Deadpool & Wolverine
The problem with all rebellions is that the successful ones are destined to become the thing they rebel against. They all promise differently, change to some ideal lacking in all drawbacks of real life, before inevitably taking on the same compromises as whatever came before and for the same reasons. Some, realizing this, revert to permanent rebellion letting the revolution itself become the point rather than affecting any sort of change. Either way, the longer the rebellion goes on the more question becomes ‘what was the point of it?’
Which is a long way of saying ‘what was the point of Deadpool?’ At its initial release it was obvious: a satirical reflex to the ubiquity of the big-budget superhero film, overtly skewering the accepted tropes and childish overtures of the genre through insider references, creatively cartoonish violence and a gleeful willingness to push an adult rating as far as possible. Others, including Marvel itself, had attempted similar assaults on its own massive pop-culture footprint (co-opting the rebellion before it could gain ground) but none with the venom Deadpool. Taking advantage of its stars best attributes and an emotional heart which was never hurt by the lack of sentiment its central conceit required. It was a foul breath of fresh air.
It was also incredibly successful which meant it had to continue and when a rebellion continues at some point it’s not a rebellion anymore. With the a big budget and all the backing of its corporate owners the series has become no longer a reflex against a pop-culture juggernaut but just another part of it. The answer to the question of ‘why?’ initially was “there wasn’t anything else like it.” Now that there is, the answer has morphed into “we need more of it?” More quips, more cameos, more in-jokes, more extended diatribes with little external reason to exist beyond the fact that they do. It’s the big budget superhero version of continued seasons of Family Guy, a repetitive shadow of its former self reduced to throwing a constant barrage of references at the screen and calling it progression.
Since using Cable’s time traveling device to bring his long time girlfriend Vanessa (Baccarin) back to life in Deadpool 2, the Merc With a Mouth has fallen into a serious funk, lacking in confidence of his own importance to the world and giving up his life as Deadpool as a result. With nothing to drive him he quickly loses Vanessa and his hopes of heroism, becoming a used car salesman with X-Force survivor Peter (Delaney) and just … living out his days. When he finds out those days are numbered because his universe is slowly dying due to the death of Wolverine (Jackman) in the future, Wade decides to put the red suit back on and find a Wolverine from some other part of the multiverse to come back and stabilize his.
The setup is a good deal more confusing than that, requiring characters to have knowledge of things which haven’t happened yet unmotivated exposition dumps explainable only by the need to get the movie going and ultimately not the problem with Deadpool & Wolverine. The problem is that no one understands how to make anything impact at an emotional level, leaving nothing but a collection of gags and references. Wade has seemingly lost his emotional anchor through a lack of belief in himself or a desire to accomplish anything … how and why is left to our imagination because it doesn’t matter to the filmmakers. What matters is to make sure that Wade and Vanessa are separated because he can only be conceived as questing for her to make himself whole and making bad jokes to cover up that pain. Over three films he has not changed or grown at all (and in Deadpool meta fashion, very much the point of the third film) leaving a third film which in sequel fashion is just more of the same … but more so.
To be fair, no matter how much Deadpool & Wolverine claims it is about Wade salvaging his relationship with Vanessa by salvaging himself, it is not. It is about Deadpool and Wolverine. And an endless amount of references and cameos. It is a film not about being a film, but only about being a delivery mechanism for quips and visual gags and ‘can you spot that’ references which are expected to be enough to maintain attention. In Deadpool meta fashion, Deadpool’s movie has turned into a Deadpool. That is not a good thing. It's a stew no one has bothered to taste even as they throw more and more into it because it doesn’t matter what it tastes like, only what can be put into it.
Most of that doesn’t matter, either. What matters is Deadpool and Wolverine. Jackman has lost none of the gravitas or charisma that made him a perfect fit for the role and the role a star-making turn for him. As expected, he make a perfect foil for Deadpool in his grumpy taciturness which has no time for Wilson’s constant silliness. A Wolverine from a world where he was a failure who got the X-Men killed he is kidnapped by Wade to replace the dead Wolverine in Wade’s world. Instead of saving his world, however, the pair of banished to the Void where the TVA sends variants from timelines set to be erased, now controlled by the powerful and malevolent twin sister of the X-Men’s Professor Xavier, one Cassandra Nova (Corrin). With no way home except through Nova, Deadpool and Wolverine will have to put their differences aside and defeat her if they can.
It is the thinnest of narratives left to serve as a brittle exoskeleton whose only focus is to support having the two of them on camera together threatening each other. When the two are allowed to argue and even better fight it growls to something like life, and it’s still funny … frequently despite itself. But then it runs back into its need for references and quips, which often leave the rest of the cast looking on in a dull stupor like the hadn’t heard anything at all.
It delivers exactly what it advertises. Deadpool and Wolverine are in it and are in a lot of it doing many different things. Deadpool does all the things he has done in the previous films without a whiff of change or growth, because now he has Wolverine to bounce off of. It’s not enough, but it’s unlikely most will care.
4.5 out of 10
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams an Matthew Macfayden. Directed by Shawn Levy.