It’s no secret that the superhero genre is in a slump, the biggest since the mid-noughties era when studios were still finding their groove. Now, the rumours that Deadpool & Wolverine has singlehandedly pulled Marvel from the ashes are grossly exaggerated. This is a long game, after all. But it’s certainly a huge stride in the right direction.
Having been in escrow since the Disney-Fox merger in 2019, while Marvel re-tooled their plans to befit their new sandbox of acquisitions (namely the Fantastic Four and the X-Men), Deadpool’s foul-mouthed debut in the MCU is everything fans have been hoping it would be. And as far as making the corporate merger canon for more mainstream audiences, there’s no better mouthpiece to explain the politics of ‘Fox is now Marvel’ than the fourth-wall-breaking Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds).
Wilson’s timeline is collapsing and when the TVA come knocking at his door, he ends up on a multiversal mission looking for answers with the help of a Logan (Hugh Jackman) variant. It’s a messy setup but it has to explain a lot for the non-franchise faithfuls: who the TVA are; how Wolverine is alive after Logan; the existence of The Sacred Timeline (the MCU); the rules of the merger, all while giving a cohesive, coherent arc to both its eponymous characters. It’s a lot of exposition for very little plot. But the Merc with a Mouth is quick to point out “I know the title, I know what you’re here for” and the lightly-sketched plot is, essentially, just a driving force to get both Deadpool and Wolverine on-screen together. Finally.
The result is dizzyingly good fun. Irritable and irritating, the pair have been one of the dynamic duos of comic panels for years so to see them properly butt heads in such a full-blow, comic-booky comic book movie is the stuff of dreams. Jackman has never been better – treading the Logan ending lightly as well – and it’s a joy to see him fully let loose as he slashes and dismembers his way through every action set-piece; meanwhile, Reynolds is the perfect dance partner and their veritable chemistry leaps off the screen. It’s a joy to watch them together. A mid-way brawl between the pair in a Honda Odyssey is a real highlight, as is the film’s climactic fight set to Madonna’s ‘Like A Prayer’.
It’s a film packed full of surprises too. The hotly-anticipated cameos are exciting for born-and-bred fans of the superhero movie game, not in a superfluous way either but actually contributing to the plot, and the gags are mostly funny. It delivers on all the promises of a Deadpool & Wolverine team-up – violent, gratuitous, gleeful – while joyfully teeing up a promising collaboration between Reynolds and Feige in the MCU going forward. There’s also a loving tribute to the Fox-era with an end-credits montage that celebrates their 20 year slate from X-Men (2000) through to The New Mutants (2020).
For everything the film does well though, Deadpool & Wolverine suffers from the same problems that plague most MCU entries these days – lacking visuals, clunky writing, forgettable villains, and alienating most mainstream audiences with plot semantics. It’s hard to see what this will offer on repeat viewing and the cyclical nature of the narrative means it basically amounts to a lot of nothing. Yes, it’s enjoyable. Yes, it’s great to see DP and Wolvey kicking it for 2-hours. Yes, the MCU sorely needed this injection of irreverence and chaos. But its existence feels more like a primer for what’s to come than anything else: ‘look at us finally crossing over, now the fun can really begin’. Let’s hope so.
Deadpool & Wolverine is now on general release.
Deadpool & Wolverine
Summary
An enjoyable instalment in the MCU but, once again, feels more like a primer for what’s to come than anything else.
