The Doctor’s Diagnosis: B+
Marvel Jesus, indeed. Deadpool & Wolverine has arrived to resuscitate the Marvel Universe, the once unstoppable juggernaut that has been on life support in recent years due to a string of critical and commercial flops (with the exception of the excellent Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3). The enormous box office grosses for the film are, at least momentarily, restoring momentum for the Marvel brand and the movie itself is a hell of a lot of fun. It’s completely nonsensical, sure, but I doubt that audiences care about such trivialities. In the moment, I didn’t care too much either. While this script certainly won’t be studied in film school any time soon, Deadpool & Wolverine is about fun moments and it has a frigging ton of them.
The plot….alright, I’ll give it a shot. Since the events of Deadpool 2, Deadpool has broken up with his girlfriend Vanessa. Why does he always have to be separated from Vanessa, no matter how little it has to do with the plot? I have no idea. He also, at some point, travelled to the main Marvel timeline and auditioned for the Avengers. How does this fit into the timeline? I have no idea. In response to these developments, he abandons his life as Deadpool and becomes a used car salesman.
But then he is kidnapped by an organization called the Time Variance Authority (TVA). Apparently, the TVA was introduced in one of the television shows and Marvel assumes that I am, therefore, familiar with them (I’m not and don’t really care). The TVA explains that Deadpool’s universe is dying because that universe’s Wolverine is dead and he is that universe’s “anchor being.” Sure, so that’s a thing now. So the TVA wants Deadpool to go to the main Marvel Universe because…..I don’t know. But instead Deadpool goes into the multiverse to find another Wolverine and….look, the plot sucks.
Alright, sorry, one other thing about the plot. I loved Logan. I even ranked it as the best movie of 2017 and was I worried about this movie resurrecting Wolverine and undoing that movie’s legacy. The writers of Deadpool & Wolverine must have also shared this concern and decided that if you are going to fuck something, then you might as well fuck it hard. This movie goes so hilariously over-the-top in desecrating Logan, to the point of quite literally dancing on its grave, that it was absolutely hilarious. It transcends being disrespectful, somehow going so far that it comes full circle and becomes respectful again. On the other hand, the timeline again makes no sense. Logan took place in a collapsing society in 2029 (not quite post-apocalyptic, but kind of like the first Mad Max movie) that is clearly not the same world as the Deadpool movies. So, again, the movie really doesn’t make much narrative sense.
But fuck it. You probably aren’t going to see this movie for a well-constructed plot. Audiences are flocking to this movie to have a good time and, damn, does it deliver. It is basically a road trip movie with Deadpool and Wolverine travelling through the multiverse and taking shots at each other, the Marvel Universe, the concept of a multiverse, etc. While I didn’t laugh as hard as I did during the original Deadpool, I have to give Disney credit for allowing this many jokes at their expense. The frequent digs at the deteriorating quality of the MCU and the overall shitshow that has been the multiverse are both hilarious and a sad reminder of the last few years of Marvel movies. Coming at this point in the MCU, the humor here is more cynical than in previous Deadpool movies, but necessarily so. It reminds me a bit of The Matrix: Resurrections…no, not in terms of quality. That movie is a dumpster fire. But both movies are hyper-aware of the corporate need for their existence and acknowledge the cynicism of their own creation. The difference is that Deadpool & Wolverine translates that self-awareness into an entertaining movie.
Feels odd for me to give Disney credit twice in one review, but they did allow Deadpool to let his R-rated flag fly. The action and violence in the film are top notch and, although a little anti-climactic after Logan, it is nice to see Wolverine allowed to go into slashing berserker mode and again escape the restraints of the PG-13 rating. The fights between Deadpool and Wolverine (and there are several) are fun as hell, just as fun as seeing these two mow down bad guys together. The action, though still heavy on CGI, is creatively executed, particularly an extended brawl down a street that reminded me of the infamous hallway scene in Oldboy.
I have to deduct some points because the plot makes little sense and the villain(s) are completely forgettable, but most people won’t care. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman have great chemistry, the action is solid, most of the jokes are funny and, yes, there are some fun cameos. Unexpectedly, Deadpool & Wolverine feels much more like an epitaph for the 20th Century Fox era of Marvel movies than it does a launching point for the next era of the Marvel Universe. I expected to see much more overt groundwork laid for the full arrival of the X-Men in the coming years, but the movie feels oddly more about closure than expansion. I’m sure that sentiment will be ruined in the coming years, but Deadpool & Wolverine is a much better sendoff than the majority of those movies deserve. Almost like Deadpool is absolving them of their sins.
Image by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadpool_%26_Wolverine#/media/File:Deadpool_&_Wolverine_poster.jpg
