'Deadpool & Wolverine' Movie Review: A Nerdy Pleasure Fest
- Details
- Category: New Series and Movie Reviews
- Published: Tuesday, 23 July 2024 16:00
- Written by Lupe R Haas
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE is hilarious from start to finish with tons and tons of X-Men and MCU references, and countless cameos for your nerdy pleasure. If you're a fan of the X-MEN movies and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's a two-hour nerd fest. Even for those unfamiliar with the franchises, there's still plenty to laugh about. Don't worry, the Disney ownership didn't affect the irreverence of the franchise with the filmmakers doubling down on the provocative and violence.
Deadpool must convince a variant Wolverine to team up with the foul-mouthed superhero to save his world from extinction.
Ryan Reynolds returns as Deadpool and he convinced his real-life friend Hugh Jackman to resurrect his Logan/Wolverine character one more time even though he died in 2017's LOGAN. That's possible after both 20th Century Fox franchises joined the Disney and Marvel family.
The Loki series introduced the Time Variance Authority aka TVA which monitors multiverses and character variants. Hence the Logan we get in DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE is the yellow-wearing spandex variant of the X-Men comics.
Many worried the family-friendly Disney label would tamper on the irreverence, however, the filmmakers seemed to have doubled down on the raunchy and bloody. It's shocking how much Kevin Feige and Marvel let the filmmakers get away with, especially with numerous jokes at Marvel and Disney's expense.
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman make a great team in a Laurel and Hardy way. Although Jackman's Logan is a variant, he's not so different from the counterpart we've grown to love in the X-MEN series. Logan's anger issues paired with Deadpool's silly antics create a striking contrast, making for an entertaining watch. They are at each other for most of the film, and it's quite a bloody mess as they keep regenerating and beating the crap out of each other.
On the negative side, Succession's Matthew Macfadyen's Mr. Paradox is quite overbearing with an over-the-top English accent, more fitting for a butler-type. I doubt the British actor normally speaks in that fashion.
Emma Corrin (Lady Di in THE CROWN) is a decent villain, but Professor X's twin possesses a scary power that can rip through their minds.
I can guarantee director Shawn Levy hasn't had this much fun making a movie in his long career as a filmmaker known for his family-friendly films such as the NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM trilogy, REAL STEEL, FREE GUY and FAMILY TRAP. Levy has worked with Reynolds (FREE GUY) and Jackman (REAL STEEL) before DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE so he perhaps was comfortable going to a place he's never been.
All is fun and games, but the film does lose steam by Act III when the jokes tire and the constant IP references.
Regardless, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE is the kind of film you want to watch on repeat. The surprises are exhilarating and you're in for a good time at the movies.
Cast:
Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Matthew Macfadyen, Aaron Stanford, Brianna Hildebrand, Lewis Tan and Tyler Mane
Screenwriters:
Ryan Reynolds & Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Zeb Wells & Shawn Levy