***This movie contains likely spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine
It was the scene in the third act, wasn’t it? The one where Deadpool makes that bold and noble choice ahead of Wolverine… and then he lingers, for a bit. With a callback. Then another. And then another. And it probably encapsulates Deadpool & Wolverine the movie as a whole. Whereby the movie doesn’t know if it sticks its punchline (or probably knows it didn’t really do) and repeats its trick; as a way of asking ‘LOL, you got that, right?’ and ‘okay, what if I did it again just to be sure?’. Maybe that also sums up the Marvel Cinematic Universe right now as a whole.
Deadpool & Wolverine is directed by Shawn Levy, stars Ryan Reynolds as the titular character, and Hugh Jackman as the other titular character. Meanwhile, there are appearances by Rob Delaney, Morena Baccarin, Dafne Keen, Mathew Macfadyen; and quite a handful of cameos.
In case you somehow managed to miss every bit of the marketing and PR for this movie, a lot of Deadpool & Wolverine was predicated on the buddy-cop-like relationship between Reynolds and Jackman, and the chemistry they would definitely have on-screen. But for over two hours, it looked very much like if both stars had any chemistry in the promotion of the movie, they didn’t quite bring it to the screen. At best, it looked a case of both actors getting along and letting cinematic momentum propel whatever they have got off-screen, before they cut and went to have a drink off-set. At worst, it was just phoned in, and looked like Hugh Jackman in particular is starting to have the same affinity for being Wolverine that Harrison Ford has developed for ever being Han Solo.
The MCU has very much developed a reputation for not taking itself seriously, for being more sitcom than epic cinematic franchise (whether or not it or its fans will admit it); undoing and invalidating every serious emotion as quickly as it can; letting nothing solid stick. But after the She-Hulk series in 2022, there came a sense that the MCU wasn’t just trying to be unserious, it was just not good at being whatever it wanted a project to be (at least, not anymore). So, some were wary that they’d do the same with Deadpool (e.g this writer), and frankly, that wariness was right. Which leads us to the first point of this review. Deadpool & Wolverine laid the gravy a bit thick on the self-aware banter, and yet did all the things the self-aware ribbing was meant to highlight. But just as pertinent, there was little banter. If you ended this movie and thought ‘oh yeah, they had me chuckling a bit’, the next thing you ask yourself is ‘with what scene?’. Maybe the line about exposition? Maybe the line about Peter? Maybe the bits about Fox?
Deadpool & Wolverine is, in truth, very much a classic MCU movie; ‘emotional’ scenes that don’t land, convince anyone, or even exist; incredibly powerful and dangerous yet astonishingly uncompelling and thoroughly forgettable villain; on the nose cameos and star appearances that shoot for 0.3 seconds of audience cinematic reactions that suggest an undying and worrying addiction towards repeating the ‘Cap lifts the Hammer in Endgame’ reaction from fans. Plus, fight scenes with eternal build-up that are paid off with 35-second jump cuts.
Then, this movie caps if off by ribbing on all that, without conviction or humour, then doing the same (‘it’s different when we do it’), all while taking a character that truly has fun with himself and others, and turning him into some apolitical-political-edgy-probably-paid-for-a-blue-tick commentator.
Debate continues about whether the MCU has done damage to cinema (frankly, yes, and in truth, it’s largely Disney); another point of conversation is how the MCU continues to sleepwalk towards probable obscurity. First came the high of Endgame, then the impatience to get back on track since, then the displeasure at its failures. Now, it seems we’re very much in the stage of profound apathy.
In simple terms, Deadpool & Wolverine, amidst every other MCU flaw that it possessed, felt like the opposite of the Russell Crowe line in Gladiator; were you at all entertained?
Movie Rating: 3.5/10
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