Deadpool & Wolverine review – a mixed (ball) bag

The Marvel Cinematic Universe presents a two-hour comedy-filled movie with humor based on adult jokes disguised as a superhero movie trilogy. Opinions may differ.

I want to watch a different version of this movie that doesn't include any scenes with Deadpool or anything related to him. I just want to see Hugh Jackman's Wolverine character dealing with his struggles without Deadpool's distracting humor in the background. Overall, Shawn Levy's film featuring Deadpool and Wolverine has some good moments, but it also has some aspects that feel like a hit-or-miss comedy sketch.

The set-up is really interesting. A corporate big shot named Paradox (played by Matthew MacFadyen) has been given the job of organizing all the loose ends and unfinished storylines in the entire MCU. His job is to collect all the leftover pieces of superhero stories and make sure they come to a conclusion before sending them off to a barren place called The Void. In The Void, these forgotten characters fall under the control of Emma Corrin's character Cassandra Nova, who is a telepathic twin of Charles Xavier. She enjoys causing trouble and hurting the good guys by manipulating their bodies from the inside.

We meet up with Ryan Reynolds' character Wade Wilson, also known as Deadpool, at a point where he has decided to quit being Deadpool and live a normal life. However, he is kidnapped by Paradox and informed about a massive cleaning operation. Wade then travels through a portal and asks for help from Jackman's character Wolverine from a timeline where he is drowning his sorrows in whiskey after making a big mistake.

The decision has been made for a Midnight Run inspired by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, featuring a humorous character and an angry character squeezed into a Honda Odyssey, prepared to travel through The Void and protect their timeline from destruction. Regrettably, there is not much rapport between the main actors. Their look, acting techniques, and ideas about the movie seem to be completely different. Even though they have a lot of time on screen together, they never quite click.

Out of all the smaller Marvel series, Deadpool is the one that stirs up the strongest reactions from fans. It's clear why this happens. Deadpool is like a rebel sponsored by the company, always walking the line between mischief and trouble without going too far.

Even those who strongly dislike this third installment would probably have to admit that some parts of it are well-done. The script fully explores the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding the decline of 20th Century Fox and its intellectual property. Some of Reynolds' direct talks to the camera seem like they were taken straight from a film industry publication. But despite all the insider jokes, no one is really being harmed in the end.

The film's highlights are the aspects that are difficult to discuss, but what I can mention is that the film tones down the overly negative attitude towards how to handle the forgotten superheroes. Many superhero films have tried to tap into nostalgia, but this is the first time it has succeeded without feeling like a complete failure. And they didn't even use any AI technology!

However, this is just another Deadpool movie and doesn't offer anything new in terms of its tone. When you're watching a film that's trying to be more over-the-top than a Kingsman sequel, you know it's not going to end well. While it may be refreshing at times when it delves into the concept of the "multiverse", it quickly falls back on familiar tropes with less impressive outcomes that it acknowledges.

Some of the jokes are funny just because there are so many of them and the writers really tried hard. But it feels like you have to sit through a lot of unfunny moments just to get to one good joke. I don't usually recommend this, but it's worth staying until the end of the movie to see a heartfelt tribute to the filmmakers who put so much passion into even the bad films.

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Posted on July 23, 2024

Labels: Deadpool, Wolverine, Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Marvel

I really didn't like the first Deadpool movies, so I don't see how this one could be any worse.

Just barely manages to achieve a passing grade by a very narrow margin.

An energetic analysis of superhero stories that struggles to escape the conventional structure it is criticizing so severely.