Deadpool & Wolverine Review: Action, Violence and Blood Disney Has Hit the Mark!
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Where to Watch: In Theaters
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars)
There was a lot of anticipation for Deadpool & Wolverine, directed by Shawn Levy, especially to see the debut of the duo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Many were afraid that the violence and blood that had characterized Deadpool in the first 2 films would be toned down, taking away that extra touch that the Merc with a Mouth has always had. Instead, with its dazzling entrance into the MCU, thanks to Deadpool & Wolverine, Disney has shown how much it can adapt to the character and the demands of the public. The film is, as one might suspect, full of references to the Fox universe, and to mutants, but there are also several references to the Marvel universe that we know. The chemistry between Deadpool & Wolverine is perfect, to the point that Logan seems to stand out much more than Wade Wilson in several scenes. Even the plot, in its simplicity, helps the interaction between the two, which at times could have been much more in-depth and elaborate.
If Deadpool 1 was fundamentally a love story, and Deadpool 2 a warm family film, Deadpool & Wolverine is a film about growing up, which uses the key of the Multiverse as a metaphor to tell how wonderful losers are. It is also the testament of the heroes with whom a certain generation grew up, those of the former 20th Century Fox, a sort of Endgame for the old X-Men, a Deadpool: No Way Home to find old glories, greet others and – why not – welcome back some of them. It is also a beautiful third chapter, in continuity with the atmospheres of the previous ones and some ways even better. The only, small, big problem is when it tries to fit in as a Deadpool within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After all the problems and negative criticisms on products with too little bite post-Endgame, and the drop in audience and fans themselves that led to the reworking of a Multiverse that so far does not seem to have left its mark, the answer could only come from someone not only outside the MCU but also from the other more famous franchise that they will now have to insert, namely the X-Men. Did he, do it? Find out in our review!
Deadpool & Wolverine Review: Story Plot
We find Wade Wilson aka Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) six years after the events of Deadpool 2. After trying in vain to join the Avengers, he has now given up on working as a car salesman, all to stay out of trouble and try to do something good with his life. This balance is, however, compromised by the discovery that his reality is on the verge of destruction. Wearing the Deadpool costume again, the Merc with a Mouth is forced to turn to Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) to try to save his world. For a fourth-wall breaker, an irreverent citer of sexual practices that are unspeakable elsewhere under the Disney umbrella, and a constant talker about cocaine and other vicious taboos, Deadpool proves to be a great reorganizer of the Marvel Universe. Through his direct dialogue with the audience and his endless conversations about and with pop culture, Deadpool does Marvel Studios a great favor.
Deadpool metatextual narrator divides the recent history of Marvel into two parts: what worked, what we still like and regret a little (the first Avengers, the first X-Men, the direct and unsweetened references to the world of comics), and what disappointed us and what we would like to be able to remove from the plate (everything that happened after Endgame and the useless complication of the multiverse in its most recent incarnations). Watching the film, it’s easy to understand why Hugh Jackman agreed to take back his farewell to Wolverine. He is the emotional heart of the story, which treats the many versions of his character that appear in the multiverse with respect and reverence, which allows him to show a very human and suffering side of Logan. In terms of tone and approach, Deadpool and Wolverine is rarely a serious film and refrains from veering into the dramatic. It almost always does so to allow Jackman to face those regrets that dig into “the worst Wolverine of all” but which have always been under the surface of Logan.
Like Wolverine, for decades and in dozens of films he has been asked to be and do everything (the lover, the macho, the superhero, the pissed-off, the fugitive), showing his rejection of humanity in his descent into alcoholism, in his isolation, in his mutism, without ever exploring the why. Here Jackman can, in a certain sense, continue the “serious” work of Logan, also because Ryan Reynolds takes care of making the comic part of the film work, which he carries out almost entirely in first person. The beauty of this pairing is that Jackman and Reynolds amalgamate and coexist at the same time two very, very different ways of being of the cinecomic genre, the past and the present of the cinematographic genre. Deadpool and Wolverine make the old way of making superheroes coexist with the new method of making super-quotations. It’s what he does best.
Deadpool & Wolverine Review and Analysis
No, it’s not a Deadpool sweetened by the Disney axe, quite the opposite. It’s the Merc with Mouth to the nth degree, perhaps even more extreme than usual, as if to demonstrate that even Marvel Studios knows how to be unfair, violent, and audacious. The narrative formula is the same as always: a dying world, the advancing TVA scythe, the hero who must save those he loves, but can’t do it alone. And so, he turns to someone better than him, the problem is that it’s better to never meet your heroes. Because you discover that they are exactly like you, fallible and imperfect. But how strong you are together, and how much fun it is. The same rhetoric with an extra Wade Wilson, and therefore bloodshed, stabbings in the genitals, lewd winks, pegging, and Madonna in the background are guaranteed. It’s all great because in this sense it’s all perfect: “Let’s give the people what they want”, says Ryan Reynolds in the Deadpool & Wolverine trailers. He repeats it in the film, he makes fun of the hardcore nerd who knows exactly what happens in episode 5 of season 1.
He doesn’t just break the fourth wall, he crumples it, he disintegrates it, and he constantly talks to the audience, to the Fox carcass, to Marvel and Kevin Feige, and even to the competition. And he puts in the impossible, the cameos you don’t expect, the anti-woke jokes, gratuitous but exquisitely pornographic violence, action scenes bordering on the absurd. The duo that unites Ryan Reynolds at the reins of creative direction and Shawn Levy behind the camera shapes the perfect contemporary comic book movie: fast, dynamic, flirtatious, and mature. Deadpool & Wolverine is more than the classic “Marvel toy”, it is the sex toy that we were all waiting for and that we knew we wanted. Because, first of all, it respects the stylistic canons of its previous iterations: a crazy prologue, opening credits included (but never as brilliant as those of Deadpool 1), familiar characters, a story that closes the circle on a trilogy, and celebrates an entire genre that we thought was dead and buried. And then because it makes fun of itself, mocks the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but does so in a clever and self-referential way: it is aimed, first of all, at those who know MCU and Marvel Studios, at those who know who Kevin Feige is and what state the superhero industry is currently in.
And so we have a film that mocks those who are tired of comic book movies, also provoking those who produce them, but which in this circular mechanism always and in any case ends up as a victim: because Deadpool & Wolverine, under layers of incorrectness, intelligently hides its monster. That is, being a film that doesn’t give a damn about the rules but respects them, placing itself ambiguously towards the MCU continuity, joking about the post-Endgame collapse but giving itself (and ourselves) a pat on the back because ultimately we had a lot of fun. Pretending to be a film that shifts the balance of the Multiverse Saga without actually shifting anything at all. It really is the Jesus of Marvel: he works miracles, resurrects, and makes you believe in him for eternity, hoping that sooner or later he will return. The point is that we like to wallow in this very funny mockery, because we laugh, scream, and enjoy. And the reason is simple: it traps us again in a mechanism of reassuring nostalgia.
It is the No Way Home for adults that we did not deserve but that we needed (if you ask yourself if children can watch Deadpool & Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds will answer). With the most beautiful, funniest, and meta cinematographic pair of “buddies” in Hollywood. The best at what they do, even if what they do can be wrong. Of course, there is no shortage of the expected wave of cameos, quotes, and surprise appearances, some already announced, others that will really grab those who manage to avoid surprise spoilers. All in the new Marvel, the one that has gobbled up Fox and now has at its disposal old and new X-Men and is clearly planning its mutant era. Deadpool in this sense makes way for him, cleaning up the history of mutants at the cinema a bit, placing alongside him in the role of super guests exciting chapters of the Fox era, and others that it is difficult to say we are nostalgic for, characters and stories that had never happened before (but that had been talked about a lot) and two truly disconcerting cameos.
One is perhaps the most precious and works because it overturns the expectations of the public, so much so that it remains central even in the inevitable scene at the end of the credits. The other lasts a blink of an eye but is the only one to truly push outside the MCU boundaries. Driven by irreverence, by an endless series of (homo)sexual and cocaine-addicted allusions, Deadpool & Wolverine is a laugh riot, it provides a great dose of fun, especially for those who already come to the cinema as lovers of this type of metatextual and irreverent approach. However, the crisis in the world of comic book movies is attested by the inability of this film to solve the problems that have been plaguing the MCU for some time now. If the gags and physical fights work, the same cannot be said for the story itself. Following Deadpool around the multiverse in search of a Wolverine suitable for his mission is fun, but it is really not very convincing and coherent why he leaves in the first place, and what triggers his personal and emotional crisis.
The story of how he enters into a crisis with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) seems like something improvised at the last minute, so rushed and sketched is it. There are so many poorly woven threads in the plot (see the tearful Thor that goes nowhere) and, once again, the villain of the film (played by Emma Corrin) is a mix of terrible powers and a great lack of personality. Charles Xavier, to whom Cassandra is related, is more charismatic in his being summoned than she is physically present while she sinks her fingers into people’s skulls to steal their memories. Her real power is to unleash every flashback necessary to advance a story that promises a great dramatic climax, but which is very banal in its development. The ending is then totally devoid of pathos because we already know that what was promised to us will not happen.
As also happens with the characters of its two main protagonists, Deadpool & Wolverine also distinguishes its voice in two specific ways and, against all odds in this sense, perfectly consistent with the progress of the story. On one hand, we find the irreverent and crazy soul typical of Deadpool himself, here to the nth degree, and on the other a particular interest, perhaps even respectful in its own way, for the “cinematic Marvel that was”. The film’s writing continually oscillates between these two dimensions, questioning what we have seen previously, in a hilarious destructive and self-destructive process that involves in its coils everything that Marvel fans know and have felt up to now. At the same time as a work of this kind, however, Deadpool & Wolverine manages to alternate its comedy in this sense, with a particular nostalgia that only historical fans will be able to fully enjoy. Arrogance and refinement, lightness above all, and the desire to break those patterns are still faithful to what happened in the past.
It is the continuous jokes, the quotes, the cameos, and the construction of a narrative outside of any scheme that keeps the attention high in an adventure with interesting references on and off the big screen. On the plate, in addition to the events that directly involve the protagonists themselves, there is a clear commercial self-awareness of Marvel/Disney itself, always on the lips of a Deadpool who does not hold back in anything. Starting from an in-depth imagery in the TV series on Disney Plus Loki, Deadpool & Wolverine takes advantage of it to experiment a little with its main story, finding a way to amplify its scope with some ideas connected with something beyond the MCU itself. The work done in this sense, curiously, enjoys the attention that starts from nostalgia until finding, always in a light way, a freshness that makes you smile and move in a certain sense. The binding factor to everything else is obviously the performances of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. They are the real stars of this visual story made of legendary and extremely violent superheroes, and of an incorrectness that leaves its mark.
The faces of Wolverine and Deadpool (at least this Deadpool), imprinted in the Marvel cinematic imagination, belong to two different eras, two different paths that here, for reasons that we will not reveal, cross on a crazy path with minimally introspective traits. On one hand, the mercenary we all know, caught in a moment in his life in which he is facing some choices and demons that are holding him back, and on the other, a practically unrecognizable Logan, different from the one everyone would expect to see on the big screen. In the shadow of a mission as crazy as it is improvised, therefore, a journey of confrontation with oneself and with others takes place in which, in addition to the fun, we also find some moments imbued with humanity with which one can try to get in touch. Here the crazy and inscrutable exaggeration must also deal with the specific sensitivity of its characters, giving breathtaking and bloody action scenes, sharp jokes, and a total demolition of the fourth wall, practically.
Deadpool & Wolverine is perfect as the third chapter of the Merc with a Mouth: violent, foul-mouthed, and absurd. It is also excellent as a film testament to the heroes branded 20th Century Fox, in an operation of nostalgia for adults that works thanks to the creative intuitions of Ryan Reynolds and the visual ones of Shawn Levy. As a film about Deadpool inserted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, however, it is very clever. Perhaps too much. It unleashes the No Way Home effect: rascal nostalgia and many emotions, with the addition of a splash of blood, lewd winks, and many pats on the back. The problem is that even if it ends up the victim of the same system it mocks, we like it, we laugh, we scream and we enjoy it. It is a beautiful coitus interruptus. Thank goodness that at least it remains turgid from beginning to end. A love letter to all millennials, which through the crisis of two antipodal superheroes tells the precariousness of a generation stuck in the here and now. The rest is nothing more than a fun pretext to tell the story of Marvel’s crisis and re-embrace a simple spirit now forgotten.
Deadpool & Wolverine Review: The Last Words
Deadpool & Wolverine is a film that constantly plays with its viewers, it knows them well, it knows what they want, and tries in every way to provoke them. In the underlying irreverent intent, however, there is a soul that is first and foremost comical and obviously self-deprecating and should not be underestimated at all. Finding its narrative reasons in the madness of a plot that is uncommon in its way of being, the feature film directed by Shawn Levy is captivating precisely for its ease and for that very strong bond that it establishes with the audience from the very first seconds on the big screen. To all this we must add a lot of action (sometimes too much), and a writing that does its best, especially in comic terms, dismantling everything that fans know well.
