“Welcome to the MCU. By the way, this is a bit of a downturn for you to join,” Deadpool says during his highly anticipated (at least for him) team-up with Wolverine.
After all, admitting you have a problem is more than half the battle.
It’s satisfying to see a director of Levy’s caliber take on the Marvel universe for the first time, achieving the epic scale required while still keeping it fun.
After years of declining audience interest, Marvel Studios has landed a much-needed win in the form of ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ the third film in the Deadpool trilogy and the first time the X-Men are officially integrated into the MCU.
Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is retired from superheroism and living a quiet life while struggling to find meaning in life, when the TVA (short for Time Variance Authority, an organization introduced in the streaming series “Loki”) comes along, and it turns out the TVA needs someone like Deadpool to fix the timeline.
When the foul-mouthed mercenary realizes he must destroy his own universe in the process, he pivots to saving it instead. To do so, he enlists the help of another universe’s infamous Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). As the two unlikely friends race across the multiverse, the chaos surrounding Deadpool is always on their tail.
At the heart of this ultra-violent, ultra-irreverent film are surprisingly sincere themes of friendship and redemption: As they struggle together to find new meaning in life, our two heroes end up saving not only the entire universe, but each other in a bloody, action-packed climax.
This is one of the great bromances in movie history, with both Reynolds and Jackman giving career-best performances, and it’s one of the most sincere and emotionally satisfying stories Marvel Studios has produced since Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Warning: spoilers ahead
The film also pays loving homage to the 20th Century Fox era of Marvel with cameos from Blade (Wesley Snipes), Human Torch (Chris Evans), Elektra (Jennifer Garner), Pyro (Aaron Stanford), and Gambit (Channing Tatum, finally playing the character after multiple failed attempts in solo films).
Also appearing in what was meant to be Jackman’s final appearance as Wolverine is Laura/X-23 (Dafne Keen), who confirms that Wolverine from Logan is indeed dead and inspires this version of Wolverine to be the hero he always could be.
These throwbacks are fun, but they can hurt the film’s pacing, but it’s hard to blame Deadpool & Wolverine for wanting to maximize fan enjoyment.
Special mention also goes to director Shawn Levy, the filmmaker behind such great family films as 12 Dads, Night at the Museum, and the Reynolds-starring Free Guy, so it’s satisfying to see a director of his calibre working in the Marvel universe for the first time and keeping it fun and epic in scale.
With “Deadpool & Wolverine,” it’s fair to say the MCU has officially recovered from the nadir of Marvel wokeism. Will the studio build on this momentum and goodwill?
Only time will tell, but the recent shocking news from Comic-Con that Robert Downey Jr. will be playing Doctor Doom in both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars is certainly a hopeful sign. Let’s keep hoping that the party is only just getting started.
