The Self-Satisfied DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE Has Laughs Aplenty But Is Slightly Less Than Specturb

Here it is – the long-awaited MCU entry #34 in which the merc with the mouth meets Mutate #9601 in the balls-out bromance for the ages. That is, the iconic characters, the ironic Deadpool, and the angry Wolverine – portrayed respectively by Ryan Reynolds, and Hugh Jackman – team up for what’s being billed as a “multiversal meta comedy,” and as the only Marvel movie being released in 2024, it has a lot riding on it.

This is something this heavily self-referential, and self-satirical sure-to-be summer blockbuster calls attention to a lot. Deadpool even snarks, “The multiverse? It’s just been miss after miss after miss…” at one point as the super twosome get deeper into their adventure, which I’m gonna to try to describe without too much detail. Also, I’m not gonna spoil all the cameos and supposed surprises in store for those that are way into this sort of thing.

This is because it’s a purposely convoluted maze of scenarios involving Deadpool’s dying timeline, which he has to try to save via Wolverine as he’s the timeline’s anchor being, but, of course, he died at the end of LOGAN. No matter, our wise-cracking ant-hero locates, through a wacky montage, a Logan variant, who he presents to Mr. Paradox (Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen seemingly channeling Tim Curry, or maybe Richard E. Grant), but he’s deemed the “worst Wolverine” so they are cast into the Void, where most of the movie plays out.

The Void is a funny visual concept as it’s a ginormous desert wasteland littered with the relics of disintegrated timelines (the weathered 20th Century Fox logo is half buried in the sand), and it’s the setting for Deadpool and Wolverine’s big brawl, which is deftly choregraphed, but lacking stakes as they both are regenerative creatures and can withstand major gashes and stabs.

From there the movie takes its cues from such inspirations as PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES, MIDNIGHT RUN, and 48 HOURS to give us the gruff buddy road trip through encounters with Professor X’s twin sister, Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) in her lair that happens to be in the suit and skeleton of Ant-Man’s corpse (“Paul Rudd finally aged,” Deadpool quips); and dozens and dozens of Deadpool variants, which our titular duo battle in a highly stylized slo-mo sequence set to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.” 

This is to all stop the destruction of all timelines by Mr. Paradox, or maybe the MCU themselves as this movie seems to be admitting through all the witty asides that the franchise has been majorly stumbling since all that Infinity stone hullabaloo ended with Iron Man dying ‘n all. 

It’s true that the MCU has suffered through some subpar entries as of late, and this film shows it’s fun to dance on the graves of the franchise failures, but a lot of the inside jokes, and quick quips didn’t land with me as hard as some of the other folks at the press screening I attended. Maybe I should have boned up by watching previous X-MEN and DEADPOOL movies. 

But that’s just the thing – according to the many lists of “what to watch before you see DEADPOOL 3,” that have recently appeared online, there are like ten movies to see before you can get every reference or call-back in this movie. This is one of the reasons there’s been such Marvel malaise of late; with all the interlocking movies, and series – only the hardcore can keep up and properly appreciate these multi-layered efforts.

Lately, I’ve been trying to get a new portmanteau going: specturb – a combination of spectacular, and superb. As in “the INSIDE OUT sequel is simply specturb” (which it is). As much as I think fans will dig DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, and will largely find it hilarious, I found it slightly less than specturb. It lives from laugh to laugh, but its self-satisfied sense of self-satire made me smirk more than actually chuckle.

However, for its entertainment value (it’s fun sized!), especially on the scale of post ENDGAME MCU, this is a winner overall, and I bet this weekend’s audiences will eat up Reynolds and Jackman’s not-so-odd coupling, and will ask for seconds.

More later…