Deadpool & Wolverine Review

It’s no secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had a bit of a struggle lately – spread too thin, films that haven’t hit as well as they’d like, and spinning all the plates has left fans feeling a bit frustrated and exhausted. Well, Marvel Studios sees you and feels your pain. So let’s just tear it all down and try to start anew, and who better to do it with than Ryan Reynolds’ Merc With a Mouth, Deadpool, with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine along for the ride?

Deadpool & Wolverine may be a Marvel Studios movie, but it’s got the heart of a 20th Century Fox project. Before Disney swooped in and bought the studio, Fox was exciting fans with the X-Men films (and, sure, to a lesser extent, the Fantastic Four and Daredevil franchises). Once Disney bought Fox, however, fans of those projects may have felt that all their investment into those movies was wiped away.

Deadpool & Wolverine Review

The X-Men films, in particular, have had their highs and lows, but it’s difficult to deny that those movies, at their best, were genuinely thrilling and poignant for the fans. The X-Men have been such juggernauts (heh) in the comics that Marvel Studios is still having a hard time making them fit with their continuity.

While Deadpool & Wolverine doesn’t exactly put all that right, it does offer a good primer for the future. It’s obvious that sometime down the road Marvel Studios is going to bring the X-Men in in a big way. In the meantime, “you broke it, you bought it,” as the saying goes, and Deadpool & Wolverine brings the Fox films – and a few others – to a very satisfying conclusion.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan

There is a bit of homework involved with Deadpool & Wolverine. The events of the Loki series impact this movie in a substantial way, so much so that you may want to watch those two seasons to get a better grip on what’s happening.

When last we see Deadpool, he was running rampant in the timelines with Cable’s (Josh Brolin) time travel device. He brings back Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and cleans up a few other incongruities in his own history. This brings Deadpool to the attention of the Time Variance Authority and, more particularly, Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), an agent for the TVA who just might not be working in the best interests of the Sacred Timeline.

Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Paradox

Turns out, Deadpool’s timeline has lost its anchor being, an individual that keeps the entire timeline from unraveling. That being turned out to be Logan (Hugh Jackman), as seen in Logan dying after saving his daughter. Paradox would rather just wipe the timeline out entirely, but Deadpool has other plans – the people he loves are there, and he’s not about to let them go quietly into the night. So Deadpool jumps right into the Multiverse to find the one person who can keep his timeline intact. But the Wolverine he finds may not be the Wolverine we expect.

Granted, I’ve only described the first 20 or so minutes of the movie, and believe me, it’s best to stop there. Because the surprises that this movie shares can absolutely be spoiled, I have to be vague on the rest of the story, but it does involve an all-powerful villain in Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), who may or may not be related to another all-powerful mutant we know and love.

Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova

Deadpool’s mission to bring back Wolverine to his timeline gets infinitely more complicated, but the movie goes off the rails in such delightful ways that I’d be a jerk if I even got into it. Suffice it to say the cameos – and it’s a disservice to call them cameos since they play a substantial part of the story – are next-level insane. One particular cameo I had no idea was coming, and I may just get a ticket for opening night to listen to the audience lose their fool minds when they see it.

There is a reason that Marvel Studios cleared the slate this year for this movie, and you can call it a course correction for the last couple of years if you want. Deadpool himself certainly would, and Ryan Reynolds gives it his all as he has done in the previous Deadpool films. Sure, everyone curses like they’re a 12-year-old boy who has just discovered online gaming in a big way, but there’s a method to Reynolds’ madness, and for these movies to work, we do need that running snarky commentary that he does so well.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson

We all thought Wolverine’s story and Hugh Jackman’s involvement was done with Logan as grand a send-off to the character as we could have hoped for, and wisely, Deadpool & Wolverine doesn’t screw that up too much (although a hilarious fight scene involving the TVA, Deadpool, and Logan’s adamantium corpse in the first five minutes certainly takes it to the limits).

This isn’t the Wolverine we remember, and Jackman makes full use of the character’s history while giving us something new with this aspect of the character. The relationship between Wolverine and Deadpool could best be described as “strained,” but they have a nice chemistry together and provide the film with some of the best comedic moments.

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson and Rob Delaney as Peter

I can’t stress this enough – if you’re even base-level interested in the MCU, you need to see this opening weekend before it gets spoiled. Parts have already made their way online. Just turn your phones off until you do see Deadpool & Wolverine, because you’re going to want to experience those surprises first-hand. It may just be fan service, but there are some extraordinarily satisfying and surprising moments in Deadpool & Wolverine, and they deserve to be experienced fresh and without some useless waste of space breathlessly picking it apart on YouTube.

But, without spoiling, I was strangely moved by just how much respect and love Marvel Studios shows those 20th Century Fox Marvel films, acknowledging the fans’ love for those movies and how, in their own way, they got Marvel Studios to where they needed to be. Whoever’s idea in Marvel Studios was to bring all these movies together in a Multiverse like this – they did a good thing here, and while there have been some bumps in the road the past couple of years, it’s nice that Marvel Studios doesn’t want to wipe it away but embrace all of it, and the fans too.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan, Dogpool, and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson

They could have ignored these movies but instead brought them into the fold in a satisfying way. A more cynical person could have called it corporate consumption, but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels like storytelling on a grand scale, and even when it doesn’t work at times, you can admire its ambition. Sure, it’s meta, but it works.

This summer has been full of inconsistencies, but it’s nice to know that Marvel Studios can still knock one out. It’s been a frustrating couple of years with these movies. Whatever happens after Deadpool & Wolverine – and you can be certain they’re not done with these characters yet, regardless of who plays them – Marvel Studios isn’t painting by numbers anymore. Oh, and don’t forget the R rating, parents. Otherwise, you might have to explain what pegging is, and no one wants that.

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE RATING: 8.0 out of 10

Deadpool & Wolverine review