It is a lot of fun. But for everything going on, it rings surprisingly hollow.
Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, finds his entire reality at risk of obliteration. In a desperate attempt to save those he cares about, he finds a Wolverine from another reality. But can this team-up work at all?
The meta narrative is strong with this one.
Actor Ryan Reynolds found his calling into the superhero genre when first playing Wade Wilson in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. However, the character was badly handled, and ever since then Reynolds and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) never got a chance to work together. 2017’s Logan, directed by James Mangold, was a heartfelt, sincere send-off for this iteration of Wolverine. Even Jackman was happy to leave it there.
Then 20th Century Fox, the studio behind the Deadpool movies 1 and 2, and all the X-Men movies including Logan, were bought by Disney/Marvel Studios. Audiences were amused, but also anxious, that the R-rated “merc with a mouth” was now inside the House of Mouse. What did this mean for the X-Men characters and the MCU as a whole? Plus (in 2024 at least) the MCU is on a downward trend, and could drag the whole comic book genre down with it.
During this time, Reynolds and Jackman were making fun comments at each other over the Internet and social media. Eventually, Reynolds announced a new Deadpool movie, but more than that; Jackman would actually return as Wolverine.
Some say that a new Deadpool movie is what’s needed to save the MCU… Some say it succeeded. Did it?
Directed by Shawn Levy (The Adam Project) the movie itself, like the two before it, is a lot of fun and very outrageous. It is wall-to-wall inside jokes and references; audiences will be hard pressed to keep track of all the verbal winking going on. Not a scene goes by without at least two references to someone or something, either real or fictional. Incredibly, this doesn’t get tiresome. Mostly because the film generates more and more targets for its cynicism and japery as it goes along.
Reynolds and Jackman are having a blast, clearly. Their chemistry is excellent. It seems unlikely that this will happen again, and they do a lot with 120 minutes to make it worthwhile. There are other character actors in here too, who shall not be named because spoilers, who are massively enjoying themselves also. Unfortunately, a lot of the best parts of this film are behind spoilers!
The film is far bloodier than any other MCU entries, and characters swear constantly. This might be an obvious statement, but it is fair to say that the Deadpool “brand” is maintained despite the Disney funding.
While we are talking about studios, another surprising element of the film is that… it is a love letter to 20th Century Fox. Indeed, the colossal studio that brought audiences so many great movies, now consumed by Disney, is given a bittersweet swansong here.
Of course, similar to Logan (although dialled up to eleven) if you don’t have working knowledge of the last 25 years of comic book movies… a lot of the references will fly over your head! But these references go beyond just the X-Men movies, it goes into studio troubles and dead movie projects. Even current development difficulties within Disney Marvel!
Structurally, the film has problems.
Again, this has everything to do with the multi-verse. Amusingly, this does not escape Deadpool’s self-awareness either: the character remarking that the multi-verse was a terrible idea. But actions speak louder than words, and this is a multi-verse movie; with all the overcomplication and weightlessness that that entails.
A portion of the story takes place in “The Void”, a desolate reality were all the “junk” is dropped. Junk determined by the TVA (see the Loki show on Disney+) and while this sequence does have the best scenes, it acts as a convergence for anything to happen. The story sloshes around listlessly as characters fight each other on a whim, villains emerge who are tenuously connected to the emotional narrative.
The fight scenes become a little tedious by the third act. A big battle in The Void feels like the finale, but then another battle follows immediately.
It is hard to request that a Deadpool movie have integrity without being laughed out of the room. But the film does try to give Wolverine a more poignant story as well. The whole package doesn’t feel as genuine as say… Logan, did.
This review feels negative, but only because the positives cannot be expressed without spoiling them. If you enjoy the previous Deadpool movies, you will enjoy this one (the caveat being: the multi-verse). There are hundreds of references, and not just comic book ones, but ones for cinephiles as well! So the overall effect is positive.
Will it save the MCU? Absolutely not.
Additional Marshmallows: Also, very confused about this taking place after (and in the same reality of) Logan. A film that was resolutely far into the future, a future without the X-Men. While the Deadpool movies (including this one) have Xavier’s mansion, the X-Men, even the Avengers, in them.