All the jokes about its new setting (in Marvel’s world) and the lovey-dovey X-Men fan service cannot overcome the fact that Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are hacking about without a solid purpose.
Akhil Arora, a Film Critics Guild member and a Rotten Tomatoes-certified TV critic, who saw Deadpool & Wolverine in IMAX with Laser. He has been reviewing movies and TV series since 2015 and has written for NDTV and SlashFilm.
In Deadpool & Wolverine—the new superhero movie that ushers both title characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe—Deadpool is obsessed with doing something worthwhile. He wants to matter and serve a higher purpose. And he does, for Marvel Studios has pinned all its 2024 hopes on a foul-mouthed wisecracking guy it had no hand in creating. In fact, this is the only MCU movie in a 15-month period. Talk about timing. Deadpool wasn’t part of Marvel’s gargantuan, all-consuming shared world until its parent company, Disney, forked over $70 billion a few years ago and ate up one of its Hollywood rivals, Fox. For a Deadpool concerned with his place, this is like being handed two gold-plated .50 calibre Desert Eagle pistols on a silver platter.
When the Disney–Fox merger was announced, the MCU was arguably at its peak. Did it really need the two decades of X-Men whose misfires outscored its successes? With Marvel finding itself in a similar position, the tables are turned. Following immaterial cameos from famous X-Men faces in The Marvels and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Deadpool & Wolverine concedes centre stage to the two most recognisable ones. It’s like Princess Leia turning to Obi-Wan Kenobi and admitting “You’re my only hope.” The studio can desperately do with the cult of persona and effortless charm that stars Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds bring with their fan-favourite characters. It’s likely why Reynolds repeatedly dubs himself “Marvel Jesus” in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Deadpool & Wolverine cast: who’s back and who’s new?
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman lead the third Deadpool movie that’s full of characters and cameos from the erstwhile X-Men universe. Here’s the full list.
New Marvel universe, same Deadpool formula
The third Deadpool movie—it is, technically speaking, a sequel to the 2016 original and its marginally improved 2018 follow-up—succeeds where you would imagine it to. Humour has always been Deadpool’s forte. That is where the franchise has been at its strongest. Deadpool & Wolverine delivers in that department, too, be it in mocking other characters or poking fun at the film’s events, film structure, something sacred, what is about to happen, and what audiences expect or desire to see. While it’s happy to make light of Marvel’s problems since Avengers: Endgame and the failures of the erstwhile X-Men universe, that critical lens never seems to land on Deadpool’s own past shortcomings.
It also spends a lot of time going ga-ga, with Deadpool fanboying over Wolverine and other superheroes. It’s like having an audience surrogate to deal with all the fan service. Some of it works but some bits feel too in-your-face. Akin to pandering. Like a puppy doing its best to get some pets. That said, Deadpool & Wolverine toys with the audience’s expectations and plays on fan service in clever ways at times. Most of that is fuelled by the sprawling history of the X-Men universe and the failed careers or false starts of the actors who were once tangled with that world. But said venture’s success entirely depends on how much you’ve consumed of the past it so eagerly references and invokes.
The new Deadpool movie’s biggest struggles, as always, lie with the sincere stuff. When its stakes and situations are tackled with any amount of seriousness even for a moment, Deadpool & Wolverine feels downright mediocre. You don’t feel the gravitas or the danger because, well, it’s Deadpool. A universe where everything tends to be immaterial or frivolous, led by a guy who cannot be killed and doesn’t take anything seriously. What else would you expect? Even when Deadpool isn’t in the frame—which is possibly less than one per cent of the film’s 128-minute runtime—you don’t feel the weight of conversations because they aren’t the same characters. You can’t make me feel something when they aren’t the people I know. It’s not going to work.
A dying universe kickstarts Deadpool & Wolverine’s plot
Deadpool & Wolverine—directed by Shawn Levy (The Adam Project) and written by Reynolds, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Deadpool 2), Zeb Wells (SuperMansion), and Levy—begins in medias res as Deadpool (Reynolds) arrives at the scene of the last Wolverine movie, Logan. Deadpool believes Wolverine (Jackman) can’t be dead due to those regenerative healing powers he had. Turns out, he’s dead wrong. That puts him in a dilemma for he needs a Wolverine that’s alive.
Why? Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen)—a rogue agent at the Time Variance Authority, a body that monitors discrepancies across the multiverse—has been asked to babysit Deadpool’s universe as it withers into nothingness following the loss of its “anchor being”, Wolverine. He can’t be bothered to do that, though, for it usually takes thousands of years. But now that he can’t prune timelines in the new TVA*, Paradox has decided to speed up its destruction by way of a MacGuffin.
*While you would no doubt benefit from some knowledge of Deadpool and Wolverine’s past appearances—the former less so than the latter, interestingly—it’s funny how, out of all things, the Tom Hiddleston-led Loki Disney+ series might be the thing that might be of the greatest use coming into Deadpool & Wolverine. The TVA, and its various facets, are scattered across the new Marvel instalment.
The X-Men enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s purgatory
In the struggle to save his timeline, Deadpool ends up in the Void. (Loki fans might remember it well, as the place we met a floating purple cloud behemoth.) Think of it as purgatory, where the TVA dumps characters it deems too dangerous to a particular timeline. That’s where we meet Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), the supposed twin sister of Charles Xavier (he’s the X in X-Men.) In Deadpool & Wolverine’s rendering, it looks like an offshoot of the Mad Max universe, with a central setting carved out of the remains of a giant dead Marvel superhero. It’s very reminiscent of the oil refinery compound from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.
The new Deadpool movie uses it to great effect in paying tribute to everything lost or erased by Fox’s superhero movies being forgotten amidst the one-ring-rules-them-all nature of the MCU. There’s a particularly fun inclusion that plays on fan expectations with a bait-and-switch. It brings back a host of X-Men characters while introducing new ones or variants of ones we already know. Of course, Deadpool & Wolverine isn’t the first to do so. This invasion began with the brief appearance of Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and was followed by Kelsey Grammer’s Hank McCoy showing up in the mid-credits scene of The Marvels. But here, it’s central to everything.
Even the Deadpool & Wolverine action is played like a joke
Of course, what’s truly central to Deadpool & Wolverine are the title characters. Their dynamic fuels much of the film as they are at loggerheads for most of the running. Wolverine can’t take how much the guy talks (a predictable routine), more so for someone who doesn’t like to talk, let alone chatter. That translates into fisticuffs. The brawls between Deadpool and Wolverine are the highlight of the new Marvel movie, for the choreography is intimate and coherent. You know the stage, you can follow what’s happening, and it’s rooted in something. It’s not just for show.
The opposite is unfortunately true of most of the film’s action sequences. What really powers them is how they’re treated humorously. “Oh look, how easily and artfully Deadpool and Wolverine are dispatching their enemies.” Even when the X-Men guest stars show up, it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side. There’s no grand plan. It’s just a random assortment of cool shots stitched together. (The action is better than Deadpool 2 in that it’s easier to follow.)
Elsewhere, Deadpool & Wolverine uses background music and needle drops as an additional source of humour during fights and dramatic beats. Deadpool either dances to the song while dealing with the people coming at him or the song’s lyrics serve as ironic sentimentality to comment on what’s happening in the scene. (The last of those is the only time the new Deadpool movie’s sincere beats work because it’s baked into an elaborate joke.)
Deadpool 3 has an impossible Wolverine balancing act
Despite all that, Deadpool & Wolverine can’t get away from the fact that it finds itself in a weird place. In the desire to make a third chapter and the subsequent struggle to identify a story—something Reynolds has publicly acknowledged—they turned into grave robbers on some level. Wolverine is brought back because he’s all important. The movie literally declares him the most important being of the X-Men universe, saying out loud what had been true for Fox insiders for two decades. Fox always found a way to push Wolverine into a movie or make another movie out of him. (This is Jackman’s tenth appearance as the character.) He was basically Fox’s Spider-Man.
But in not wanting to desecrate the memory of Logan, Deadpool & Wolverine pushes itself into strange corners. (The film certainly has its way with it in a very literal scene that turns Wolverine’s death into a series of comedic beats, which is a bit like going from Thor: Ragnarok to Avengers: Infinity War, tonally speaking. Except in reverse.) “We want a Wolverine, but it can’t be that Wolverine. So, what should we do? Well, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in its multiverse era so let’s just create another.” No amount of acknowledging the fact—Deadpool naturally makes a joke about how Jackman will be doing this until his death—can hide the fact that this is what Deadpool & Wolverine is doing.
However, the biggest problem with the new Marvel movie is the franchise’s lack of investments. Deadpool & Wolverine wants us to believe that Deadpool wants to save his universe because of his friends. As a visual reminder, he carries around a Polaroid from a recent birthday celebration of his. But the cold truth is the franchise has never cared about them. This threequel cares even less. All of Deadpool’s so-called buddies are relegated to a corner of the film. Deadpool & Wolverine takes it further and does the same to his ex-fiancée Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin). As a result, Deadpool’s reasoning rings hollow. You must put in the work if you want me to believe it. Neither this film nor the ones before it has ever gotten us to care about anyone. (Other than Vanessa, to an extent.)
Deadpool & Wolverine is too focused on the now
Strictly speaking, Deadpool & Wolverine is meant to bring two fandoms together. It features the two most recognisable names from a now dead-and-buried superhero franchise—that was acquired for tens of billions of dollars—being subsumed into the most recognisable superhero universe. MCU fans who have paid no attention to the films outside that domain will be treated to a zany over-the-top fourth wall-breaking hero. Who’s teaming up with (and fanboying over) a character with such a long, winding journey that even diehards have had a hard time tracking.
Deadpool & Wolverine post-credits scenes, explained
Unlike most Marvel movies, the Deadpool & Wolverine after credits scene doesn’t set up any sequels or tie into upcoming instalments.
Given Marvel’s recent failures, I’m sure a subset of the Deadpool fanbase would’ve preferred Reynolds didn’t get sucked into this universe. But it’s also a terrific opportunity. The string of duds is ample fodder for Reynolds and Co., who make the most of all of (Fox and) Marvel’s losses as material. It’s almost as if Marvel has self-sabotaged itself to provide material for Deadpool & Wolverine. And with Marvel happy to laugh at itself (as long as it’s making money off of it), the film doesn’t pull any punches either.
Deadpool’s desire to be a part of the Avengers is offset by the irreverence and abandon with which he mocks the very world he’s joining. This is the kind of movie that expects audiences to know not just the actors behind the superheroes but also the executives who help make these movies (and recognise them simply by their last names). There’s no shortage of jabs, potshots and wisecracks but you can only coast by on those so far.
The trouble for Deadpool & Wolverine is that it’s a movie so particularly designed for this moment that it seems to have forgotten how it might be received five, 10, or 20 years down the line. How funny would this movie be when the Disney–Fox merger and the MCU’s current situation are distant memories? How might it play for an audience that isn’t tuned into the bigger universe or trying to watch it in 2054 as a standalone entry? A great movie is one that’s timeless and rewatchable. Like the character, the new Deadpool movie too craves acceptance. But it seems to have forgotten about its purpose. It (almost) doesn’t matter.
Deadpool & Wolverine released on July 24 in France, Germany, Indonesia and the Philippines, on July 25 in the UK, Australia, Egypt, Ireland, Spain, Singapore, the UAE and New Zealand, and on July 26 in the US, Canada, India, Pakistan, Nigeria and South Africa.
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