All right, Trill Believers, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has had some troubles lately with the fans’ feelings overall through some of the shows, some actions by an actor, and just not packing them in the house like they used to. Look, comic book geeks are loyal to a fault but also highly fickle. That mentality has spread to the more mainstream MCU fandom that has grown over the past fifteen years. Everything else with Disney isn’t helping either, so Kevin Feige is in a different position – on the ropes. Now, in the past six months, with the establishment of a new Fantastic Four on the horizon, a lot of the energy of what can help or return the MCU to greatness is one of the franchises that made them a creative juggernaut of pop culture before an MCU was thought of – The X-Men. Our merry mutants have been through a lot over the last fifteen years. Still, there have been a few shining examples within the cinematic world that some of the best in the superhero movie genre – Deadpool and Logan with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine having a perfect ending in the film Logan that perfectly mashed up a western, a futuristic dystopia, and some of the best of 2000s Wolverine comics. Next, we had some of the most perfect casting in all of superhero moviedom outside of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark – and Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson, the Merc with a Mouth—Marvel’s own Bugs Bunny. What makes Deadpool really work isn’t the quips; it’s the earnest heart and connection between Wade and his friends, who happen to be X-Men.
So what does that mean? The X-Men just had the hottest animated TV show of the year. One that had a campaign for the award for Best Drama Series at the Emmys nominations (it did get nominated for Best Animated Series). Capcom is bringing the Marvel vs Capcom games back with Ryu and Cyclops shaking hands on the cover. The comics just ended a landmark run of comics that upended the concept and brought in all new fans to the characters. Now we have Feige and Reynolds, two people who have been pretty successful with crafting movies that connect with people, especially in these genre stories. Add in Jackman as one of the most popular superheroes ever created as the ace in the hole, and it’s worth the risk of Marvel to make an R-rated superhero action comedy. Now, folks who have read my reviews here, I have my issues with the MCU and how they adapt the stories, but the two Deadpool films are some of my favorite superhero movies of all time. Jackman has become my Wolverine since he’s been playing him since 2000. So enough with the preamble, let’s get into the adventure.
So why are we here? The last time we were with Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), the Merc with a Mouth known as Deadpool, he just used Cable’s time travel device to stop the death of his girlfriend Vanessa, and it was happily ever after. We thought it was; we now see Wade, a superhero retired and selling cars at a CARMAX-like car dealership with his friend Peter (Rob Delaney). He’s not with Vanessa currently, and our boy Wade seems pretty down even though it’s his birthday. While having a birthday party with all his friends, which we last saw in Deadpool 2 (sans Cable and Domino), Wade is taken by the TVA – Time Variance Authority. It’s the same metaphysical bureaucracy we were introduced to during the two seasons of Loki on Disney+. Wade is introduced to a man named Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), who wants to take Deadpool from his boring life on Universe 10005 and put him in the sacred universe of Movie 616. He promises big things like, of course, joining the Avengers, and that gets Wade hyped. He gets a new suit and is ready to go, but there’s a catch. See, he can’t take his family with him as his universe is decaying, and Paradox plans to prune it all just as the TVA used to do before (editor’s note – to understand why you must watch Loki). He explains to Wade that his universe is dying because its core person is dead – Wolverine. Deadpool rejects Paradox’s offer and decides to solve this issue is that he’s going to find another Wolverine to take the place of the Logan we have all known since 2000’s X-Men is dead and gone.
All that sounds like a good movie, right? Well, that’s just the first twenty minutes; after that, things go to some pretty crazy places that I won’t talk about in-depth other than Cassandra Nova is in it as the other bad guy Deadpool and now Wolverine must face. Nova, played by Emma Corrin, feels younger than you might expect from the character if you know them from the comics but Corrin does well here. Nova is canonically Charles Xavier’s twin, and they battled in the womb. Here, she rules over the wasteland, something else from Loki’s show that now feels more like a Limbo than anything else. Corrin plays great off of Deadpool and Wolverine as this overpowering bad guy that Wolverine’s toughness and Deadpool’s jokes and shooting can’t overpower and overcome. Her upper crust and posh smugness will make you want to see our heroes succeed, so she does everything you need a villain to do. This also works well with Paradox as he’s also this smug, condescending British antagonist working as an in-story fill-in for all the people who have had disparaging words about the FOX X-Men Universe film over the past 24 years.
Reynolds and Jackman play this like 48 Hrs or The Last Boy Scout; these two guys kind of hate each other initially, and even in the end, when they end up as friends, they still rib each other in their own way. These two actors, who have essentially become their characters more than many of the performers in the superhero genre, glide through like the 1996 Bulls beating the Seattle Supersonics to win the championship. Jackman knows Wolverine – he is him now, even if he’s portraying a variant. He’s still the tortured Logan we know and love, and this one as a character feels like a throwback to how the character was back in the Giant-Sized X-Men #1 through 1985 when he was peak loner Logan, drinking bars and getting into fights. With this take, they moved Wolverine into the MCU style of being more like a classic comic counterpart than ever before, even in an R-rated adventure with tons of foul language and sexual innuendo jokes. This version finally learns to accept his superhero nature.
Reynolds has the same funny wit here that makes his Bugs Bunny in a red ninja suit but still has that core heart. You know this Deadpool is a big old simp. He’s just lovesick and desperately trying to protect his little world that makes him happy. He’s more of a character along for the journey, and for me, the journey is essentially Feige looking back at his past with Marvel through the X-Men franchise, Jackman and Wolverine, and where Marvel was before 2008 (sans Spidey cause that had its own movie). As the film wraps up, you can feel it as it’s not like a goodbye but more of remembering where we came from and not just it’s all better now. It’s all part of this Marvel movie journey that he’s part of this whole time, and now, with this new person involved, Reynolds will help him look back through this perfect vessel of a character, Deadpool. The film is full of inside jokes and easter eggs. And all of those you’re going to have to see for yourselves and talk to me in real life for my thoughts, but I have to say Deadpool & Wolverine was a hilarious and bloody superhero comic that came to life and an excellent time in the movie theater.
Score: B+
