Summary
A fun action film that blends self-aware comedy and fanservice in a chaotic, joyful tribute to the Fox and Marvel film legacy.
Before you even crack the lid on this third Deadpool film, a much-anticipated union between the Fox and Marvel Cinematic Universes, you already know it represents the best and worst of Disney’s recent excesses. Still, as Deadpool literally flogs the desecrated corpse of Logan to the strains of NSYNC, it’s hard not to kick back and have fun with it all.
Given that Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) has always been fully cognisant of life beyond the fourth wall, it’s no surprise that references to the 2019 Fox/Disney merger begins during the Marvel Student ident. In universe, Deadpool’s unsuccessful attempt to join the Avengers on Earth-616 has left him aimless but content in his native pocket of the film world.
All that changes when the Time Variance Authority (TVA) scoops up the motor-mouthed merc and informs him that due to the death of ‘anchor being’ Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), his timeline has been scheduled for an accelerated demise. Instead of burning out and fading away, Deadpool looks for a way to restore his world by scooping up a reluctant Logan from another timeline.
If you’ve not kept up with the Disney+ series (particularly Loki) or are unfamiliar with life outside the MCU, you might find yourself mildly out of step with some of the references and in-jokes. Of course, you wouldn’t be the core audience either. Deadpool’s stock-in-trade has always been throwing out references faster than the Gilmore Girls. There’s an early montage that throws away nods to the comics (from John Byrne and Chris Claremont/Marc Silvestri art) to the Bryan Singer X-Men films so fast that you’ll get whiplash. (The medical condition and not the Iron Man villain of the same name).
As the film eventually settles into the story proper, a lengthy battle in the Wasteland with Xavier’s hitherto unseen sister Cassandra Nova (Emma Corin), those references only intensify. Here no cow is left sacred, eviscerating characters we’ve grown to love, nodding to both Reynold’s wife Blake Lively and even Jackman’s divorce. Blood flies as fast the f-bombs as the titular characters scrap over the literal ruins of the 20th Century Fox logo. This is precisely the ‘madness’ that was missing from Doctor Strange’s journey through the Multiverse.
Sure, it all culminates in the kind of intertextual multiverse hopping hijinks (or “Marvel Sparkle Circles” in Deadpool’s parlance) that have awed and frustrated audiences over Phases Four and Five of this ongoing saga. There is an absolute melee of a bloody scrap split over two worlds that throws more in-jokes against the wall than an entire animated series. Yet even when it’s straight riffing on things we’ve seen a hundred times before, there’s still room for a few surprises in the name of fanservice.
Is DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE a course correction for the narratively flailing MCU? No, it isn’t—and it doesn’t aspire to be. This film is a self-aware buddy comedy and a love letter to the eclectic blend of Fox and Marvel films that began in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It culminates in a cheeky yet heartfelt montage over the end credits. At the very least, it serves as a reminder of the joy found in (mostly) self-contained universes and, with any luck, offers a glimpse of where the series might lead us next. Let’s fucking go.
2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: Shawn Levy | WRITERS: Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells and Shawn Levy | CAST: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 128 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 26 July 2024 (USA), 25 July 2024 (Australia)
