Deadpool & Wolverine

In the years since the release of 2018’s Deadpool 2, the filmmaking landscape, and pop culture as a whole, has drastically shifted for the Superhero genre. The corporate merger between Disney and Fox has now given the MCU keys to the entire X-Men catalogue. Avengers Endgame has simultaneously been the MCU’s biggest blessing and curse, with most films following it failing to provide any significant new plot developments or simply recapture what made the franchise exciting to begin with. For every Spider-Man: No Way Home or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, there’s been a Thor: Love and Thunder, or middling disappointments such as Black Widow and Shang-Chi. 2023 was the franchise’s lowest point, coming off of back-to-back flops like The Marvels and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania; not to mention an abundance of streaming shows that have only diluted the brand with what feels like homework for many casual viewers. So it would seem ironic that Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige would now enlist the help of the Merc with a Mouth to help save the franchise with its first proper event film in two years. Hoping to bring back audiences that may have soured on Marvel in the past, the return of the fan-favorite Deadpool and the resurrection of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine has all the potential to bring these universes together in an exciting fashion. However, while it might feel fairly entertaining in the moment, once you begin to ponder its many creative, or not very creative, decisions, the film comes across as little more than one desperate attempt to give fanboys what they desire, which is safe, unambiguous fan service for service sakes.

Courtesy Marvel

In the six years since we left Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), Wade has given up the red spandex and has settled down living a normal life, working as a used car salesman with his friend Peter (the delightful Rob Delaney). Since Wade was rejected from joining the Avengers and splitting up with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), he’s become severely depressed, not seeing the need to don the suit anymore. When Wade is captured by Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfayden) of the TVA (Time Variance Authority), he is presented with the reality of having his timeline erased, including all of his friends and loved ones, since the death of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) has left his world without its “anchor being”. He’s given the dilemma of letting his world die or he can choose to live in an alternate timeline where he can become a critical member of the Avengers. Choosing to be selfless in this matter, Wade steals a time travel device and sets off to find another — alive — Wolverine to help him restore his timeline and possibly mend this Wolverine’s broken one, as well. However, the two are quickly banished to exile in a place called The Void, controlled by the evil mutant Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) who is the long-lost sister to Charles Xavier, and must find a way to escape in order to restore their worlds. Sounds like a lot of nonsense, doesn’t it? Well, that’s because it is.

Deadpool & Wolverine is a cynical, largely soulless satire of Marvel that parades itself around as a largely cynical and soulless satire of Marvel. What could have been an easy going send up of genre tropes is, instead, an overstuffed, nonsensical and sloppily constructed action comedy that reeks of desperation. The opening sequence is perhaps the funniest and most energetic as it feels like the purest example of channeling the classic anarchic Deadpool spirit. We’re treated to a desecrated grave site for Jackman’s Logan, opening credits set to *NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye and some welcomingly bloody slapstick violence. The film also wastes no time commenting on lingering questions that audiences are no doubt thinking when entering the theater. Why is Jackman back after a near-perfect farewell in Logan? How is Deadpool going to fit in the MCU? Most questions are answered with a shrug or a “we don’t care” with the narrative quickly becoming inundated with Hollywood inside baseball jokes, gratuitous cameos, tired quips about the studio system and worsley, commenting and pointing the finger at genre tropes then proceeding to abide by said tropes with utterly no subversion. When a character comments on a third act flashback, you bet your ass we’re going to get a third act flashback.

Directed By Shawn Levy, a journeyman filmmaker whose greatest film is still the 2002 Frankie Muniz/Amanda Bynes comedy Big Fat Liar, this third Deadpool film finds the character’s constant self-referential quipiness to be exhausting, and isn’t anchored on a strong enough plot to carry itself on. While the initial scenes of Reynolds and Jackman fighting at odds with one another is amusing, leading to one or two entertaining fight sequences, the novelty wears off quickly. As a buddy comedy, this doesn’t work as their banter becomes practically recycled by the 45-minute mark. The character motivations are flimsy — we never really understand why this Wolverine chooses to stick around Deadpool so much and so easily — and the immediate stakes at hand feel absent. The thin, yet overly-convoluted plotting is dull, with Levy heavily relying on cameos to keep things interesting.

Courtesy Marvel

Levy’s lack of cohesion catches up to him by the second half, with the comedic tone coming and going and dramatic stakes failing to build to anything meaningful. His visual cohesion is even worse off with most shots feeling generically handheld and camera movements always causing attention to themselves in a “hey, look what I can do” feel. Not helping matters is the consistent visual murkiness, plagued with flat cinematography and settings that look like drab film sets. Most every big action sequence takes place in an empty wasteland. He simply isn’t a strong enough filmmaker to handle this many eggs in one basket. A film with this many constant one-liners and quips should not be so unengaging.

The pervasive fan service largely becomes tiring, despite some actual, unexpected highlights. To be fair, there are some shocking surprises here, including cameos from folks you would never expect to see, let alone share the screen together in the year 2024. The best cameos are the ones that vaguely serve the plot, but those are too few and far in between. Emma Corrin’s big baddie is one big nonstarter, but the character does give our heroes a foil to lean on to finally come together and dish out the few glimmers of satisfaction the film has. Even for a casual fan like myself, seeing Jackman don the classic yellow Wolverine costume is a treat, but it never feels like it enhances the plot and serves to only check off a box for diehard fans. By the time he actually wears the classic mask, you’ll see why it was a wise choice to never have him wear it in the first place for over 20 years.

Whereas the violence in Logan was brutal, you felt every limb and tendon slashed, never getting used to the brutality displayed. Here, the bloody ultraviolence feels samey and cartoonish, lacking significant impact. Some of the slapstick brutality early on is genuinely funny, but it  simply becomes repetitive and numbing by the first hour. This likely has the most amount of dick stabbings I’ve ever seen in one film and even that gets played out by the fourth time it occurs. The digital effects are flimsy, though leagues above the likes of the most recent Ant-Man and the Wasp and Thor: Love and Thunder, but still comes across as weightless. Levy also annoyingly relies on endless needle drops that take up a bulk of the film’s set pieces. Levy’s film is at its best, not when it’s satirizing the MCU or poking fun at the current state of the superhero genre, but as a eulogy for the Fox Marvel era. The end credits play archival behind-the-scenes footage from the early X-Men films and other Fox Marvel pictures, which has a bittersweet tone to them, serving as a belated curtain call. This is the closest Deadpool & Wolverine comes to having a beating heart, but the film is quite literally over at this point.

Courtesy Marvel

Deadpool & Wolverine has its share of highlights and moments that will make diehard fans lose their collective minds. Unfortunately, easter eggs and cameos do not make a satisfying film. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are a fun duo, but they’re let down by middling direction and a script that is simultaneously too thin and too overstuffed. There’s so much potential left on-screen, but the result is an exhaustive and repetitive film that should have been an easy layup, but is, instead, one big airball.

Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in theaters.