In the eight years since ‘Deadpool’ fought its way from a leaked proof-of-concept video into a breakout box office hit, a lot has happened. Now, the titular Merc With A Mouth is at long last part of the biggest franchise in the world. It’s only unfortunate that he lost so much of what made the early movies special along the way.
I have a little more respect for sparing spoilers than the Marvel Studios marketing team, so I’m going to come out right now and give my spoiler-free take: If you’re a major Deadpool fan, you’ll probably get your money’s worth of a good time. If you’re a major Wolverine fan, there’s nothing here you haven’t seen before. And if you’re just casually interested in something to see at the theater this week, go see ‘Twisters’ instead and wait til this drops on Disney+ for free.
After this, the spoilers come out.
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ starts off on the worst foot possible. After spending the last few years since its announcement assuring fans that the new movie would be respectful to the ending of 2017's ‘Logan,’ we instead get Deadpool kicking over the iconic gravemarker left by Laura to dig up the skeletal remains of the Fox-Men’s Wolverine, smash them into pieces, and use them as makeshift weapons for a bloody NSYNC opening credits montage. Besides any alleged respect for the powerful intended ending of Hugh Jackman’s time as Wolverine, the other thing notably missing from this sequence is the running gag of mocking the creative team in the credits - only the first of many successful elements from the first two movies that are about to be jettisoned.
Courtesy of an extended flashback, we quickly find out the details of how Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) wound up adding ‘Desecration of Corpse’ to his long list of crimes. After spending all of ‘Deadpool 2’ trying to reunite with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), our hero and his true love have broken up offscreen. Why this choice is made is unclear (that will become a running theme with this script), as keeping them together would have no impact on the story at all. It serves only to sever any emotional throughlines from the past movies. After one brief birthday scene, the entire supporting cast of the first two films is jettisoned, not to be return until the final scene, taking with them all of the relationships, emotional connections, and charm they carried.
Responsible for this in-narrative is TVA agent Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), who plucks Deadpool from the timestream to inform him that his universe is withering and will eventually fade entirely due to the death of Wolverine in the events of ‘Logan.’ Paradox offers Deadpool a one-way ticket to the MCU, but instead he runs off to turn up another universe’s washed-up Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). However, Paradox isn’t interested in saving timelines, and banishes both heroes to the Wasteland, where they must face off with its villainous ruler Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) to escape and save the Fox-Men timeline.
The script is, as a comedy, far less funny than past installments, and, as a narrative, it’s broadly incoherent. Piles of rewrites, thanks likely in no small part to Marvel abandoning the overarching Kang storyline halfway through production, have left it a pile of loosely assembled plot points and murky motivations. Why does Paradox pull Deadpool out of the timeline in the first place? This is never made clear. Why does he want so badly to accelerate the destruction of the withering Fox-Men timeline? Also unclear. What does Cassandra Nova have to do with any of this? Again, unclear.
The previous films in the series did not necessarily have complex stories, nor were they immune to plotholes. But the endearing qualities found in the pathos of Deadpool’s emotional struggles and unlikely bonds of friendship smoothed over the rough edges and made him into someone to root for. That supporting cast grounded the aloof, 4th-wall-breaking attitude in something that felt real and sincere. Without those relationships, all that’s left is the shallow pool of irony.
That’s not to say that the movie is totally soulless. Jackman effortlessly slips back into the clawed gloves of his iconic role, and gives the gripping performance we’ve come to expect from him, with several moments that rank among the best of his time with this character. But at the end of the day, we’ve all seen the ‘Wolverine screws up and has to learn to be a hero again’ arc before - several times. Jackman is no less great after all these years, but his return to the part brings nothing new to the table.
What is new is Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova. While the script doesn’t have much for Nova to do besides fulfill an obligatory ‘Big Bad’ role, Corrin makes the absolute most out of their screentime. Past Deadpool villains have been largely forgettable, but Corrin's Nova is a blast. They imbue her with a malevolent childishness, viewing reality as a collection of wayward playthings to tinker with. More than any other part of the movie, their performance feels fully realized rather than merely referential, and thus easily becomes the most entertaining element.
Macfadyen as Paradox is also a lot of fun, adding a quirky side to the bored bureaucrat that plays very well opposite Reynolds’ Deadpool and makes the increasingly difficult to follow exposition he has to deliver slightly more bearable. When he and Corrin get to share the screen in the final act, it proves that the single strongest cheat code for any franchise is to give acclaimed British thespians a couple of funky roles and let them go at it.
Unfortunately, the quality of villains is not shared by the new supporting cast. Vanessa, Dopinder, Colossus, NTW, Yukio, Blind Al, and all the rest are replaced by a collection of returning characters from old Fox movies. They have no emotional connection to Deadpool or to each other, and never evolve into anything beyond glorified cameos. Even the titular team-up with Wolverine is rooted in fan expectations rather than a meaningful bond between the characters. The heart of the franchise has been hollowed out to make room for nostalgia, and no amount of players from franchises past can fill up that void.
In the end, ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ is neither a satisfying conclusion to the Fox-Men narrative nor an exciting introduction of new characters to the MCU. It functionally serves no purpose other than to smash two popular characters together like action figures until they smash open and a billion dollars falls out.
While it serves up enough entertaining moments to make up a light evening at the movies, it furthers the perception that in this new era, Marvel Studios has nothing new left to offer its fans. To sustain a new generation, they need to return to what made these movies beloved in the first place. It’s not enough to ask the audience to cheer, you have to get them to care.
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