CCan the fading Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise be redeemed by a plethora of desperately self-aware comedies? Can this summer’s mainstays provide laughs for those who once cared, when fewer and fewer people care? Can an odd-couple action bromance in which Ryan Reynolds’s witty crime-fighter Deadpool plays a gag-busting role and Hugh Jackman’s wrinkled Wolverine plays Deadpool’s straight man, a tired spirit of seriousness, put the superhero genre back on top?
Well, maybe. Deadpool has always been a satirical escapade, but this movie more or less commands the audience not to take any of it seriously, shatters the fourth wall with a joke about nerds saving “special socks” for certain fight scenes, lightly (if embarrassingly) pokes fun at the MCU’s cosmic timeline shenanigans, allows characters to be brought back to life, and has a ton of very tiresome corporate jokes about Disney buying Fox, presumably on the basis that the general public will care about this just as much as Hollywood fighters. Reynolds is often funny, sometimes very funny, sometimes just completely insufferable, and often a weird and interesting combination of the three.
His Deadpool, now simply Wade Wilson, is a down-and-out car dealer who tried unsuccessfully to join the Avengers, but is secretly recruited by the creepy Briton Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) to spearhead a secret plan to mercifully destroy this disappearing universe in the multiverse. Deadpool angrily refuses, despite the allure of a heroically sacrificing “Marvel Jesus,” and instead recruits grumpy old Wolverine from the dead to save the world from this plan.
But for all their efforts, they end up trapped in a place called the Void, whose rip-off resemblance to the Mad Max movies is cheekily brushed aside with a pre-emptive joke. There they encounter the terrifying villain, Cassandra Nova, the bald twin sister of Charles Xavier, played by Emma Corrin. I expected Deadpool to call her something like “Nasty Lady Die,” a nod to Tilda Swinton’s look as Doctor Strange. Deadpool and Wolverine bicker and sometimes punch each other, but they’re basically a team. Wilson’s best friend Peter is played likably by Rob Delaney.
And yes, the film is full of laughs, as it collapses into the sound of repeated banging on the jukebox to keep blood sugar levels high, but strangely, any humorous aspects are ultimately negated by a very serious throwback footage during the closing credits, sentimentally celebrating Hugh Jackman’s greatest moments in the X-Men series.
Basically, Deadpool gets it right: he’s Marvel’s Jesus, the man elevated from the ranks as heroic savior, the quirky character who gives the whole MCU business meaning by repositioning it as gag material, and keeps it going until maybe the MCU can return to its original, fundamentally serious mode and box-office success. It’s both entertaining and exhausting.
