Review Roundup: Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine
When the first Deadpool movie arrived in 2016, its irreverent humor, constant fourth wall breaking, and “R” rating instantly made it stand out against the other superhero movies of the time, especially the sober-minded Captain America: Civil War. And the titular character, a foul-mouthed mercenary with impeccable killing skills, was a perfect match for actor Ryan Reynolds. 2016’s Deadpool was a massive success, critically and financially, so it was only a matter of time until the Merc with a Mouth crossed over into the MCU proper.
Deadpool & Wolverine finds our lovable antihero at a personal crossroads, and sent on a journey through the multiverse courtesy of the TVA — previously seen in Disney+‘s well-received Loki — during which he teams up with everybody’s favorite adamantium-enhanced mutant, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Wolverine met his end in 2017’s Logan, but as we all know, death is not necessarily the end in the multiverse.
So does Deadpool’s third film — which is officially part of the MCU’s “Phase Five” — inject some much-needed energy into Marvel’s cinematic universe? Is Deadpool, indeed, “Marvel Jesus”? Or is Deadpool & Wolverine just another flailing superhero movie that feels less comic book-y and more corporate?
It cheerfully (if sheepishly) makes mock of the MCU’s cosmic timeline shenanigans which permit characters to be brought back to life and even does loads of very tiresome corporate in-jokes about Disney taking over Fox, presumably on the basis that civilians care as much about this as the Hollywood combatants. Reynolds is often funny, sometimes very funny, periodically entirely unbearable, often a weird and interesting mix of the three.
By far the most fan-service sequel released under the Marvel banner — and that’s saying something, since the comic book empire panders even harder to its flock than the faith-based industry does. In the past, such shameless give-folks-what-they-want-ism might have been a bad thing, but here, it serves as a welcome corrective to the superhero overload of the past 15 years. Now that the Disney-backed Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to be running on fumes, the entire genre could use a shake-up, and this jester-like character is just the guy to do it.
A montage of alt-Wolvies gives you a capsule history of a character whose real-world brand recognition is matched only by Batman and Spider-Man, while references to things like “the John Byrne era” get dropped for the real heads. Deadpool isn’t just a chance for Marvel to make fun of itself or for Reynolds to lob spitballs at an industry he’s very much part of; the character is really the Id of superhero movies as a whole, poking relentlessly at clichés and rolling its eyes at dark revisionism that turned antiheroes like Wolverine into adolescent idols.
Deadpool & Wolverine is far from the worst the MCU has placed in front of fans since Endgame. Far from acknowledging failure and changing direction, though, the movie knowingly digs deeper into the hole it repeatedly says isn’t working. More than anything else, Deadpool & Wolverine is tiring, registering as a corporation’s refusal to accept that doing the same thing will yield the same results.
It’s hard to call this an effective salute to the Fox movies (some of which were very good, some of which were not), when there’s no real sense given of what they collectively achieved beyond existing. The exception, arguably, would be Jackman, who attacks his role again with palpable intensity, all bleeding emotional wounds and dogged self-hatred. And it would work, if this weren’t exactly the same emotional arc already cycled through in what was meant to be the actor’s farewell to Wolverine, 2017’s Logan – a cinematic legacy the film pretends to desecrate while simultaneously cribbing heavily from.
A person’s enjoyment of Deadpool & Wolverine can likely be measured by how much they love and follow everything Marvel Studios. If you’re a person who explores every rumor, dissects every trailer, and gets goosebumps when the logo hits, there’s little doubt you are going to love this movie. If, however, that isn’t you and you’re either a tangential fan or not a fan at all, there’s a very good chance it won’t work as well. The film is so niche and so laser-focused on that audience, some of the cohesion that makes a great movie “great,” isn’t quite there. Nevertheless, it’s such a joyous, boisterous celebration of that world, all of its charm and intention largely gloss over those flaws.
Hey, you’re either the butt of the joke or you’re the studio waggling Reynolds’s keister at the lens while he pokes fun at your own corporate mergers. Wisecracking about his, and their, mistakes like he’s trying to win couples therapy, Deadpool represents what mainstream Marvel flicks couldn’t do: make a hard R-rated movie with more curses per minute than a convention of witches. He’s what they have to do to win back an audience who’s outgrown them.
The overall shape of the movie can sometimes be akin to F-word abuse for comedy. It can be thrillingly funny at first, especially coming out of the mouths of heroes you don’t typically hear such foulness from (not Wilson, obviously), but by the 90th time you hear an F-bomb, it starts to lose its value and power. Still, despite all its flaws, Deadpool & Wolverine humorously diverts in the moment, but as a durable movie or even a long-lasting MCU film, it’s no slam dunk.
Having access to the X-Men didn’t guarantee that many of the Marvel-branded cape features Fox released through the early aughts were particularly good. But it allowed the studio to take chances on Deadpool and Logan, two films whose freshness felt, at least in part, rooted in their being created outside of the Disney machine. Marvel’s desire for that kind of novelty is self-evident in director Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine — the studio’s first R-rated film and major X-Men vehicle. But for all of its big-ticket fan service and willingness to poke fun at how much of a drag the MCU’s become, Deadpool & Wolverine feels like a sign that the days of genuinely exciting Marvel movies might just be behind us.
It’s hard to buy this movie as a love letter to anything but Marvel Studios’ corporate conquests. That’s one of the fundamental miscalculations behind the film. Wade is worth getting behind because he’s an underdog. But in Deadpool & Wolverine, he isn’t representing the unloved or speaking truth to power: He’s sucking up to the undisputed champ of the box office, even though that champ has earned the potshots Deadpool throws its way.
I’m not sure there’s ever been a film with more callbacks, more surprise cameos, more inside-showbiz references — even a couple of jokes about the personal lives of certain participants. It’s all great fun, and it’s just enough to overcome the uninspired direction, mid-level special effects, and hit-and-miss humor. Reynolds of course is a master at playing the rapier-wit anti-hero, and Jackman goes all-in with the return of his iconic character, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the universe if Deadpool joined Wolverine in retirement after this adventure.
Cinema history obsessives who can tolerate Ryan Reynolds’ mugging and pratfalling and verbal footnoting will appreciate that, among other things, Deadpool & Wolverine is a superhero version of a memorial service for a studio and the various franchises and undeveloped projects that were discarded or decommissioned when it was bought. Lazarus-styled IP tributes are handled with more wit and humor (not to mention basic decency) here than the AI whirlwind of rubber-faced DC characters trotted out in Warner Bros. The Flash. The movie’s wry awareness of the profit motive takes a bit of the sting out as well. “Fox killed him,” Wade says of Logan, “Disney brought him back. They’re gonna make him do this till he’s ninety.”
I could tell you all about what happens in Deadpool & Wolverine, its many twists and turns, its various themes and villains, but that would not really explain it. Deadpool & Wolverine is a Deadpool movie, which means it’s rude and irreverent, funny and disgusting, weird and a little sweet. Reynolds and Jackman are fun to watch, in part because their on-screen characters contrast so violently with their nice guy personas off screen. So much of what the M.C.U. offers feels churned out of the same factory, which makes anything with a distinct personality feel like a relief.
Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine arrives in theaters on July 26, 2024. Watch the trailer below.
