Deadpool & Wolverine — Review Thread (SPOILERS)

It was a lot of fun. The cameos were actually pretty clever and they really let Disney have it for their sloppy work since Endgame. I'm not a huge fan of this franchise, but this was definitely my favorite of the three.

I’ve enjoyed Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, but the movies have been mid. That’s what the kids say, right? Mid? But I agree with you. Pandering or not, there was something a little bit more than “mid” about this one. You can’t go wrong with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. The bad guys were both fun. Paradox and Cassandra Nova. Both chewed up the screen. Wesley fucking Snipes!! And I was amused by Channing Tatum as Gambit. Like PhantomKnight, I always wanted Sawyer from Lost to play Gambit, but Tatum just fucking nailed it. Also, still waiting for thebtskink to show up so we can discuss Bostonian Johnny Storm.




Marvel heading in the direction in which Wesley Snipes plays Blade, motherfucker.

Marvel wasn’t struggling when No Way Home came out. They could get away with a fan service heavy movie like that. Now, though, it just seems desperate. But — the movie is still fun. Two things can be true. Ryan Reynolds has always been super entertaining as Deadpool. Hugh Jackman has always been great as Wolverine. The cameos were all super fun. The villains were campy as hell in a good way. The action scenes were good. The comedy bits worked. You’ll be entertained. See it with a good crowd. Enjoy yourself.

In the meantime…

Actual footage of SnoBorderZero getting Wesley Snipes ready for Blade.

Started out okay and just descended further and further into nonsensical bullshit cloaked in a veil of cloying sentiment. Didn't laugh once, but got two chuckles. One from and one from the incredulity at the swooning music and "pause for applause" moment for Otherwise, the jokes were grating. A little of Deadpool goes a long way and at this point I'm very fatigued by Ryan Reynolds' schtick. Speaking of things I'm over, this series has run the gag of playing a hit pop song over a gratuitously violent action scene in its last two entries and Deadpool and Wolverine reuses that gag at least three times. It doesn't help that the action is a clumsy cluster of junk predominately involving two characters who can't die endlessly stabbing each other. Exciting stuff.


The elephant in the room is of course the return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine after Logan offered the character a pretty definitive ending. I was wary of this going in, both in principle and as a big fan of Mangold's film. My fears were warranted. Jackman is as committed as ever and brings a degree of earnestness that the rest of the film frankly doesn't earn or deserve. Wolverine's resurrection the and undoing of Logan's beautiful ending is ultimately a waste. "Oh but it's a different universe Wolverine and technically a different character." Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining. He might come from a different timeline (as if that matters given how convoluted the Fox X-Men timeline is in the first place) but he's functionally the same person Hugh Jackman has been playing since 2000, right down to actually being a washed-up, guilt-ridden, depressed loser of a Wolverine who feels he let his fellow X-Men down, something the aforementioned Logan already did substantially better.

I swear, I went into the movie with as open a mind as possible and really tried to get on its wavelength, to see it as just some silly fun and not take things too seriously. But ultimately, what is the movie really offering outside of some frat boy gay jokes, geeky references, and fan-service action? Am I really supposed to care about these things more because some characters from twenty year old superhero movies are also in frame? Like with Spider-Man: No Way Home, I find myself with a movie asking me to suspend critical judgement and just enjoy the thrill of all my action figures smashing together, but the movie can't really deliver on that. The action scenes have a degree of high-budget gloss, but they're also unimaginative and inconsequential, to the point that they just wash over me in wave of assaulting visuals and sounds. It keeps the eyes and ears occupied in the moment but I take nothing from it. At one point Deadpool looks in the camera and promises the nerds will be able to cream themselves from the dream match they're about to see, but the ensuing action doesn't actually live up to my own adolescent nerd fantasies. So if the movie isn't funny, if it isn't exciting, if it can't tell an involving story with its characters, if it can't even tickle the baseline pleasures of superhero action, what does it offer? What's the point?

To add insult to injury, Deadpool did it while using Wolverine’s corpse as a weapon.




There are 206 bones in the human body. 207 when MovieBuff801 gives Deadpool & Wolverine a positive review.

None of this refutes my criticism, which is mainly that the notion that Jackman is playing a different Wolverine carries little water given he behaves the same way and he's brought into the Fox timeline by the end, bringing Logan back to life for all practical purposes. Will he show up in future MCU movies? I wouldn't bet against it, but even if he doesn't, this return undermines Logan's sacrifice. Which I might stomach if it resulted in a fun story or action scenes but I don't think it did. And even removing broader questions of franchise integrity, Wolverine's arc here is essentially just a half-assed retread of his story in Logan. And while Jackman still brings it that story ultimately has far less weight here, in part because Deadpool & Wolverine wavers slopply between cheap fan-service, reddit shitpost, and half-hearted efforts at serious drama.

Well, I don't like that in comic books either. Also Deadpool & Wolverine very much presents Logan as the canonical end to Wolverine in the Fox X-Menverse, which doesn't really fit given the world of Deadpool feels very far removed from the dreary future in Logan but whatever. Honestly my issue isn't strictly that the movie undid the old canon, the Fox timeline has been a trainwreck since 2009 and doesn't really matter. What bothers me more is that the movie was shitty, and reflecting on its shittiness caused me to dwell on if it was worth bringing Wolverine back for so little reward.