This Friday will see the release of Marvel Studios’ first R-rated feature Deadpool & Wolverine. Laughing Place was invited to an early screening of the film, and below is my (mostly spoiler-free) review.
Deadpool needs Wolverine. That’s all you need to know about the plot of Deadpool & Wolverine, and I’m not going to say more about exactly why he needs him. Just understand that Deadpool (AKA Wade Wilson, played by Ryan Reynolds) spends the first act of this movie is searching for everyone’s favorite adamantium-clawed Canadian mutant (Hugh Jackman, reprising his most beloved role once again), and the rest is made up of them either fighting (in some very fun knock-down-drag-out action sequences) or learning to get along with each other just long enough in order to accomplish their goals– which, again, I won’t spoil here. This is the third movie in the Deadpool series, but it’s the first one made under the Marvel Studios banner, which is only possible because The Walt Disney Company purchased the holdings of 20th Century Fox five years ago– including the movie rights for the X-Men family of Marvel superhero characters. That behind-the-scenes stuff wouldn’t ordinarily matter in a movie like this, but it absolutely does here because Deadpool as a character is famous for frequently breaking the fourth wall, and the aforementioned merger is referenced relentlessly, as is Disney as a company and the current state of the MCU.
Deadpool, in case you’re unfamiliar, is basically Marvel’s foul-mouthed, ultra-violent Bugs Bunny. That image doesn’t quite fit the Disney brand as we have known it, but the times they are a-changing, and just this morning we learned that the Merc with a Mouth will be making appearances in two separate Disney Parks. And the movie is a meta-commentary on that contrast as well, but mostly it’s about these two characters that we’ve come to know so well across a variety of media bouncing off each other, amid a parade of cameos and in-jokes that fans (like myself) are going to eat up with big dumb smiles on their faces. It’s a mutant road trip movie, with Logan playing the irascible Steve Martin role from Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Wade as the buffoonish John Candy. We want them to get along, but it’s also oh-so-entertaining when they don’t. Plenty of blows are traded, both physically and verbally, and parents are probably going to want to keep their kids away from this entry entirely due to the amount of blood and swearing (or maybe just pretend to close their eyes and plug their ears if they’re really dying to see it). There’s a great time to be had here for mature Marvel fans, and Disney evidently did not hold co-writer / director Shawn Levy (Free Guy) back from pushing the envelope. The one thing I did notice was absent compared to previous films in the Deadpool franchise was any depictions of sex, though that topic is definitely broached in dialogue on numerous occasions.
As marketing has already revealed, there are two villains this time around– one played by Succession’s Matthew McFadyen (as a character named Mr. Paradox), and one by Emma Corrin from The Crown (Cassandra Nova, who has a familial connection to the X-Men that’s telegraphed by her hairdo– or lack thereof) but again, I don’t want to spoil too much about their plans. And really, they only exist to chew scenery and act as foils to our dual heroes, and in that function they serve their purposes perfectly well. Also returning from Deadpool 1 & 2 are Morena Baccarin (Serenity) as Wade’s love-interest Vanessa, Rob Delaney (Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning) as his Ned Flanders-esque partner-in-crimefighting Peter, and Leslie Uggams (American Fiction) as his similarly vulgar roommate Blind Al. Which brings me to the big question that I’m sure is on everyone’s mind, as it was on mine when I walked into the theater– what about the cameos? Yes, there are a bunch. And no, I’m not going to disclose them in this review. Suffice it to say that there were multiple moments that the audience I saw it with erupted in spontaneous, sustained applause and laughter. I will go so far as to say that one of these moments in particular instantly ranked among my favorite moviegoing memories of all time, but to fully appreciate it you definitely need to remain spoiler-free, so please do your best to avoid social media before Thursday evening.
But outside of the cameos, Marvel Easter Eggs, and over-the-top levels of cartoonish profanity and violence, does Deadpool & Wolverine work as a movie? On the whole, I would say the answer is a resounding yes, though on structural and pacing levels it does feel rushed in parts, probably due to having to cram an awful lot into its 128-minute runtime. For that reason, the few times the film strays into what are intended to be more dramatic beats it fell a bit flat for me. A great example would be the reunion between [SPOILER] and [SPOILER], which should be a weighty, emotional moment but instead feels breezed past in order to move on to the next scene. That said, Deadpool & Wolverine undeniably excels at the things these two characters are better known for– namely being clever and kick-ass, respectively. The opening setpiece alone is a master class in meta-filmmaking, and could stand on its own as an extremely satisfying Deadpool short. The bottom line here is that if you’re into both Deadpool and Wolverine as existing concepts, I can’t think of any good reason why you wouldn’t have a blast watching them team up in this movie– after beating each other senseless, that is. That mutant healing factor is about to come in very handy.
Deadpool & Wolverine will be released this Friday, July 26th, exclusively in theaters.
My grade: 4 out of 5 disgusting Dogpool tongues