Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine, directed by Shawn Levy, is the kick in the nuts (if you expect a nonviolent review of anything Deadpool, you had better click the back button now) that the Marvel Cinematic Universe needed (MCU) after serving up dud after dud since Avengers: Endgame. It might be more an ad for Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox (as you can expect there is a lot of fourth wall breaking and a lot of digs at Fox, Disney and Marvel) than a movie with a storyline but it is definitely as entertaining as you would expect a film with two of the most iconic — and dare I say, impossible to recast — characters from the Marvel universe in the lead.
There is very little in terms of plot and what there is, it is very basic. Wade Wilson aka Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), who’s given up being Deadpool, is picked up by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) — if you haven’t watched Loki, then good luck figuring all that out (teehee) — and is offered a place in another universe as his is about to end because of the death of an “anchor being”, which is Logan aka the Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Instead of watching the nine people that he cares about perish along with his universe, Wade decides to steal TVA technology and hop through the multiverse looking for a replacement Logan, leading to hilarious face-offs between the merc with the mouth and various Wolverines (the opening sequence where Deadpool desecrates Logan’s grave and then proceeds to paint the snow red using Logan’s bones as weapons is, of course, the best).
Wade finds the grumpiest, drunkest and meanest Wolverine of them all and drags him to the TVA only to be dumped in the Void, straight into the clutches of the very bald and very evil telekinetic Cassandra Nova, played by Emma Corrin (Marvel villains, barring a scant few, are mostly one-note across the multiverse, and that doesn’t seem to have changed). The rest of Deadpool & Wolverine is a bloody (oops, we meant buddy) road trip across the Void (that Honda Odyssey never stood a chance). And it is here, when Reynolds and Jackman are left together on their own, that the movie soars.
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman promote Deadpool & Wolverine in Rio de Janeiro. Marvel Studios on Instagram
They are the beating heart of the film and you can see that the actors have given it their all. Their chemistry is so natural and the banter so easy that you wish that the team-up wouldn’t be a one-time thing (it is truly everything that fans could have wanted). Even with a paper-thin background story (of course someone or many someones died), Jackman imbues Wolverine with the anger, hurt and self-loathing that adds nuance amidst all the blood, gore and dick jokes (yes, most of them land). Reynolds, who is also co-writer and producer, brings the same energy and verve and quippy one-liners that we have loved. The on-screen fawning might be all one-sided, yes Wade can’t keep his eyes off Logan, but the itch for sure is mutual.
Deadpool & Wolverine is also shameless (if glorious) fan service, bringing in-jokes, deep cuts, cameos and more that are meant to get fans in the hall on their feet cheering and hollering (I might have gone slightly deaf in my right ear). It is especially a treat for Marvel fans who date back to a time before the MCU, growing up with the X-Men, The Fantastic Four and more (oh, that cameo was the cameo to beat all cameos) and providing them some closure (as one cameo says, ‘it will give us a proper ending’). Not to say that there isn’t enough to celebrate for the casual fan.
Is it the best Deadpool movie yet? Hmm. Is it a rip-roaring two-hour ride? How could it not? But what it definitely is, is the adrenaline shot that the MCU badly needed. Welcome to the MCU indeed.
