expected. A number of surprise cameos are a delight, tickling the geeks and fanboys who’ve been following these non-Marvel Marvel movies. One particular bait-and-switch had the theater roaring, always a good sign when you’re watching a comedy.
Alas, the trouble is that so much of the comedy (and drama) comes from preexisting information. There are laughs, yes, but they’re mostly exclusive: Do you realize just how online one must be to know that there was a “Gambit” movie that was announced but never got made? That Wesley Snipes and Reynolds reportedly did not get along when they first worked with one another on “Blade: Trinity”? Who Ben Affleck used to be married to? That Marvel have been struggling since 2019 to get a new “Blade” movie off the ground?
It’s already difficult establishing interesting enough stakes, or a considerable enough threat, to challenge your main duo. Comics fans know that Deadpool and Wolverine are perhaps the two most unkillable characters in the Marvel Universe, thanks to their healing factors (they came from the same top-secret government program!). When Deadpool’s plan goes awry, they’re unceremoniously dumped in the Void (you know, also from the “Loki” show), a kind of Limbo where problematic/unwanted figures are essentially in a sandbox.
This is how we get our cameo jamboree, but it’s also a little dismaying that half of this tentpole summer movie, the only Marvel movie we get this year, takes place in a nondescript location from “Loki.” Thanks to the metafictional nature of Deadpool, he can even call this dissonance out by identifying the specific season and episode a creature is from.
Killing blow
The exclusivity is not exactly a killing blow, but it does mean the movie works better when you know what they’re talking about. What’s almost a killing blow is how lazy the movie is at times. In one sequence our heroic duo have assembled a team for a strike against the bad guys, led by Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin). The team is almost entirely made up of stealthy, ninja-trained killers, but what do they do? Get in a car in broad daylight and drive right up to the bad guys’ front door.
Some of the fight scenes are fun (the best one takes place inside of a car), but others are unimpressive, with one egregious instance of a sword clipping through a character, an error caught in the trailer that somehow is still in the finished movie.
The worst laziness arrives when it comes to emotional moments. Jackman does fantastic work in at least two scenes. In a weirdly sad way, it’s his best performance in a film since… well, since “Logan.” Reynolds does not fare as well.
Granted, he is handicapped with his mask, but even so, the script entails Deadpool continually telling Wolverine (and the audience) how much he cares for his supporting cast of the last two movies, but we don’t see it and we don’t feel it, because all they had was a brief scene at the beginning. You can tell which scenes Reynolds and Levy were really itching to get to (hint: they’re all set to throwback pop songs), and none of them are the dramatic bits.
While “Deadpool & Wolverine” has its share of genuinely hilarious moments, it also drops the ball in other crucial ways. As a result of being overstuffed, not everything has the room to properly breathe. If cameos are the most memorable part of what might be your swan song, perhaps a reappraisal of priorities is in order.
