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Posted in: 20th Century Studios, Kaitlyn Booth, Marvel Studios, Movies, Review | Tagged: deadpool & wolverine
Deadpool & Wolverine Review: A Fandom Feast, A Newcomer Famine
Deadpool & Wolverine is proof that Marvel has still lost the forest for the trees in terms of lore. Usually, they are getting lost in lore for things to come, but this film is lost in the lore of the past.
Article Summary
- Deadpool & Wolverine leans heavily on past Marvel lore, making it less approachable for casual fans.
- Shawn Levy directs with Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine reuniting for a fun but niche adventure.
- The film excels in nostalgic nods but risks alienating those not well-versed in past films.
- Despite its flaws, the movie delivers some stellar action scenes and sharp comedy that die-hard fans will adore.
[THIS REVIEW OF DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE IS SPOILER-FREE. HOWEVER, IF IT'S IN A TRAILER, IT'S FAIR GAME. PLEASE KEEP THAT IN MIND.]
Deadpool & Wolverine will be everything and more to its target audience, but for those that aren't terminally online, there is a good chance half of the movie's jokes and set pieces will be meaningless to them.
Director: Shawn Levy
Summary: Wolverine is recovering from his injuries when he crosses paths with the loudmouth Deadpool. They team up to defeat a common enemy.
Deadpool & Wolverine Is A Superhero Love Letter
The first Deadpool movie was kind of a miracle that it happened at all. It was absolutely a product of superheroes becoming a mainstream form of entertainment for nearly everyone, and it was because audiences were willing to accept comic-accurate stories and characters that Deadpool made it to the big screen in an accurate way. There is no way Deadpool could come out in a time when superhero movies were ashamed of their source material because any fourth wall-breaking would have come across as smug and punching down on its own comic book origins.
That made it an excellent movie for fans, but what made it a great movie overall was that it was approachable to people who had no investment in superhero movies at all. If you were willing to get your head around the film's basic idea, it welcomed you with open arms. Deadpool 2 leaned a bit harder into its own comic book origins and got more lost in the concept of an extended universe, but if you saw the first film, you could more or less keep up. Deadpool & Wolverine is not approachable, which might be its biggest sin. While millennials and Gen-X might not want to admit this, there are fans of the MCU now who didn't watch any of the X-Men movies, the first run of Fantastic Four, or anything like that. They have no investment in any of this, and Deadpool & Wolverine is counting on the fact that you are invested enough for someone to show up on screen.
As more and more films lean into nostalgia as the driving force for bringing in audiences, there is a right and wrong way to do it. Plenty of films have leaned into the idea of nostalgia as a premise and have so many easter eggs that people could write books about them. However, the difference is these easter eggs shouldn't be the entire premise of the plot point and shouldn't take anything away from an audience member who doesn't know what you are referring to. A moment in the second act of Deadpool & Wolverine is a perfect example of how not to do this. Those that understand the context of the scene are going to lose their damn minds, and we love that for them, but if you don't know who these people are, you aren't going to understand what is going on. Not understanding the reference or the cameo hurts the scene, thus leaving out any audience member who isn't terminally online.
Deadpool & Wolverine isn't asking you to do your Marvel homework; it's asking you to do your Marvel historical research. The budgets for these films are too big to try and limit the audience through this weird form of nerd gatekeeping. If you haven't done the required historical reading, you're not going to have fun in the Deadpool & Wolverine club, and it's probably going to call out the fact that you aren't in a snarky way. The intended audience will love it, but we cannot overstate how much of this film is built on previous knowledge and investment in movies older than the eighteen-year-olds who can get into this film legally. The film gets so caught up in all of this that it drags the end of the first and nearly all of the second acts for too long. That's when it becomes apparent that the movie is trying to do too much, and saying that it's what Deadpool comics are like now doesn't make it any less disjointed or messy.
Has One Of The Best Fight Scenes In The MCU We've Seen In A Long Time
All of this makes the movie sound bad, but it's not. The cold open is absolutely incredible, with a great music drop and some nice, bloody action showing right away that this movie is not pulling its punches. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are clearly having the absolute time of their lives, and it's nice to see Jackman get the opportunity to let loose as Logan in a film that won't leave you a broken sobbing mess by the end. Emma Corrin is a lot of fun as Cassandra Nova, and the entire premise behind their characters and their intentions might be the most fascinating part of the movie. We get some returning greats, including Dafne Keen, Laura, and others who won't be spoiled here.
The movie doesn't quite have the level of heart that the first Deadpool had since Vanessa and everyone in Wade's universe is around for about .5 seconds and then doesn't have much to do after that. Vanessa and Wade's love story has always been the glue that held these films together, which is why we flipped a table when she was fridged in the second movie, and it was worse for it. The dynamic between Wade and Logan makes up for some of it, but it still feels like everyone is missing the special piece from the first film in favor of more cocaine and pegging jokes. Said jokes land more than they don't and there is a running bit with a cameo that is such a deep cut while also being hilarious that you really have to give them credit for going there. The entire concept of where Wade and Logan end up in the second act is also extremely clever, and they put the concept to good use. There is also a sideways one-track fight scene with Logan and Wade going up against [SPOILERS], which is fantastic. It might be up there with one of the best fight scenes we've seen in the MCU for a long time.
Deadpool & Wolverine will be everything to its target audience: funny, a love letter to the previous generation of superhero movies, with a sense of energy that will give them hope for the future of the MCU. As for everyone else, it's utterly unapproachable in a way the first two films were and so terminally online that even those slightly less plugged in will feel left out of half of the references and cameos, wondering why other people are finding something funny. It will probably be polarizing between those who are up on their Marvel history and those who aren't. After a subpar 2023, Deadpool & Wolverine is more proof that Marvel has lost the forest for the trees in terms of lore. Usually, they are getting lost in lore for things to come, but this film is lost in the lore of the past, and that's either going to be your thing, or it isn't.
Deadpool & Wolverine
7.5/10
Deadpool & Wolverine will be everything and more to its target audience, but for those that aren't terminally online, there is a good chance half of the movie's jokes and set pieces will be meaningless to them.
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