Deadpool & Wolverine Goes All Out for the Fans with Multiversal Madness: Review

The post Deadpool & Wolverine Goes All Out for the Fans with Multiversal Madness: Review appeared first on Consequence .

The Pitch: Your friendly neighborhood Deadpool ( Ryan Reynolds ), at the beginning of his fateful team-up with new pal Wolverine ( Hugh Jackman ), isn’t in the best of places. Having put aside his vigilante ways for a quiet existence, Wade Wilson is happy to have good friends in his life, but said life feels like it’s lacking meaning — it definitely doesn’t help that his minor existential crisis led to longtime love Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) ending their relationship.

Wade gets a good reason to snap back into action, though, when agents from the Time Variance Authority sweep him back to their headquarters, where an official by the very plausible name of Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) informs him that Wade’s timeline is about to be mercy-killed. So now Deadpool’s gotta search the multiverse to find a Wolverine (2017’s Logan , streaming on Disney+ , reveals the fate of his world’s Wolvie) who can help save his timeline — and more importantly, the people in it he loves.

He might need some additional help. From other… familiar faces. There’s no Taylor Swift cameo. But beyond that, everyone’s fair game.

These Timelines Can Get So Confusing: It’s worth doing whatever you can to avoid spoilers for the cameos packed into Deadpool & Wolverine , which doesn’t disappoint when it comes to delivering some truly wild and hilarious deep cuts. Expectations on that level are of course pretty high, considering the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s overall love for in-jokes and references , not to mention the Deadpool series’ deeply meta storytelling. Yet Mr. Pool’s official entrance into the MCU leans harder than ever on details designed to be appreciated by long-standing fans of these films and series.

There’s so much of that packed into the film that it’s probably for the best that the emotional arc of the film is a very, very simple one: Deadpool is lacking purpose, until purpose literally knocks on his front door and tells him his universe is ending. It’s a smart choice on the part of the five credited writers on this film, who maybe leave some key details a little vague as to how cast members from these various universes connect, but still keep the focus on Deadpool and Wolverine, together at last.

A Nice Pair of Smooth Criminals Down Under: In this review, I’m trying to avoid mentioning so many of the movie’s more surface-level delights — the deepness of some of these deep cuts, not to mention the degree to which Deadpool’s running meta-commentary winks at very real issues within the MCU. However, it feels safe to say that if you are buying your movie ticket because you want to see Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool fight Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, an army of trained professionals have worked very hard to make your dream come true. (Maybe more than once, over the course of the film’s two-hour and seven-minute runtime.)

Deadpool & Wolverine (Disney)

Gaston in the Australian touring company of Beauty and the Beast aside, Wolverine was the role that made Jackman a full-tilt movie star, and while his portrayal of the character has evolved over the past twenty-four years (cue a sigh over the passing of time), it remains definitive, and impossible to imagine replicating with another.

This is perhaps why Wolverine is the one major X-character who has yet to be played by another actor (if you don’t count Troye Sivan as the younger Logan in an X-Men: Origins flashback), and maybe even why Deadpool and Wolverine features a running joke about Jackman being brought back to play Logan “until he’s 90.” The point is, Jackman is as good as ever, bringing out the character’s essential tortured gruffness with no shortage of vulnerability, and thus providing a solid odd-couple pairing with Deadpool’s merry-prankster vibes.

You’re Welcome, Canada: At this point, Reynolds has the character of Deadpool locked down — rarely have a pre-existing character and a pre-established star persona mixed so well together — and has the kind of star power needed to bring in his choice of director: fellow Canadian Shawn Levy (with whom Reynolds just worked on 2021’s Free Guy and 2022’s The Adam Project ).

This film we might call Deadpool 3 is not Levy’s first R-rated movie; that would be 2014’s This Is Where I Leave You , which received its rating largely for a fair amount of adult language and some sexual material. Levy’s got a steady hand with the Deadpool action, and the R is earned honestly, yet there isn’t the same level of grown-up grit found in the previous Deadpool films; instead, this is over-the-top video game violence, appropriate for a multiverse-hopping comic book tale like this one, but not quite the Deadpool showcased during the anti-hero’s 20th Century Fox era. Those films felt more like they were made for grown-ups; Deadpool & Wolverine , meanwhile, will make a pegging joke but fail to show the strap-on.

That said, Levy has a few clear skill sets as a director: He’s great at bringing out Reynolds’ natural breezy humor (which has been an essential part of the Deadpool franchise from the beginning). He’s also a skilled mimic, which ends up serving him well here, especially when playing in areas established by other properties. One hopes that Levy sent Loki Season 1 director Kate Herron a nice fruit basket or something, because some of Deadpool & Wolverine ’s most visually interesting moments, especially involving the TVA and its related worlds, owe a large debt to what Herron established with her fresh and inventive work on that show.

Deadpool & Wolverine (Disney)

The Verdict: Deadpool & Wolverine is serviceable in its worst moments and a lot of fun when it’s really cooking. Of the cast members we can talk about, Emma Corrin in particular brings a lively yet demented air to their villain role. Yet if your expectations for Deadpool & Wolverine include a clean explanation of where the Marvel multiverse stands following the Disney/Fox merger (and other related deals), perhaps lower them: Despite the trailer’s promises that Deadpool is going to be Marvel Jesus, uniting the franchises, that’s not really the case.

Given that its R rating technically means it’s not intended for a good portion of the MCU’s core audience, that’s the right choice for this film. And delightful details like the fact that [SPOILER] shows up — not as [SPOILER], but as [SPOILER] — arguably make up for some of the confusion left in this film’s wake. From beginning to end, this is a popcorn movie of the highest order, and while popcorn isn’t the most filling of meals, it tastes good from bite to bite (no matter what popcorn bucket you eat it from ).

Where to Watch: Deadpool & Wolverine stabs its way into theaters on Friday, July 26th.

Trailer:

Deadpool & Wolverine Goes All Out for the Fans with Multiversal Madness: Review
Liz Shannon Miller