Despite my initial resistance (or dare I say, even apathy), I could not resist the charms of Deadpool & Wolverine.
I was skeptical about this movie, because some of the recent Marvel content has been a miss for me personally. I enjoy the antics of Deadpool, but he’s not my top favorite superhero.
However, this movie opens with a wacky fight sequence set to an unexpected song – NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye.” As a stereotypical millennial, it’s difficult for me not to dance and sing along to this song, and this moment sets the tone for the rest of this movie.
Deadpool & Wolverine is a hyper-violent, sarcastic, silly, shameless, wildly entertaining movie, and I have to confess that I had a lot of fun watching it – way more fun than I initially thought I would.
The main draw here is, of course, finally seeing Deadpool enter the MCU + team up with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. It’s always so, so good to see Jackman as Wolverine again; even when some of the X-Men movie scripts weren’t as strong, Jackman was always a pleasure to watch. And even when Ryan Reynolds’ humor is almost a bit too much for me, Jackman anchors the film and provides the perfect foil for the chaotic Deadpool.
This film has a LOT of cameos, and I found them delightful. I wasn’t spoiled about any of them ahead of time, which made them even better. They aren’t necessarily the obvious cameos you’d expect to see, either, and I appreciated that.
As for the plot, there’s some wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff going on thanks to the TVA (aka the Time Variance Authority from the Loki series). I was wondering how the foul-mouthed Deadpool would fit into the more family-friendly MCU without watering down who Deadpool is but also still feeling like an MCU film. The good news is, director Shawn Levy succeeds, for the most part.
Deadpool does plenty of roasting of the MCU, although I feel like he could have gone just a bit harder and more subversive. Another thing I appreciated, without getting into spoilers, is that even though this movie has a lot of laughs, it actually does have a surprisingly emotional core. As in, I even teared up a bit when Deadpool and Wolverine team up in an emotional way at the end (getting teary-eyed at the new Deadpool movie was not on my 2024 bingo card).
In a weird way, as much as this movie mocks superheroes, it also celebrates them. And while I know it’s not, this movie almost felt like the MCU’s swan song. I can’t comment on that without getting into major spoilers, but this movie reminded me of lots of fond memories I’ve had watching superhero movies over the years, even though I’ve been frustrated by some of the genre’s recent offerings.
The MCU isn’t as much of a pop cultural powerhouse as it was in the Endgame and Infinity War days, and while I’m hopeful the new Fantastic Four and Doomsday movies will provide a boost, I worry that we may not return to that golden era.
However, even if the MCU is still trying to find its footing in the multiverse era, Deadpool & Wolverine turns out to be just what was neeed.
Even if you feel burnt out by superhero movies, it’s worth making a trip to the theater to catch this one. And if you love superhero movies, you’ll find plenty to celebrate. Just don’t take your kids to this MCU film. 😉
