“Deadpool and Wolverine”: The Good, The Bad, and The Hilarious

In Hollywood, the dead don’t stay dead—they are one sequel or franchise away from resurrection. Disney’s latest blockbuster, “Deadpool and Wolverine,” is the very testament of that. Here, the dead is alive to resurrect a dying franchise.

For the most part, yes. Not by being conventionally good, but by being freakishly hilarious, chaotic, and just about everything you’d expect when Ryan Reynolds dons the red and black spandex.

Disney is never one to make bets but, post “Avengers: Endgame,” it has stumbled into DCEU territory with more flops than hits. Acquiring 20th Century Fox in 2019 allowed Disney to bring two iconic characters – the trash-talking, fourth-wall breaking mutant, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and the grumpy Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) – under its umbrella.

With a mouthful budget and more characters to trash-talk, Wade Wilson is living the dream. Although not initially. When we meet him, seven years after the events of “Deadpool 2”, he sells used cars and still dreams of becoming an Avenger. Resigned yet desperate to matter, his wish is granted when Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) from the Time Variance Authority (TVA) crashes his birthday party.

Wade learns his timeline is collapsing due to Wolverine’s death in 2017 (remember “Logan”?). To save his loved ones –Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), and Peter (Rob Delaney) – he seeks out Wolverine, only to end up in the “Void,” a bleak emptiness of a dimension lorded by Cassandra Nova Xavier (Emma Corrin) and her mutant army.

So much goes on in this movie (and it’s a LOT) to make spoiler-free reviews a difficulty. As such, the plot above is all you’d be getting from here. That aside, it’s ironic that in a movie riddled with a lot of cameos, chaotic action, and blood spurting, it’s the jokes that stand out, for better and for worse.

Not to anyone’s surprise though, Deadpool isn’t called the “Merc with a Mouth” for nothing. Since his birth in 2016, his language has been embedded in the very profane and vulgar, aided by the self-awareness of his character. But even for him, some things have to be off limits. Or so you think, until you hear jabs thrown at everything from his new Disney overlords to Hugh Jackman’s divorce.

“Disney’s so stupid” literally greets the audience at the beginning of the movie and the words “Welcome to the MCU, by the way. You’re joining it at a bit of a low point,” are said while an old 20th Century Fox logo lies around in the Void: you know, the wastebin for unimportant stuff.

Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, being at the receiving end of one too many jokes, just wants to beat his ass off although, to be fair, Deadpool did reveal the truth about him: Nothing brings back the big bad wolf “faster than a big bag of Marvel cash.” Other times it’s sexual jokes about “pegging.”

Is it annoying? Probably. But you already knew that the moment you walked into the cinema. Marvel’s campiness is in full force here, sometimes to the detriment of the story.

No doubt, Hugh Jackman is the main drawer of audiences, especially now in his resurrected robe–the comic accurate bright yellow and deep blue. His grumpier, angrier and tougher look complements Deadpool’s red silly and makes for a more exciting dynamic. It’s a beautifully chaotic physical and verbal bickering that makes you think the other is a sidekick. And that’s what holds the movie together.

There was always the looming risk of defaming Wolverine’s redemptive arc, already perfected in “Logan,” by including him in Marvel’s currently messy multiverse. But the movie’s writers, Shawn Levy – who also triples as director-producer – Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Zeb Wells know all too well how to handle a character of this caliber, as does Jackman himself who is now more Wolverine than Jackman.

Levy, having worked with Reynolds on “The Adam Project” and “Free Guy,” has no trouble bringing the best out of him and Jackman. However, where he matters most, he simply blows it.

Action scenes have not been particularly his forte and he shows it with shakycam action scenes with folks running at each other and nothing to make out of it and slow-motion scenes that would rival “Zack Snyder’s Justice League.” Of course, this does not run throughout the movie, but it soils what should be—and what has always been for any Deadpool or Wolverine flick—flawless action scenes. Whatever the executives at Marvel saw in the Montreal-born filmmaker to make him their first writer-director-producer, it doesn’t reflect here.

Cinematographer George Richmond doesn’t remedy things with lifeless visuals and the usual Marvel CGI issues. At some point, you’d stop and ask, “Isn’t it pointless to have two immortal dudes fight and maim each other multiple times when there are so many tantalizing alternatives?” Apparently no one in the choreography team thought that through.

With so many things that’ll make little sense for the uninitiated in the Marvel multiverse (the X Men cameos and TVA), it’s hard not to think of “Deadpool and Wolverine” as anything but fanservice. All that “save the world” plot serves as a thin veneer for the primitive jokes, an underutilized villain Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), sometimes pointless violence, and the overall silliness packed underneath.

But again, fans likely expected this going in, and that’s what Kevin Fiege is banking on: enough of Reynolds, a resurrected Jackman and hit-or-miss jokes to keep you reinvested.

As the redemption he and his team sells it to be, the movie rises to the occasion, most definitely crushing box office records as you read this. It’ll make Deadpool’s claim that he’s “Marvel’s Jesus” all the more amusing. It may not be the greatest Marvel flick post-Endgame, but you’ll enjoy it, nonetheless.

Is there a world where Disney never acquired Fox, Deadpool never meets Wolverine and the MCU’s woes graduate into outright franchise reboot? Well, as Kanye West said, “I guess we’ll never know.” But what we do know is that “Deadpool and Wolverine” gambled on nostalgia and sheer rib-breaking fun…and won.

Release Date: 26 July 2024

Streaming Service: Cinema

Runtime: 2 hours

Director: Shawn Levy

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Matthew Macfadyen, Karam Soni, Rob Delaney, Lesley Uggams, Morena Baccarin and Tyler Mane.