Deadpool & Wolverine

by Philip Price

Photo: Marvel

Director: Shawn Levy
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman & Emma Corrin
Rated: R (strong bloody violence, language, gore & sexual references)
Runtime: 2 hours & 8 minutes

​With a movie made so specifically for certain people of a certain age, there are bound to be as many who can’t contain their smiles as there are those who can’t muster a smile amid their confusion.

That said, give or take “Endgame” and “No Way Home” this might be the greatest trick Kevin Feige has ever pulled as “Deadpool & Wolverine” has been marketed as the shot in the ass the MCU desperately needs. It’s the disruptive force this once unstoppable franchise was seeking. And while I’m genuinely surprised Ryan Reynolds was able to convince Feige to let him get off a few of the zingers he does here, in reality, as soon as the credits roll it’s more than apparent which universe this chapter in particular has the most impact on. And maybe even more telling, which one it does not.

Listen, as a boy who became a teenager in the year 2000 and a kid who watched the animated “X-Men” series every Saturday morning, I was as excited for Bryan Singer’s movie as I imagine he probably would have been to meet me at that time. I essentially matured alongside the superhero genre — going from the infantile experiments that were those first “X-Men” and “Spider-Man” films to entering my 20s with the likes of “The Dark Knight” and, of course, the birth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper. This makes the natural evolution of where we currently sit with franchise entertainment disappointing if not completely unexpected. There had to be a fall in order for there to be a reclamation.

What’s odd is that Feige and Co. would position this film as such when it feels very evident Feige and Marvel Studios have no real intention of allowing Deadpool to screw around with their sacred timeline. Sure, Deadpool can now be used to save some face and comically course-correct specific storytelling methods going forward while abandoning others without going through the trouble of actually eating crow. Still, Wade Wilson should be offended — not because he minds being used, but because he and his trademark fourth wall breaking are more or less being abused.
To explain would mean to discuss what the film would call its story, but to truly understand would be to know most still clocking the moves of the MCU went into this movie with the expectation it would be Deadpool’s introduction into said universe if not said universe’s dream team, The Avengers. Instead, it’s a farewell to the 20th Century Fox era of superhero films whose messy, chaotic nature is now somewhat charming for those to whom they introduced these characters. This isn’t a knock on that line of thinking; as an older millennial, I am easily compelled to enjoy pandering fan service and soundtracks that feature *NSYNC and Huey Lewis, especially when both are used as tongue-in-cheekily as they are here. It is also genuinely heartwarming to see some of the featured characters get closure in largely unexpected but pleasant ways.

Still, as the movie plays out, it can’t help but feel like the tinge of rejection the titular character is dealt when setting up the plot is more personal than Reynolds would have preferred. If this weren’t going to make a billion dollars, I’d say this might have been a way to nicely lay the “Merc with a Mouth” to rest. But Reynolds, who is nearing 50, has now, at the very least, guaranteed himself the spot of commenting on, if not saving, the MCU anytime they need to reassure audiences that they’re self-aware enough to know things need to and will be changing.

The content of this stream-of-consciousness review thus far indicates the quality of the film itself, though. Between the optics of the marketing, the circumstances of the studio mergers, not to mention the Hugh Jackman of it all coming back to play Wolverine after vowing “Logan” would be his last outing as the character, these factors have been treated and executed in a fashion that more or less overshadows what is ultimately an enjoyable comic book comedy.

Granted, it does feel both very specific to and catered around whether or not you’ve seen a barrage of random flicks from the last three decades in addition to being an avid reader of The Hollywood Reporter. But even if you haven’t, there is humor to be found, e.g., “I have a black belt in Karen” and a few (not all) action sequences to be enjoyed.

So, is it disappointing that this is more the closing of one door than a new way into something that needed a fresh start? Not necessarily, but it does reek heavily of multiple high-level meetings where people came to agreements about every scene until we had a movie completely made up of compromises. 

I’m not even saying the final product doesn’t work — I had a great time and laughed a lot. As a fan of director Shawn Levy’s sturdy conveyor belt confections over the years, I found this to be dutifully made. I think it’s also important in situations like this to consider what we have versus what we hoped for. Reality vs. expectations, in a sense, to the extent that Deadpool reminds us more than once in the film that they’re giving us exactly what we’ve been asking for. Is it as well done as some of us might have hoped for? No. There are certain moments within each action sequence where the CGI models are so blatantly obvious (namely in the climactic, cheer-inducing moment fans have been looking forward to) that there is no other word to describe it than bad. Maybe not as blatantly offensive as the bathroom claws in “X-Men Origins,” but considering film is 15 years old, the look of Wolverine with the cowl is arguably the ugliest thing in the movie (which is saying a lot — ask Reynolds’ prosthetics). It certainly deflates the epic feeling that should have surrounded the iconography.

The success of “Deadpool & Wolverine” is very much predicated on what you bring to the table as a viewer — which, can be true with any film — but is very much a heightened component in this case as either a familiarity with the last 30 years of Marvel movies (not just the MCU) or a pre-established level of investment in both Jackman’s Wolverine and Reynolds’ as Deadpool will count for a lot here.

Critical also to understanding this specific perspective is I’m both charmed by, if not mostly immune to, Reynolds’ shtick at this point. Has it worn itself thin? Naturally. Do I still chuckle? More times than not, for sure. The timing and delivery in how Reynolds disperses a joke will forever bring a smile to my face as the guy has been around long enough now that his style is as comforting and reassuring as the nostalgia-fueled cameos this movie includes. 

To this degree, as initially disappointing as it was to hear Jackman would be repealing his promise to be done playing Wolverine and with that immediately decreasing the magnitude of those final moments of “Logan,” the truth of the matter is I’m never going to be upset to see him play this character — especially with the opportunity for some serious wish fulfillment on both his and our parts, I assume. “Deadpool & Wolverine” sports little to no ethos or logos, so it’s easy to understand why most will be blindsided by the amount of pathos Jackman brings to the proceedings. 

Most impressive is that Jackman is technically playing a different version of this character than before — we never met this Logan in the 20th Century Fox universe. And yet, for all the history tied to this actor playing this character, Jackman convinces us of this variant’s agony, anguish and personal reasons for joining the burdensome Deadpool on this journey in such an organic way the bigger problem for Feige is not going to be retaining Jackman (until he’s 90) but casting a new Wolverine.  

That being said, I don’t expect a lot of depth from my Deadpool movies. While the joke writing here is top-notch (the almost non-stop laughter doesn’t count for nothing, especially in this climate), the story itself is not only purely in service of stringing together this handful of sequences the movie knows it wants to deliver, but it barely holds them together at all. The story was written to serve the jokes and not the other way around. 

One might be able to glean such from the fact we’re 1,426 words into this review and have yet to mention Emma Corrin’s antagonist in Cassandra Nova — a villain who deserves more than what this film gives her. According to Wikipedia, "In 2009, Nova was ranked as IGN’s 50th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time, the only villain from the 21st century to make the list." Or Matthew Macfadyen’s TVA Agent, a pure plot device that allows Deadpool to engage with all the multiversal nonsense. While Corrin gives a performance worthy of more screen time dedicated to Nova in the future, I doubt we’ll ever hear from Macfadyen’s Mr. Paradox again unless Feige really begins banking on nostalgia and starts making "One Shots" again. 

What separates "Deadpool & Wolverine" from a different movie where the bits are such a narrative crutch, if not the pillars themselves, is how well they work. Like, I howled (HOWLED!) at the first major character reveal and was grinning from ear to ear when the cameo catwalk was rolled out. In short, Rob Delaney is a national fucking treasure and should be protected at all costs. As can be derived from the previous sentence and has been described in the (multiple) paragraphs above, I am 1,000% in the target demo for this thing. So, while we can agree the filmmaking and storytelling sport their fair share of faults, if you’re someone who’s been waiting for what this delivers, then it does just that.