Self billed as Marvel’s Messiah(s?), Deadpool & Wolverine—arguable the third outing for Ryan Reynolds’ ‘merc with a mouth’—is fine in terms of your typical blockbuster movie.
It will most likely be underwhelming for first time viewers but then; why would this be your first Deadpool movie when there’ve been two that came before and a tonne and a half of superhero movies before that!
It’s a string of jokes interrupted by bloody fight scenes with just enough foresight by the writers, which includes headlining star (co-headlining star?) Ryan Reynolds, to string them together with a serviceable plot — and cameos; loads and loads and loads of cameos which are mostly executed in surprisingly fun and good taste! I did say mostly.
But, it won’t singlehandedly resurrect the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Yet, it may just resuscitate a franchise in its death throes (I might be exaggerating a tad cos Deadpool) long enough for Robert Downey Jr.’s Dr. Victor Von Doom (Spoilers?) to electro-shock* the next phase of the MCU into something close to its past glory.
[*As a less-than-informed fan of the Marvel comic books I have no idea which powers Doctor Doom is imbued with so; apologies.]
Is it a ‘good’ movie?
If you’re from the Martin Scorsese school of thought; ‘no’, but even by Marty’s standards one would concede that it is an entertaining one — which I believe was his main point before everyone on the internet, and their second-cousin, tried to rip Marty a new o apart.
It knows, and acknowledges, the scope and scale of Marvel’s cinematic outings far beyond the MCU. No spoilers there; it’s right there in the title and in blue and yellow, also in all of the marketing, and, we have been guaranteed, will stick around until Hugh Jackman is 90 — cos Disney (okay, my bad on that last one but that’s the last one I promise).
Deadpool might not be god’s gift to peak intellectual cinema but, fourth wall breaks included, it revels in knowing it’s source material, it knows what the MCU is about, it knows what the fans of the genre, and the specific characters themselves, want to see, and it understands perfectly the assignment it has been given — to be the self-sacrificing idiot supporting character, to get the MCU out of life-support and walking around with a great deal of regret about the choices that have been made in the past, until the ‘real’ (wink, wink) Marvel Messiah rises from the dead as Victor Von Doom.
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman give ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ their Maximum Effort (at least Reynolds does). Also it’s funny as heck, the cameos (since it bears repeating) are both hilarious and meaningful, and it’s got the energy of a toddler on copious amounts of sugar — in the fun way!
Directed by Shawn Levy, from a screenplay by Levy, Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Zeb Wells; ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ is just what the doctor ordered — if you’re a Marvel fan.