SPOILER ALERT
Deadpool and Wolverine…have had quite a history together, haven’t they?
After Deadpool first appeared in the comics in 1992, he started off as a supporting character alongside such groups as the New Mutants, X-Force, and, most prominently, the X-Men. He shared their position in society as a mutant with enhanced powers, which, in his case, happened to be recovering from any wounds inflicted upon him, no matter how extreme. However, his most famous collaboration is with Wolverine.
They starred in plenty of comics together, including ‘Wolverine and Deadpool’ and ‘Deadpool vs. Wolverine,’ and they were famous as a duo in film, even if they weren’t always onscreen together. However, the results of their first onscreen collaboration were – how should I put this? – embarrassing.
The first film they starred in together was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Deadpool looked nothing like his comic counterpart in that film. Fortunately, Ryan Reynolds changed that when he threw his spin on Deadpool, which was more in line with his comic representation, and the rest was history. But throughout Deadpool’s time in the movies, he often quipped about Wolverine and some of the X-Men, primarily through the one X-Men member who tried talking some sense to him, Colossus. With this kind of history and background with Wolverine, what happened when he ran into him again in this flick, not to mention got more comfortable with him in the prestigious Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Frankly, this collaboration has resulted in much excitement, intrigue, and genuine fun, and I don’t mean just from this collaboration.
Let me explain how, starting with the story.
Here’s the first shocker of the movie: Wade Wilson had given up his life as a mercenary and even as Deadpool because it conflicted with his family life, which led to him breaking up with Vanessa. So, he settled down with or without Vanessa, hoping to achieve a more normal life, with mixed results. But then, at his birthday party, he was confronted by, of all characters, officers from the TVA – the Time Variance Authority – who you may recognize from the Loki TV series on Disney+. They were after Wade due to various disruptions with the time-space continuum in his universe and wanted him to fix it. How? By having him leave what’s described as Earth-10005 in his old universe, which was on the brink of self-destruction, anyway, and join Earth-616 in the Sacred Timeline, which is the timeline of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Before Wade was clued in on all this, you would think that tampering with the space-time continuum with Cable’s time mechanics to reverse a few deaths and jump in between dimensions to set things at ease at the end of the last film is the reason the TVA apprehended him, right?
Well, that was partially the case, but it was not the main reason he was dragged into the TVA. According to the pompous main TVA member who arranged this, Mr. Paradox, his timeline was being disrupted because of his actions and a particular spoiler from the end of the movie, Logan, which concerns his universe’s version of Wolverine, who served as its anchor. Because of this and Wade disrupting the space-time continuum with Cable’s time mechanics, Mr. Paradox noticed this, took Deadpool in, and asked him to save his universe by letting it go and joining the Sacred Timeline. Wade, of course, saw the flaws in this proposition and decided to take matters into his own hands and fix it his way by finding another Wolverine to replace the one in his timeline. He attempted to do that by traveling through alternating dimensions to find who he thinks is the right Wolverine. When he finally found the Wolverine he was looking for, a frustrated Mr. Paradox pointed out that he happened to be the worst of all of Wolverine’s variants, a quote ‘loser Wolverine’ who let everyone back home down. And because of Deadpool’s arrogance and recklessness, the TVA zapped them both into oblivion.
And what happens to them after they get pulverized by the TVA zappers? Well, after seeing all two seasons of Loki, it turns out that these characters, described by the TVA as variants compared to their accurate caricatures in the MCU, do not end up being vaporized or zapped out of existence like I thought. Instead, they all end up in a mysterious, unknowable, seemingly untraceable place called the Void. The Void is a colorless wasteland populated by all the multiversal misfits that the TVA zapped out of existence and by Alioth, who feasted upon them. While they were stuck there, both Deadpool and Wolverine attempted to return to the TVA so Deadpool can save his timeline, even if begrudgingly so by Wolverine.
But there were other problems they had to deal with. After running into a few more variants zapped into the Void as Deadpool and Wolverine did earlier – I’ll elaborate more on those soon – they also ran into a deadly threat there, who happened to be Cassandra Nova, twin sister of famed X-Men head, Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X. Cassandra took it upon herself to not only escape the Void but also lay her hands on every fracture of the TVA, which in turn would’ve given her the power to control all the universes. And it turns out what she needed to make that work was a machine called the Time Ripper, which would’ve allowed her to take hold of all the universes at her every whim. And because her pursuits mean that Deadpool and Wolverine’s worlds would’ve been erased from existence too, they both tried to band together, work their way through their differences, step up their A-game to prove themselves as the heroes that they can be, and stop both Cassandra from destroying the universes and Mr. Paradox from going through with his faulty plans for leaving Wade’s universe to die.
Since Disney purchased 20th Century Fox in 2018, the future of Deadpool became uncertain despite achieving great results with the first two Deadpool movies. As I elaborated in my review of Once Upon a Deadpool, this PG-13 variant, so to speak, of Deadpool 2 was put together out of uncertainty about how Disney and Marvel head Kevin Feige would react to allowing Deadpool under the MCU banner. But as many people pointed out, this seemed like a very sanitized version of the film, sticking with either the theatrical or Super Duper Cut. So, when Deadpool made his reappearance, this time as part of the MCU, everybody was just over the moon about this rearrangement since it meant that, even under new management, Deadpool would’ve continued expressing himself creatively and personality-wise as he was supposed to by Ryan Reynolds. As for what we got out of Deadpool’s first venture into the MCU, it’s most engaging. It did so skillfully by implementing elements of the MCU that mixed in with Deadpool, primarily with the TVA from Loki. It leaves the likelihood that the doors would’ve been opened for all the characters that have branched away from the Sacred Timeline to intermingle and mix with the main components of the Sacred Timeline. But it goes to show you that because some characters are very comfortable in the universes where they feel the most at home, it makes the idea of mixing them in with the Sacred Timeline feel pretentious and not right, showing the downsides of pruning timelines to maintain a more sacred balance between them all. In a way, if Wish’s representation of Disney controlling everything was unintentional, Marvel displaying what it controls with the TVA is meant to be straightforward and thus intentional.
And how does the movie demonstrate this?
It introduces us to all the other variants who were zapped into oblivion and left in the Void by the TVA, many of whom were different Marvel characters portrayed by various actors resuming their roles from the past couple of decades.
From here on out, I’m about to venture into spoilers, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Among the variants Deadpool and Wolverine ran into in the Void outside of Cassandra Nova are the Human Torch, Elektra, Blade, Gambit, and finally, Laura, or X-23, from Logan. It introduces a bit of the meta that was already rampant in the first two Deadpool movies, only here, the meta is applied to the Marvel movies altogether and not just to the X-Men movies like in the first two Deadpool movies. So, when I first saw this, I legitimately looked at a good portion of Deadpool & Wolverine like it was fanservice lane, what with there being many recognizable Marvel icons who showed up as different interpretations of characters we’ve seen in films and TV shows for the past couple of decades.
However, as my girlfriend and I elaborated on this after watching it together, we ultimately concluded that the cameos in this film were less like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and more like Spider-Man: No Way Home. It’s very skillful about implementing fanservice in the movie to whet the audience’s appetites while ensuring they are there for more purposes than just that. The purpose is that they’ve all been zapped into oblivion and the Void and thus had nowhere else to go because of their universes being pruned. But thanks to Deadpool and Wolverine’s motivations, they were prompted to get back on their feet and try to either break their way out of the Void, stop Cassandra, or prove their worth even after being nipped out of existence.
All three Spider-Men, for example – Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland – banded together to prove their worth as they tried to fight down all the bad guys who slipped into the Sacred Timeline. So, too, did the cameos in this movie have to understand their role after they’ve been banished through zapping and cessation into the Void. While this movie does not shy away from referencing movies, TV shows, or past events under Marvel with extreme irony, there’s a sense that it is also acknowledging them as more of a tribute. We know what happened to 20th Century Fox after Disney purchased it in 2018, and as I said, it adds more of a meta flavor that’s more obvious and rampant in this film than even in the first two Deadpool movies.
Also, one moment that stuck out to me is when Laura, having recognized Wolverine from her universe’s variant in Logan, had a pep talk with him and told him why he’s so respected, even if, in his universe, he had become a major laughing stock. That was one of the most touching moments in the movie, and without having seen Logan – though I wish I had as of this writing – this is where I understood why it’s essential to do whatever references and cameos are possible outside of just fanservice and that there must be a specific purpose for them outside of that.
As for the other characters, how do they fare?
Well, Mr. Paradox from TVA, who wanted to help Deadpool by erasing his timeline, is a skewed guy with a self-conceited image and a desperation to attempt to try to maintain order in the TVA the way he thinks it must be upheld, even if it started to conflict with how the rest of TVA functioned and planned to do so in terms of keeping all the timelines balanced out. He did not show up very much in the movie, and I wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s another major villain in this movie. He does come close, but he came across as a pretentious TVA head with a warped and misguided argument on how TVA should function.
As for the main villain, Cassandra Nova, she seemed like a generic villain with nothing too memorable about her. However, whenever she talked about her connections with Charles Xavier and what connections she felt like she had to Wolverine as an X-Men member, it played with a lot of intriguing connections rampant with her, whether it was from the past movies or the comics. Watching her use her fingers and dig them into the skulls of each person she touched to gain access to their memories and feelings as she attempted to talk them into doing her bidding was creepy. And watching her kill people with just a whip of her fingers, like she did with the Human Torch, was also beyond unnerving. It demonstrates what kind of psychic capabilities she had and how dangerous that made her as a villain, especially compared to her twin brother.
For all the villains and cameos, however, who else but Deadpool and Wolverine?
The movie belongs to these two characters, even if one ended up being mentioned in the same sentence as the other by mistake. But what these two went through throughout the film paved the way for their companionship, journey, and ultimate demonstration of them as heroes. It makes it much more exciting to watch, especially after hearing Deadpool make random cracks, jokes, and observations about Wolverine over the past two movies. So to see Deadpool not only scramble to save his universe but also, at the same time, attempt to talk Wolverine out of being a failure so he could prove himself as something better tests that resolve and willingness to try to save not only their worlds but also the entire multiverse, even if they have had to work their way through nagging and confrontations to make it possible.
With Deadpool, he had a lot going on with him, even though he saved Vanessa from death thanks to Cable’s time-traveling mechanics. Though successful in averting the deaths of some of his X-Force members, like Peter and Starscream, it turns out that it wasn’t enough for Deadpool because his constant business as Deadpool caused his and Vanessa’s relationship to feel estranged to the point where they broke up. Because of this, he attempted to achieve a regular job with Peter by his side, but even he ended up sucking at that a bit. But once the TVA recruited him to save his universe, or at least leave his universe to die its own death and join the Sacred Timeline, he didn’t believe that just abandoning his home and settling for a seemingly better place is the proper way to go and throws in his own two cents on the matter. Then, he traveled through different dimensions to get to the bottom of the dilemmas going on and save his world and all the others from potential destruction, even if it’s for selfish reasons. Even if Wade roped in the ‘loser Wolverine’ — I’ll get to that soon — out of desperation, it still demonstrates just how far Wade was willing to go for someone he loved, how much he understood the pains and dilemmas of whoever he ran into and was willing to help them out of their darkest times. Plus, he was still reckless enough to save his leftover ammo and katanas and use them on whoever he felt deserved it.
As for Wolverine himself, he’s a different type of Logan than we’ve seen in the previous X-Men movies, especially the film Logan. The Wolverine that Deadpool collaborated with in this movie, according to Mr. Paradox, was the worst of the Wolverines he knew of. He turned out to have been a coward who had his chance to join the X-Men and prove his worth, only to back out at the last minute and decide not to join them out of fear and arrogance. Once Logan was set to prove himself as a superhero and a worthy ally of the X-Men, it was too late, for because of his reluctance to join, every one of the X-Men members was killed off. What I don’t know is by whom. Regardless, this backing out turned Logan into a perpetual object of ridicule, for he always drank himself into a stupor to drown his sorrows away, even though that only got him into more trouble than it was worth.
It was only when Logan met up with Deadpool that he acknowledged whether it’s better to not bother about the world he’s living in if they’ve been nothing but cruel to him anyway and whether Logan would have even had the slightest chance of redeeming himself and proving himself as the worthy X-Man that he could’ve been, that Deadpool saw him as. So, whether Wolverine asked for this or not, his being dragged into Deadpool’s business set him off on a path to redemption as he got acquainted with all the various heroes, variants, and bad guys that Deadpool ran into during their journey together. And we, too, would’ve seen what he had left in him to become the Wolverine, or in this case, the X-Man that we all worship him as.
Let’s talk about the action. That was bound to happen in superhero franchises such as that of Deadpool. With the first film, I found the action standard but still well done, and with the last one, its action scenes expressed more choreography to them. But there’s something about how the action unfolded with not only Deadpool or Wolverine but also with all the supporting characters they ran into throughout the movie that felt a lot more invigorating. Part of that might be because of how everyone involved took such action.
I’m talking more about Elektra, Blade, Gambit, Human Torch, and Laura from Logan. Watching all those superheroes banding up and preparing to take down any foes they ran into is bound to promise some exciting action, primarily since the action was performed by superheroes we’ve seen in previous movies and shows before Deadpool & Wolverine. All the actors who resumed their roles performed their stunts and action sequences throughout the film like they’d only done this yesterday; their talents in their designated roles went on like they hadn’t slowed down a bit.
Their contributions added to this movie’s exciting nature, and it only got crazier once Deadpool and Wolverine confronted the Deadpool Corps. I don’t recall what all those Deadpool variants chased down the original Deadpool for, but it doesn’t matter since it led to a colossal action scene involving all the Deadpools fighting against each other that was both awesome and hilarious.
Other times, the action scenes were just plain funny. Outside of the fight against the Deadpool Corps, and while what I speak of is also a tense scene for these two characters, watching Deadpool and Wolverine fight against each other in the Honda Odyssey in the middle of the forest resulted in some genuine visual jokes and witty humor that went nicely with the action.
But my favorite action scenes are the opening fight sequences. After Deadpool discovered Logan’s corpse in his universe and was cornered by the TVA officers, he fought them with bits of pieces of the corpse, and all of it set to ‘Bye Bye Bye’ by *NSYNC. Not only does this show in glorious detail how R-rated the movie could be, especially for an MCU film, but the catchy tune, mixed with some of Deadpool’s reenactments of the boy band’s moves from the song, plays a great deal to Deadpool’s sense of ludicrous irony.
Interestingly, the opening credits here are straightforward compared to the tongue-in-cheek opening credits from the first two films. But that doesn’t change how nicely they flowed with what unfolded throughout the opening sequence. They reminded me more of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, with their opening credits playing with a dash of fun to spice them up, especially as chaotic situations went on at the same time.
Speaking of *NSYNC, the rest of the songs in the movie add some eclectic values and witty humor. Huey Lewis’ ‘The Power of Love’ from Back to the Future tossed in some excitability and urgency to Deadpool’s quest to find the Wolverine he believed would’ve helped him put his universe back on track. ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ by Jimmy Durante threw a slightly somber yet optimistic tone to Deadpool and Wolverine as they prepared to return to the TVA as their fellow variants were busy fighting Cassandra and her cronies. And there was something that felt quite glorious about listening to ‘Like a Prayer’ by Madonna as Deadpool and Wolverine prepared to finally turn the tables to try and save all the universes from unraveling.
Who are we kidding, though? While the characters are fun to watch, and the action helps propel the excitable antics of the superhero movie, it’s evident that the main factor that played into this movie’s strengths is the acting by…pretty much everyone involved.
Whenever I saw all the actors returning to their roles here from the original films, including Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Wesley Snipe as Blade, Dafne Keen as Laura from Logan, and even Chris Evans as the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four, they all seemingly resumed their roles with what they nailed down with their characters in the originating films. One of the surprise actors that I was impressed to see allowed to work his magic is Channing Tatum as Gambit. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, it was said that Gambit was supposed to be given his own movie with Tatum in the lead role before Fox canned it. So, for him to be given a second chance to play Gambit through Deadpool & Wolverine was fantastic, and for what he was able to unleash as Gambit, he demonstrated some of the lightness and ‘cool guy’ techniques prevalent with Gambit while also displaying some of his remarkable talents with his playing cards, as I know Gambit did in the original comics.
I admire how slender Emma Corrin’s performance as Cassandra Nova was. I don’t know if Cassandra Nova will be remembered as one of the all-time greatest Marvel villains in the MCU, but Corrin’s performance helps Cassandra come alive with how slick, deceitful, menacing, sly, sneaky, and even terrifying her motivations and ways with other people can be. There’s a sense of manipulation when she’s toying with other people, demonstrating her utmost potential as a mastermind of psychic abilities as she attempted to sweet-talk her pawns into doing her bidding. Emma Corrin did so splendidly with a soft voice hinting at a sense of simultaneous comfort and dread. And once she became more unhinged, she let forth how power-hungry she could be, even if it meant getting her hands on the Time Ripper to make it possible.
But while that’s all fine and dandy, the two main actors, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, steal the show here.
Just as he had in the first two Deadpool movies, Ryan Reynolds hit home his sense of quirky normality as Wade Wilson, especially when he tried to be a decent human being to others, such as by being a car salesman. But by then, he slowly trickled back into his original persona, where he upheld his mercenary position as Deadpool. As I’ve already elaborated about him, the kind of performance Ryan Reynolds unleashed, primarily as Deadpool, where he tended to go all out and let loose his bloodthirsty antics all over the bad guys he faced, was where he shone the brightest. Reynolds also never allowed it to overshadow his softer, more conscientious side as he looked out for those he loved and the best interests of whoever he tried to protect. In the last film, it was with Russell, AKA Firefist; here, it was with Wolverine.
And let’s not forget the dog who appeared as another Deadpool variant named Dogpool. For those of you who are not familiar with the dog, whose name is Peggy, she was deemed Great Britain’s ugliest dog online. The idea of seeing her make a starring role in this movie as another Deadpool variant contributed to the movie’s eccentric sense of humor, for Dogpool’s ugliness gelled nicely alongside that apparent in Wade Wilson after his mutant transformation. It also conflicted with what Deadpool felt with Dogpool upon discovering that he was owned by another Deadpool variant, who, I might add, is called Nicepool. He was basically a more moderate, less vulgar equivalent of Deadpool. And that’s another part of Ryan Reynolds’ performance that I thought he did very well; he emphasized Nicepool’s decent qualities while amping it for the proper comedic effect.
Finally, what can I say about Hugh Jackman that hasn’t been said already?
Hugh Jackman did a terrific job of conveying the rough-around-the-edges instincts through Wolverine, a generally feisty and battle-ready superhero. Yet, whenever Logan spoke more softly, there was a sense that his inner dilemmas could be felt as Logan worked his way through all the inner turmoil and troubles he had to deal with until Logan was sure that he either knew what he was doing or that he caught on soon enough to lunge into action before any harm could be done. Never mind his Australian accent and how it could sometimes distract from his performance as Wolverine. Jackman still conveyed his inflections to a tee and helped add depth to this character.
But what makes it even better to me is that this iteration of Wolverine was different, and yet Hugh Jackman still conveyed the same mannerisms with him, to the point where this is a different interpretation of the same character while still being the same character. And Jackman’s performance reflects that. There’s a reason why many people point towards Hugh Jackman as among the definitive interpretations of Wolverine, not unlike how we look at Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, or Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. There may even be debate about which actor played the definitive take of iconic superheroes like Batman, Spider-Man, or Superman. But whenever people think of Wolverine, chances are they’d immediately point to Hugh Jackman because his acting in this role is that well-furbished.
Just as I have seen Ryan Reynolds carry into this movie what he perfected in his role as Deadpool, so, too, have I witnessed Hugh Jackman carry into this movie what he perfected in his role as Wolverine, especially when they’re paired together. Speaking of which…
The last time I saw a superhero cross between universes to meet another superhero portrayed by a famous actor who nailed the role before, it was with The Flash as he ran into Michael Keaton’s interpretation of Batman from the Tim Burton movies. Because DC attempted that, I wondered how Marvel would’ve achieved this with Deadpool crossing between universes to meet Hugh Jackman’s interpretation of Wolverine in this film.
Well, considering their rocky start in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it’s safe to say that the second time’s the charm.
Once you see Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman together, the amount of banter and comedic/physical timing they expressed to each other was something to behold. Ryan Reynolds’ constant joking and prankster antics combined with Hugh Jackman’s dead-serious and committed ethics provided amusing and flaring ‘odd couple’ antics that demonstrate each character’s opposite aspects as well as their flaws as they tried to help each other through some of their more trying aspects until they come out on top as the superheroes they are. So, watching these two work off each other the way they did in this film is among the reasons, outside of the cameos, why this is among the most rightfully anticipated Marvel movies in recent years.
So, because there are so many good things to report about this movie, you might be thinking, ‘What could possibly go wrong?’ Well, while I don’t deny that this is a fun, great movie not only by superhero standards but also by Deadpool standards, I have three nitpicks with this movie that I cannot help but dwell over.
The first one is the continuity.
Now, I’m not saying that the movie does a poor job of staying consistent with the continuity it shares with some of the other movies, TV shows, or even Deadpool’s prior films. In fact, that’s one of the greatest strengths of the MCU. But that’s also why it’s one of the most noticeable issues with the movie. The first two Deadpool movies usually ran by their own logic and storytelling techniques while making cracks, jokes, and references to the X-Men movies that came before, like with Colossus. There’s even one comment from the first film by Deadpool that I find cheeky.
Colossus: Let us go talk to the Professor.
Deadpool: McAvoy or Stewart? These timelines are so confusing.
That tells me it acknowledges both iterations of the X-Men movies while keeping it so that we would enjoy the Deadpool movies on their own rather than having to be familiar with the X-Men movies to appreciate them. But with Deadpool & Wolverine, while having to be familiar with the first two Deadpool movies is a given, here, since Deadpool started settling in the MCU, that also means that the strong threads of consistent continuity rampant throughout the franchise have now trickled into Deadpool’s universe. And because of that, there are a good chunk of other Marvel movies and shows that we would’ve had to have a firm knowledge of to understand what’s happening in Deadpool & Wolverine. In this case, it would be Loki and Logan.
I had seen all two seasons of Loki before seeing this one, but it’s Logan that I wish I had seen in advance, and I feel ashamed because, on its own, it’s said to be one of the greatest Marvel movies ever made. It even went so far as to nab an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, which is a big deal for a comic book movie. So, while I followed Deadpool & Wolverine just fine, even without seeing all the films and shows necessary to follow up on it, it would’ve confused those new to the MCU, primarily through the Deadpool movies. But since I’m a sucker for consistent and robust continuity, I don’t mind it in the slightest here since I am familiar a great deal with the MCU. So, it’s just a matter of exposure.
Besides, regarding Logan and what details I should’ve picked up on to understand what went on in Deadpool & Wolverine, Deadpool 2’s opening scene gave that away for me, anyway.
The following two issues are more of what I would describe as the ‘could have used more of’ issues. It’s not that the movie did anything wrong; it’s just that there were a few things in the film that I thought were missing.
The first of these issues that I think the movie could have used more of is Wolverine’s backstory. Think of it this way. We are accustomed to Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the X-Men movies over the past couple of decades. But again, this Wolverine, played by the same actor, is an entirely different interpretation of the character. While the movie does a great job of having him and Deadpool partner up, banter, argue with each other, and work together to fight evil, there’s a sense that Wolverine could have used a little more exposure in this movie.
And frankly, whenever I think of the title Deadpool & Wolverine, I usually look at these two as if they’re given equal billing, whereas as is…
Well, how do I put this?
Some characters are co-leads, and some get second billing. I don’t know what you call those who fall in between those two, but throughout this movie, that’s how Wolverine felt to me. But altogether, I also understand that Deadpool & Wolverine is ultimately and technically Deadpool 3. So, while Wolverine is still an essential character in this movie, it’s obvious the movie belongs more to Deadpool than Wolverine. I feel like Wolverine is to this movie what Iron Man is to Captain America: Civil War and what the Hulk is to Thor: Ragnarok.
But while it was stimulating to hear the characters’ conversations about their past troubles, especially from Wolverine as he reflected on what happened to him to have made him the quote ‘loser Wolverine,’ there’s a part of me that wished we could have seen that kind of backstory, too. As Deadpool put it to him,
Want to talk about what’s haunting you, or should we wait for a third-act flashback?
In this case? It’s one of those situations where a third-act flashback would’ve been nice. The closest we ever got to that was when Wolverine walked beside a row of mausoleums, each commemorating all the deceased X-Men members that Wolverine failed to save. But I think the movie could have gone further with that. It would’ve been nice to go even farther back and see, through Wolverine’s eyes, what happened that turned Wolverine into such a joke to his peers. What did Wolverine possibly do outside of failing to act and help the X-Men to have made him this much of an outcast?
While it’s nice to hear all that about Wolverine, I would’ve liked to see more of that with him. That way, once Wolverine stepped up his A-game and eventually fought evil alongside Deadpool – not to mention put on the finishing touch, which I’ll address soon – it would’ve felt a little more uplifting and even triumphant.
But I suppose that all comes from how well-written and acted Wolverine is in this film. So, as much as I wanted to see more of him, I ought to give credit where credit is due, which I already have.
And what’s the second thing this movie could have used more of? I will sum it up to you this way: I missed Deadpool’s supporting characters.
It’s not like they’re entirely out of the picture, though. I mean that the supporting characters that appeared alongside Deadpool in the first two movies were so colorful and lively and complimented Deadpool and his adventures so well that not seeing enough of them in this follow-up of Deadpool left me feeling a bit empty.
The most prominent instance in the movie where I saw these characters was in the birthday party scene at the beginning and ending, complete with the original actors resuming their roles. Among the characters in attendance were not only Vanessa but also Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Yukio, Dopinder, Blind Al, X-Force member Peter Wisdom, and even Buck from Sister Margaret’s. Of course, not only have all these characters not been given as much involvement in this movie as they have in the first two Deadpool movies, but we don’t see Weasel…although given TJ Miller’s real-life scandals and Deadpool’s attempts to retire as a mercenary in this movie, I think it makes too much sense why. We don’t even get an appearance by Zazie Beetz as lucky Domino from the last film, and I missed her. She was awesome!
Yet, as much as I wanted to see more of those guys, once again, that testifies to how well-written and acted they all were. I also acknowledge that this would’ve distracted from Deadpool and Wolverine’s main arcs. There’s already so much on the movie’s plate as it is, not just with Deadpool and Wolverine but also the cameos, their collaborations with TVA, their run-ins with Cassandra Nova, and all kinds of things that would’ve spelled the end of many universes as they knew it. So, I do understand.
Admittedly, while Wunmi Mosaku made a cameo in this film as Hunter B-15, there have been a couple of occasions when I wanted to see cameos of other characters from Loki, too, such as Mobius as Owen Wilson played him and Ouroboros as Ke Huy Quan played him.
While the returning supporting characters made their appearances in this movie the way they did, some were more memorable thanks to some of the few actors who made the most of their roles.
The first one is Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, although she did not do as much as in the first two movies. And yes, we’re talking about the second movie.
There’s still a sense that Baccarin knew how to play Vanessa with a sense of levelheadedness, contentedness, and soft understanding for other people’s struggles, such as what she felt in Wade Wilson, despite their relationship reaching rockier grounds than ever before. And considering how they celebrated their anniversary and were about to start a family in the last film, that’s especially shocking. I noticed many people lament how Vanessa as a character was either underutilized or not given a chance to shine as the Vanessa that was prevalent in the comics. Still, I think it might be a matter of the actress being too good with her role. Even if Vanessa was not given a chance to explore her superhero side, if she even has one in this interpretation of Deadpool, Baccarin still made her feel very human, compelling, and intriguing enough to arouse interest, no matter how big of a role she played in the Deadpool movies.
The second is Rob Delaney as Peter. If you’ve seen Deadpool 2, Peter is a normal human being who happened to be the lucky guy accepted by Deadpool and Weasel to partake in Deadpool’s original team of the X-Force, complete with Domino, Starscream, and the others. But he did a terrific job of amping Peter’s more normal tendencies and having them conflict, in an amusing way, against those who either were distinctively eccentric or stood out from the others in terms of their heroics. Even as he emerged as another variant – i.e. each Deadpool variant’s ally – he still blurted out how much of a close ally he was to Deadpool, despite being an average human being conflicting with what helped Deadpool and his allies stand out.
Finally, the one actress who might’ve taken a little more advantage of her character’s returning role in this movie compared to the others is Leslie Uggams as Blind Al. It helps that she appeared a few more times in the film outside of the birthday party, but every time, she nailed her sarcasm, common sense, and quick wit and retorts against Deadpool or the others. Uggams was fine as she was in the first two movies, but her contributions had a little more effect this time as she continued to do her role in this movie.
But now, let’s talk about what records it’s breaking. The first most obvious record it broke is that…
How did Deadpool put it in the last film?
Now I’m talked about in the same sentence as Jesus. The Passion of the Christ, then me. At least domestically. We beat them overseas, where there’s no such thing as religion.
Well, not anymore. Deadpool & Wolverine beat out The Passion of the Christ as the highest-grossing R-rated film domestically. And as I’m writing this, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it beat out Joker as the highest-grossing R-rated film worldwide.
But here’s where the film’s record-breaking streak gets a little crazier.
Even if Deadpool & Wolverine was allowed to maintain its R-rating under the canvas of the MCU, primarily a PG-13 franchise, you’d think that the general tone of the franchise would have affected the collective tone and portrayal in Deadpool & Wolverine, right?
I feared that would’ve been the case, but it became the opposite. For example, the first Deadpool movie dropped approximately 72 F-bombs, and Deadpool 2 around 87, with a few extra in its Super Duper Cut. How many F-bombs does Deadpool & Wolverine drop?
118.
Many news reports commented on this, saying it is the highest number of F-bombs dropped in any Deadpool movie. What surprises me even more is that none of the F-bombs in this movie felt superfluous or like they were there to push the R-rating. Most of the time, they felt like they were there as part of Deadpool’s artistic personality.
But do you want to know something even more shocking? It might be the highest number of F-bombs dropped not just in any Deadpool movie but arguably in any superhero movie.
Yes, that’s right. I have compared all of them.
R-rated superhero movies like The Crow, V for Vendetta, the Blade Trilogy, Watchmen, Logan, Joker, and even Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad, with Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, do not drop as many F-bombs as Deadpool & Wolverine does. That is an insane record for a Deadpool film to set as it settled in one of the most profitable and widespread superhero franchises in modern cinematic history. The idea that Deadpool & Wolverine was allowed to maintain what made the Deadpool franchise so iconic in the first place while going all out there, even under the MCU, truly demonstrates what kind of artistry is at work that’s abiding by the integrities of Deadpool, the characters, and the stories surrounding them. And in this case, it also demonstrates the artistry behind the integrity surrounding all the other Marvel characters who’ve appeared under the MCU.
There’s also another thing I need to discuss: the costuming. All the characters’ outfits look fantastic, including Deadpool’s outfit and all the outfits the returning characters returned to the movie with, even if some differed from how they were in the originating films.
But the #1 costume I mean to highlight is Wolverine’s outfit.
Throughout almost all the X-Men movies before it, Wolverine dressed more modestly, like he could have been anyone before revealing himself as Wolverine, thanks to the claws he can extrude from his knuckles. But in this movie, thanks to mingling with the creative juices of the MCU, this movie helped Wolverine out by having him lean more towards his original comic roots. And in this case, it all boils down to his outfit, which is primarily yellow with streaks of blue all around him. At first, it bore only an 80% resemblance to the original outfit. However, the circumstances under which Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds went through in the film battered Wolverine until finally, his outfit, as it was stripped a bit more, began leaning closer to how Wolverine was when he first appeared.
And here’s the climatic finishing touch I spoke of.
Just as he and Deadpool prepared to face off and attack the Deadpool Corps, he surprised everyone, both Deadpool and the audience, by putting on his mask. Of all the things I expected to see in the movie, watching Wolverine put on his iconic, upward-shaped cowl was the last thing I saw coming.
It is even more spectacular that everybody had been gushing about Hugh Jackman sporting the classic Wolverine outfit since day one, and I found that most curious. It’s the equivalent of saying that this movie finally allows Batman to don his famous cape and cowl or that Superman is allowed to sport his renowned outfit, complete with the S logo. It’s intriguing how different interpretations of comic book characters decide to stick to what makes them so recognizable.
But after seeing Hugh Jackman already perfect his role as Wolverine in a boatload of X-Men movies and Logan, to see the MCU allowing him to finally embrace his character’s comic origins in Deadpool & Wolverine demonstrates the MCU’s mastery of their craft in translating famous or obscure comic book characters and stories into film and television. And it feels so rejuvenating to see them do justice to Wolverine the same way, mainly after he’s already been celebrated as he was in the X-Men movies in the past couple of decades. It felt like a massive step in the right direction, even compared to what the best of the X-Men movies achieved before this.
After all, how else did we go from this...
...to this?
Sure, this movie isn’t perfect. Sure, it struggles with some things compared to the first two Deadpool movies when they abided by their own rules. But it does not make this movie any less of a Deadpool movie than it should be. The first Deadpool was excellent. The second Deadpool was incredible and the best. Ironically enough, the third Deadpool is the most fun and marvelous.
Everything that Deadpool started with since the first film was primarily carried over into the third film as it trekked new terrain in the MCU while abiding by its creative integrity. And it did so by bearing its crass humor, flashy violence, and fourth wall-breaking like a badge of honor. The characters are all very intriguing. The world-building is surprisingly expansive, rich, and beneficial. The action sequences are all fun to watch. Thanks to this movie, there are now tons of possibilities to be achieved with what Deadpool and the MCU can accomplish that would either branch out and take itself to exciting new directions or continue to recognize characters and their stories in ways that do them absolute justice and feel like genuine comics coming to life. I don’t know what the future might bring for Deadpool more than we can predict that of Wolverine, but somehow, the future’s looking bright. Here’s hoping this won’t be the last time we see Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool or all the famous actors and characters who helped put him on the map and who may arguably be putting X-Men back onto the map.
If this doesn’t scream maximum effort, nothing would.
My Rating:
A strong A-
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