‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Movie Review: Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s Fan-Pleasing Antics Ain’t Enough To Redeem Marvel Cinematic Universe! (LatestLY Exclusive)

Deadpool and Wolverine Movie Review: Shawn Levy's Deadpool & Wolverine has finally been watched, so let’s answer some of the burning questions right away. Is the film entertaining and fun? Well, there are a lot of funny quips, some snarky Deadpool meta digs, and enough Marvel Easter eggs to compensate for the absence of any other Marvel film in 2024. Does it have interesting cameos? Oh yes, Marvel legacy fans will love them. Does Deadpool & Wolverine redeem the Marvel Cinematic Universe after what is, as Deadpool puts it, their low point? Sadly, no. Is Deadpool & Wolverine the best Deadpool movie, at least? I wish I could answer that positively. This is the mixed-baggest of mixed-bag movies. ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ Box Office: Ryan Reynolds-Hugh Jackman’s Marvel Film Expected To Gross USD 360 Million Globally in Opening Weekend – Reports.

Let me say it at the onset: the plot of Deadpool & Wolverine is utter nonsense, merely an excuse for the film to insert multiverse shenanigans. However, thanks to the inherent irreverence of Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) as a character who has no respect for space, time, or lives, you do not want to question the logic of it all. The film's first act involves him even taking an interview for The Avengers in the 'Sacred' timeline before he gets back to his own, and that's even before he gets plucked by the TVA (Time Variance Authority).

'Deadpool and Wolverine' Movie Review - The Plot (Or Excuse of It)

The plotlines have a very obvious layering of the corporate merging of Fox with Disney, apart from the jokes that Deadpool keeps making about them. For example, how the X-Men movie universe timeline is dying because its 'Anchor Being' Logan, aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), died at the end of the 2017 movie Logan. Its director, James Mangold, would have shed a tear or two seeing how the poignant ending of Logan gets hilariously 'violated' in D&W's opening sequence to N'Sync's "Bye Bye Bye."

Watch the Trailer of 'Deadpool & Wolverine':

Since Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, is now the most popular X-Men character with his own franchise, TVA official Mr Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) gets his men to abduct Wade - who is suffering a midlife crisis - from his birthday party and gives him a lucrative offer: be a part of the Sacred Timeline and maybe even join The Avengers. Deadpool, initially enthused about being 'Marvel H Jesus', is not so jubilant when he realises the catch: he cannot return to his own timeline because Paradox is speeding up its demise.

To save his universe, Deadpool steals Paradox's Tempad and goes on a multiverse hunt for a Wolverine variant who could replace the dead one back in his own timeline. Cue some funny Deadpool variants, including one played by a very popular actor (who actually makes a nice case for being a Logan replacement if Jackman stops being tempted by 'Marvel Cash'). Finally, he settles on one Logan, who turns out to be the worst—for he was responsible for the deaths of all his X-Men in his universe. For what they have done, Paradox banishes them to The Void, a dumping place for all variants not needed in their universes. There, they meet some other interesting cameos, Deadpool variants, and a very powerful mutant villain in Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), who heads her own army of mutants. Should have been fun, right? Then where did it all go awry?

'Deadpool and Wolverine' Movie Review - Enough Fan-Appeasing Tactics

It is an unspoken rule among movie critics that you need to keep the fanboy and reviewer separate. Yet Marvel, for most of its overarching legacy, has made it quite a challenge for me to keep it that way. It is hard to resist the giddy fanboying when Spider-Man steals Cap's shield during the airport scene in Captain America: Civil War, or when Tony Stark shows off his new nanotech-infused armour in Avengers: Infinity War, or Cap finally wields Mjolnir in Avengers: Endgame.

Post-Endgame, though, like the ones who got Blipped at the end of Infinity War, the fanboy in me was also experiencing the same process, only this time, it was much slower and more painful. Now, with Deadpool & Wolverine, I had hoped the fanboy in me would be snapped back, but instead, nearly all remaining bits of the 'fanboy' got eviscerated.

I didn't want this review of Deadpool & Wolverine to be a critical reevaluation of what the MCU has been post-Avengers: Endgame. There are some good bits in between, I agree, but the flaws that caused MCU's rapid decline is also responsible for Deadpool & Wolverine not living up to expectations and feeling very cash-grabby.

It is a travesty that Marvel and its chief, Kevin Feige, still haven't grasped why their earlier films worked and why their recent ventures have failed. Or maybe they do - Deadpool & Wolverine gets to thrash the 'multiverse shenanigans' at one point in the film and even acknowledge things are waning post Avengers: Endgame. Ever since the MCU got into all these multiverse shenanigans (triggered, of course, by its acquisition of all the heroes owned by Fox), it has focused more on fan-bait servicing rather than on creating compelling stories around their legacy characters. ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’: Major Marvel Cameos Leaked on Social Media Ahead of Ryan Reynolds-Hugh Jackman’s Movie Theatrical Release.

'Deadpool and Wolverine' Movie Review - The Weak Emotional Stakes

Deadpool & Wolverine is the best case to bring that argument again. I would be lying if I said I didn't laugh at some of Deadpool's jokes, or cheer when some of those cameos popped up. To give credit where it is due, Deadpool & Wolverine uses most of them as integral parts of the plot, though a couple of those would only be understood by people who have rigorously followed all developments within the Marvel universe (not just MCU). There were entertaining bits here and there, and the movie worked best when it stuck to its irreverent nature but lost its thread when it veered too close to its plot. Somehow, things don't really gel well.

'Deadpool' as a character is very difficult to recreate on screen. The frequent fourth-wall-breaking quips, his obsession with violence, and the jokes that tend to go below the woke belt - Deadpool would have worked best in a spoof film that parodies superhero movies. The character we see on screen the third time does that aplenty here - no one is spared from his jokes: Marvel, Fox, Kevin Feige, Jackman's divorce, Ben Affleck's divorce, how no one really dies in these movies, and so on. It is just that his movies have a harder task at hand when it comes to serious stakes - the viewer just doesn't get to feel those stakes.

Surprisingly, the first Deadpool movie did manage this because it spends a major part of the film on Wade's origin story, where he does not do any fourth-wall breaking (though it didn't ditch the R-rated humour) and builds up on his relationship with his girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). The second movie, however, struggled to maintain that emotional impact - I mean, you see Vanessa getting killed and the next scene has the opening credits making fun of it. In the end, nothing mattered, as Deadpool went back in time to save her and his dead friends.

In Deadpool & Wolverine, Wade's emotional stakes are tied to his family and friends, who are restricted to a couple of scenes. His breakup with Vanessa felt very frivolous; hadn't their relationship survived bigger roadblocks? Logan's emotional stakes felt more credible thanks to his guilt over the deaths of his friends (something Deadpool wants to avoid), which ties his arc to Wade's, except that these deaths happen offscreen. Haven't we seen enough X-Men deaths already? Didn't Wanda just snap Professor X's neck in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? However, Hugh Jackman's committed performance to the role makes us feel for Wolverine's anguish; the character, however, feels simply 'plucked out'.

'Deadpool and Wolverine' Movie Review - Stretched Beyond a Point

The humour works in bits and parts. I guffawed at the deprecatory digs in the beginning, but they soon lose their charm, and so do Deadpool's 'gay' obsessions. Even the needle drops get tiresome after a point, and I began to question whether it was my mid-life crisis kicking in or if it was just Marvel's.

The Deadpool movies also have this habit of being self-aware of their own flaws and making jokes about them. But that doesn't eliminate those flaws or make them less sufferable. Like the exhausting third act that features a multiverse-threatening villain and the heroes fighting hordes of 'enemies' that sounded fascinating at first but grew tiresome three seconds later. Also, there is such a thing as too much Ryan Reynolds.

Emma Corrin, as the antagonist, looks to be having fun bringing about her evil menace, except that her role is once again typical MCU villain stuff—nothing memorable. The action scenes are not bad, with the opening fight and the one between Wolverine and Deadpool in a Honda Odyssey standing out. But there are others that felt like a major missed opportunity in terms of how they were executed. There is a fight that could have been this movie's mini-'Avengers' moment - a sort of redemption for some of the characters it brings back - but the fight scene is so dully shot that you start to feel bad about those returning characters. Sometimes, it is better to let sleeping dogs lie. What say, Marvel?

'Deadpool and Wolverine' Movie Review - Final Thoughts

Deadpool & Wolverine is, indubitably, made to appease all Marvel fanboys and fangirls out there, especially those who have even loved the Fox Universe. There is even a nice montage of movie scenes and BTS footage of films made by Fox in the end credits, which also includes the much-derided Fantastic Four, directed by Josh Trank. The movie is a funny, irreverent, cameo-pleasing love letter to those fans, except the ink keeps running out, and you really wait for it to be done and posted so that the studio can get back to making actual movies. Better luck next time, Marvel!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 25, 2024 11:30 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).