‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ review: Nostalgia! It’s new again!

Deadpool & Wolverine sees the Merc with a Mouth enters the MCU with corny jokes and callbacks a plenty. Oh, and Hugh Jackman’s there too.

“Welcome to the MCU. You’re coming in at a bit of a low point.”

That’s Deadpool talking to Wolverine as the duo make their first live-action appearance in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. Or, is it Ryan Reynolds inviting Hugh Jackman to give his movie career a boost after a visit to Broadway and some personal trouble? Or, is it Disney telling characters from the 20th Century Fox-era of comic book movies what they’ve got to work with while being resurrected from brand-acquisition purgatory to do damage control?

It’s easy to assume any joke out of Deadpool’s mouth has layers to it. Sarcasm and breaking the fourth wall are what made the Merc with a Mouth so popular in the first place. But in the case of Deadpool & Wolverine, it’s hard not to look at that little jab (and the seventy million other ones jammed into the script) with more skepticism than amusement. Here’s an IP conglomerate taking two of the biggest names from its one-time competitor and shuffling them out to its rabid audience for maximum nostalgia. It’s a blatant act of pandering in a time when Hollywood cares more about rehashing past glories than encouraging something new. What’s worse is that it’s getting harder to ignore that fact, no matter how many creative ways Deadpool sneaks sex jokes past Disney’s board of directors.

For his third cinematic adventure, our friend Wade (Reynolds) is trying to go straight: less blackmarket hit jobs and more stable car salesmanship with sweetest angel Peter (Rob Delaney). That is until the Time Variance Authority (see Loki for clarification) show up at the behest of Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) to give Wade a higher purpose throughout time and space. When things go south, Wade needs some backup from the greatest mutant of his universe: Wolverine (Jackman), who is still very much dead. Though Wade eventually finds another Wolverine from a different universe, the pair end up lost in the void of discarded callbacks and fighting against Professor Xavier’s evil twin, Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin). The duo must put aside their baggage and overcome insurmountable references—sorry, “odds,” to get home.

The Merc misses the mark.

Any concerns about Disney nullifying the blood or ballsy humor that frequented the earlier Deadpool movies can rest easy. Deadpool & Wolverine is chock full of nasty jokes about drugs, pegging, and anything else to make edgy middle schoolers giggle while peppering-in fight scenes that are equal parts gory and cartoony. Also like the prior Deadpool movies, all of that is thrust onto the audience at a rapid-fire pace to keep them from realizing it’s a real hit-and-miss affair. Some of it is clever, most of it is juvenile, but it also makes you wish there was a little more breathing room between Deadpool’s sassy snark and Wolverine’s endless F-bombs. Then again, an overcrowded script is bound to happen when you have five screenwriters credited, including director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things, Free Guy), series regular Rhett Reese (Zombieland) and Reynolds himself. One has to wonder how involved Marvel Studios (or Disney) was in the script too, given all the references and callbacks to non-MCU movies that wink-wink and nudge-nudge you so frequently, it feels like a Gen Z comic geek is sitting on your lap the whole time.

It’s clear the main focus of Deadpool & Wolverine is for Marvel Studios to shout back at fans, “Yes, we have the movie rights to the X-Men. WE HEARD YOU.” Fun (or fickle) as that may be, it also makes Deadpool & Wolverine feel aimless and unnecessary. Any momentum it builds gets stopped dead for more shtick, and it even forgets its own antagonists. Twice! Not to say anyone was expecting an Avengers: Endgame level of stakes here, but this would’ve been the opportunity to take a big swing on some character development for Deadpool. And even if it’s just a goofy buddy comedy at its core, you’d think Levy and co. would be smart enough to avoid cliches or at least lampoon them better. The journey of Deadpool and Wolverine’s friendship is no different than any Chris Farley/David Spade vehicle from the 90s, but at least those movies had something of a grounded heart to it. Hell, it might’ve been funnier to see Farley try to pull off Deadpool’s swordplay (couldn’t be any worse than Beverly Hills Ninja).

If you were worried that bringing back Wolverine would desecrate the pitch-perfect ending of James Mangold’s Logan, slight spoiler: Deadpool & Wolverine actually opens with Deadpool desecrating Wolverine’s grave. Oh it leads to a funny opening fight, sure, but the fact that Wolverine’s rotting corpse is more useful to the movie than Hugh Jackman’s actual presence is worthy of an eye-roll. The alternate universe Wolverine has a backstory that’s more routine than tragic, and the fact that its reveal is drawn-out to the last 30 minutes isn’t worth any investment. He’s just here to make fanboys giggle and be the aggressive straight man to Deadpool’s goofiness, but the franchise has had much better foils for wacky Wade. Some of them are actually in the picture, including Karan Soni’s Dopinder and Brianna Hildebrand’s Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Shame that Jackman and the movie’s cameo budget shrunk their screentime down to just two scenes.

With friends like these.

Now before any accusations of DC loyalty (God forbid) start flying, there are plenty of moments where Deadpool & Wolverine works as a wacky action comedy. To give Levy some credit, he’s not bad at staging graphic fight scenes in close quarters with our dynamic duo punching and stabbing and slamming each other as the camera moves around them smoothly. The fight choreography has a good combo of Raid-esque brutality and kinetic silliness that Sam Raimi would approve of. Props to the editing team who also know when to cut to a physical punchline, only to miss the chance to trim down Reynolds breathless pursuit of killer zingers. Lord knows if Levy and his team had involvement in any of the bigger action set pieces or if Marvel just had them follow previs renders from years ago. At the very least, Levy wrangles all the chaos of multiverse-hopping into a brisk two-hour runtime that only lags in the final half hour.

I once saw Reynolds described as “sauceless Jim Carrey” and while that’s harsh, it’s easy to see the comparison this time around. Watching Reynolnds deliver joke after joke with jazz drummer precision is reminiscent of Carrey’s madcap energy in The Mask and Ace Ventura. But there’s the “sauceless” part: Reynolds and Carrey both have movie star charisma, but what the latter has over the former is the ability to show stress. Carrey has no problem throwing himself into everyday misery to get the laughs for Liar Liar and Bruce Almighty. He needed the slump of Stanley Ipkiss to soar as The Mask. As for Reynolds, there is no slump between Wade Wilson and Deadpool. Even at the third-act low point, Reynolds just can’t stop yapping and refuses to let the movie build him up to his next wild scene. It makes for an experience that’s more exhausting than exhilarating.

It doesn’t leave much room for his co-star, either. Even in the lesser X-Men movies, Jackman never phoned-in the rage and grit needed to play Wolverine. Deadpool & Wolverine has a few moments of Logan’s intimidating anger and the weight of past mistakes, but it all feels routine. And rushed: Jackman delivers his lines as fast as Reynolds does, not for comic effect but likely just to get them over with. Sure the fans will scream in hysterics to see Wolverine in a comic-accurate costume for the first time in live action…but is that enough? Does that warrant throwing the fabled ending to Wolverine’s story from Logan in the bin? Is it necessary to drag Jackman off of Broadway (arguably where he feels the most comfortable) for a half-assed retread of a tired character? There’s a joke where Deadpool says Wolverine will be on-hand in the MCU until he’s 90 and to be honest, it feels more like a threat.

The bottom line.

For all the fight scene finesse and throwing every joke at the wall, Deadpool & Wolverine adds up to being just a Marvel fan film with an insane checkbook in its pocket. There’s clearly effort on display here, but only as a means of distraction. New entries to the MCU have been hit-and-miss over the last five years, with the Disney+ series formula turning what was once anticipated event movies into the dreaded “content.” But who cares, look at Deadpool! There goes Wolverine! And I can’t believe [name redacted] is in the MCU!!! I don’t normally advocate the “turn your brain off” method of watching movies, but that might be the only way to get an enjoyable experience out of Deadpool & Wolverine. Otherwise, you start thinking of all the ramifications of the most powerful film studio in the world basing its blockbusters off minuscule references to 20-year-old movies that already referenced 60-year-old comic books. How can anyone hope to make a movie truly original when everyone else won’t shut up about Hugh Jackman in yellow spandex?

Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in theaters everywhere. You can watch the trailer here.

Images courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios. You can read more reviews by Jon Winkler here.