Deadpool and Wolverine Are the Shot in the Arm the MCU Needs

After a six-year absence, Deadpool returns to enlist in the official Marvel Cinematic Universe in Deadpool and Wolverine (In theaters July 26), and as he tells his new clawed pal, you're joining us at a bit of a difficult time.

That's an understatement, given that post-studiosAvengers: Endgame Yet Shawn Levy's third installment proves to be just what the doctor ordered: a hyperactive, youthful, scream-filled adventure that pairs Ryan Reynolds' Merc with the Mouth with Hugh Jackman's furious X-Man in a saga that often plays like a love letter to the quarter-century history of Marvel blockbusters made by Twentieth Century Fox, which was purchased by Disney in 2019.

As with its predecessors, those who can't stand Deadpool or aren't educated on Marvel movies won't tolerate a second of it. The rest will go to heaven.

[Warning: Light Spoilers Follow]

Breaking the fourth wall to speak directly to the audience and freely comment on his reality as well as ours, Deadpool has always existed in multiple worlds at once, so he fits perfectly into the MCU's convoluted multiverse. Deadpool and WolverineDeadpool's story begins on Earth-616 (i.e. the Sacred Timeline) but primarily concerns a charred-faced Deadpool, aka Wade Wilson, on Earth-10005, where he works at a used car dealership with his friend Peter (Rob Delaney) and is stuck in the friend zone with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) due to his refusal to fight for anything but himself. Having been rejected by the Avengers, Deadpool wants to matter, and he gets his chance when his birthday party is interrupted by agents of the Time Variance Authority, the body that governs the multiverse, who take him to the organization's headquarters.

DEADPOOL AND WOLVERINE

Jay Maidment

Affectionately poking fun at the MCU with the same motormouthed self-referentiality that characterized his previous outings, Deadpool learns from the bureaucrat Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) that his timeline is dying due to the disappearance of its ultra-important anchor being, who happens to be the version of Wolverine who died in the late 2017s. Logan. Mr. Paradox gives Deadpool a choice: either perish with his world, or take on a higher purpose on the sacred timeline. Amidst plenty of jokes about Fox’s superhero era, Deadpool instead chooses to save his universe by finding a new Wolverine. It leads to a montage that pays homage to the many iterations (and costumes) of the Ol’ Canucklehead, and is the first of myriad times the film nods to details from the comic book publishers’ long, illustrious, and complex past, including Wolverine’s iconic yellow outfit (and, eventually, his iconic mask).

After many failures, Deadpool settles on Deadpool and WolverineThe film chose Wolverine, whom Mr. Paradox calls the worst Wolverine of all, due to a notorious tragedy that the film teases while making jokes about said teasing. It's par for the course in the series, as is R-rated violence and profanity of an outrageous, adolescent sort. One second, Levy is staging a massacre accomplished using skeleton bones and embellished with a *NSYNC dance routine, and the next, he's making antihero Reynolds laugh about how pegging is nothing new to me, but it is to Disney. While he's desperate to prove that he's more than just an annoying one-trick pony, this is the Deadpool that fans love and haters hate, with Reynolds staying true to the characters' gleefully obnoxious and filthy spirit.

DEADPOOL AND WOLVERINE

Jay Maidment

Deadpool's proclamation that he is Marvel Jesus is an expression of his titanic ego as well as a nod to Deadpool and WolverineThe Fox-produced Wolverine character is a character that managed to save the MCU, bringing with it not only Jackman’s angry, drunken Wolverine, but also a slew of famous faces in their original Fox-produced Marvel roles. The cameos are as surprising as they are seamlessly woven into this crowded tapestry, whose story is so insignificant that the climax figuratively smiles and shrugs while having both sides. This sequel is scattered to the extreme, and it would be irritating if not for Reynolds’ infectious enthusiasm and his conflicted rapport with Jackman, who plays this Wolverine with an anger rooted in deep grief and an intolerant exasperation with his red-clad companion.

Deep within this dirty, bloody, cameo-filled adventure is a story about Deadpool and Wolverine struggling to thwart the plans of Mr. Paradox, who sends them into a purgatorial void populated by undesirable Marvel characters. There, they meet Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), a bald villain who turns out to be the twin sister of X-Men founder Charles Xavier, and who rules the land with a telepathic iron fist. But even that’s just one of the proceedings’ many interests, and certainly less important than the sequences in which the main characters face off in deadly hand-to-hand confrontations, energized by their comparable inability to die.

Levy is not a master of action, but Deadpool and WolverineThe s-sequences (often accompanied by incongruous pop music like Madonna's Like a Prayer) are on par with other MCU efforts, and there are enough of them to maintain a steady momentum, even when the destination is just another allusion to a beloved or reviled film, a joke about cocaine or the woke mob, or a cheeky remark about gay sex.

DEADPOOL AND WOLVERINE

Jay Maidment

Deadpool and Wolverine The film ultimately proves less than the sum of its parts, a collection of unexpected and comical gags strung together by a random plot. Still, it’s funnier and more electric, more alive than any MCU entry in years, and it impressively integrates Deadpool’s distinctive R-rated personality into the staunchly PG-13 franchise. Late attempts to generate genuine pathos for Deadpool and Wolverine feel forced and clumsy. Still, overall, Levy balances tones, characters, and multiverses with reasonable aplomb. Far superior to his previous collaborations with Reynolds. Free man And The Adam ProjectThis suggests that he may have found his place on the Marvel assembly line.

Throughout the film, Jackman swears and sneers with believable ferocity and Reynolds, finally at his pal's side (in real life and in Marvel), delivers quips and retorts with delirious giddiness, sarcastically destroying anything and everything in sight, including, on numerous occasions, himself. Deadpool and WolverineIt doesn't reinvent the genre, but it gives the MCU the boost it urgently needs.