Deadpool & Wolverine: Film Review
After falling into a slump, Marvel is placing all of its bets on Deadpool & Wolverine, its only film of 2024. While it is sure to take big numbers regardless, is it actually any good?
Wade Wilson aka Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is taken from his world by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) and ordered by Mr Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) to find a new variant of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). But when he doesn’t do the job like he was asked, Paradox banishes them to The Void, a wasteland ruled by Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), and they have to work together to find their way home.
The hardest part of my review was writing the plot. I had no idea what was going on and the storyline made no sense. It hops around timelines and multiverses like nobody’s business and it is impossible to keep up. The overarching story is incredibly weak and underwhelming but it serves as a vehicle for some brilliant moments. And there are plenty of them.
As you’d expect from a Deadpool movie, this is very funny, extremely violent and packed full of knowing winks to camera, self-aware gags and meta quips. After a while, this shtick gets a bit tedious and annoying. Reynolds is doing too much and trying too hard to be gross, edgy and weird. He could have dialled it back a bit.
Thankfully, in this outing, his shtick is tempered by Jackman. He plays it straight and is the serious Logan we all remember. They work well together because of this chalk-and-cheese dynamic and I was definitely Team Wolverine. Jackman gives a grounded, emotionally-driven performance that felt at odds with the movie but I appreciated the break in the witty irreverence.
Director Shawn Levy has said in interviews that you don’t need to do homework to understand this film. While this is broadly true, it will certainly help to know more about the TVA (an organisation from Loki) and the Fox-era Marvel movies. This essentially pays homage to those films so the references will go over your head if you’re not clued up. There are a lot of specific jokes – including very personal gags about Reynolds and Jackman – so they won’t work for everybody. However, because there are so many quips some of them will strike a chord with you.
This is less about the story than jumping from cameo to cameo and setpiece to setpiece. But I must admit there are some incredible action sequences – the opening one is particularly amazing – and some jaw-dropping cameos (which I won’t spoil). There is one appearance that produced my hardest laugh and brought me so much joy.
With Deadpool & Wolverine, the whole isn’t greater than the sum of its parts. While there were many entertaining parts, I came away feeling underwhelmed by this storytelling mess.
In cinemas from Thursday 25th July and on Disney+ from Tuesday 12th November