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As I’ve said in earlier columns, I’ve gotten away from the superhero genre lately, which more or less peaked for me with 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame.” Now, with the seemingly endless flood of Disney/Marvel multiverse product, my eyes glaze over whenever I’ve tried to get into a new Marvel movie or show, and I become disengaged. However, as “The Godfather III”’s Michael Corleone says through gritted teeth, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”  

My wife mentioned she wanted to see the new “Deadpool & Wolverine” movie, which I was lukewarm on seeing, at best.  Yes, I loved the R-rated humor and meta self-awareness of the first “Deadpool” movie, and “Deadpool 2” got a few laughs out of me, but lately, the superhero genre, which often epitomizes soulless corporate filmmaking, feels tired and played out.

Most Marvel content these days feels like a dinner consisting of popcorn, gum, and cotton candy; fun to eat, but not terribly filling.  Frankly, I forget all about them a few minutes after I see them. All the same, I was vaguely curious to see Hugh Jackman return as “Wolverine” in a team-up with Ryan Reynolds’ smart-ass “Deadpool”; a partnership that has been slowly percolating since 2009’s dull “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” movie and in the previous “Deadpool” films. 

For this column, I won’t do one of my usual deep-dive reviews for two reasons; first, having dropped out of Marvel media a couple years ago, I’m not quite up to speed on their current eye-crossing crop of multiverse streaming shows and movies. Secondly, this film is very new, and making considerable box-office (nearly half a billion as of this writing) so I don’t want to give too much away.

Summing It Up

Cowritten by star-producer Ryan Reynolds and directed by Reynolds’ longtime collaborator and cowriter Shawn Levy (“The Adam Project,” “Free Guy”), the refreshingly R-rated Deadpool (Reynolds) returns, and life hasn’t been so great for the wannabe Avenger, who’s stuck in a dead end job (insert irony here) with his paunchy, sympathetic coworker-friend Peter (Bob Delaney), and still rooming in the projects with ol’ Blind Al, played by the returning Leslie Uggams (a legend in her own right).

Having recently broken up with love-of-his-life Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), Deadpool, aka Wade Williams, is celebrating a modest birthday with his tight-nit group of friends (super and otherwise), until he is unceremoniously snatched from his universe by the Time Variance Authority; a retro-styled, “Mad Men”-looking agency existing outside of spacetime that was first seen in the Disney streaming series “Loki” (which was about where I jumped off the Marvel multiverse a couple years ago). 

There, Deadpool meets shifty bureaucrat named Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), who makes Deadpool an offer of greatness with the hope of saving his timeline.  To accomplish this, our fourth-wall breaking hero realizes he needs the help of long-deceased X-Man Logan, aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), who still exists in alternate timelines. After several hilariously meta attempts to find the ‘right’ Logan for the job (including desecrating Prime Wolverine’s grave), the disputatious duo then find themselves in a nether dimension between timelines known as “the Void”…

This is where Marvel smartly and playfully mixes action figures from a few expired timelines, with the Void acting as an “Island of Misfit Toys” for under-loved or otherwise retired superhero movie franchises that never made the Avengers’ cut. This leads to surprising supporting roles from a few banished superheroes, including one who was successful under another studio’s banner, until bad blood (hint hint) led to this star’s falling out with his last director (and former costar Reynolds).  Setting up Marvel’s recent announcement of Robert Downey Jr.’s return as another character, we also see former Avenger Chris Evans returning as well…

The Void is currently under the despotic rule of a supervillain named Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), a powerful, hairless mind-melder and manipulator with direct ties to the greater X-Men universe (gee, lemme guess…). Cassandra has her own designs on the Marvel multiverse, which includes using her exiled superheroes and supervillains for her own purposes.  Cassandra is the living embodiment of corporate Disney; trying to snuff out all that exists beyond her own realm in order to consolidate power and keep the toy box under her thumb. 

Strewn with visual cues and a few sight gags, the Void looks like a cross between the “Mad Max” and “Planet of the Apes” universes; two other 20th Century Studios franchises in this salute to and sendup of the studio which first launched the “X-Men” cinematic universe; before Disney acquired it under the Marvel-Disney banner. Acting as the baton from 20th Century to Disney (stay during and after the end credits), the movie’s dialogue sometimes feels like uncensored transcripts from a Fox board meeting.

After its middle act in the Void, the movie becomes a mad dash to save the multiverse (no less) in yet another of the sprawling, reality-threatening perils that are the cliché-laden final acts for all these kinds of movies.  Such overstuffed final acts are part of what turned me off from these films in the first place.  Fortunately, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is waaay ahead of such audience’s gripes (including mine), nimbly skewering every tired trope these movies too often toss our way. 

Typical of most action movies these days (and most movies in general), “Deadpool & Wolverine” could easily afford to trim a good ten minutes or so off its runtime. This is another fact the movie is aware of, as Deadpool tells the audience not to worry…they’re in the home stretch.  Keeping the R-rated blood, guts and richly raunchy language of previous “Deadpool” movies is Disney’s reassurance to fans that it’s not going to neuter Deadpool, now that the character has been (more or less) officially welcomed into the Disney-Marvel canon.

Just as über talented writer-director-actor-songwriter Mel Brooks hilariously sent up westerns and Universal horror movies in his 1974 heyday (the year that saw both “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein” hit theaters), cowriter Reynolds and collaborator-director Shawn Levy have done a successful sendup of the superhero genre; both commending and mocking all of the genre’s tired, overblown tropes, making “Deadpool & Wolverine” a bit critic-proof, since the movie is completely in on its own joke.

With “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Disneyfied-Marvel finally welcomes its R-rated crass crusader into the fold, celebrating overblown superhero flicks while gleefully flipping a black-gloved middle finger at them, too.

Bonus Features

My wife and I recently attended San Diego Comic Con 2024, and while we did not attend the high-profile “Deadpool & Wolverine” panel in the convention center nearly-impermeable Hall H venue, we did see some very interesting items related to the movie, including screen-used costumes, and a Guinness World Record-setting drone show; which my wife was lucky enough to have come across on the way back to our hotel…

The 11-minute drone show used 2,396 drones to form the images of Deadpool and Wolverine, breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest aerial display of a fictional character formed by drones. My wife only had one complaint; the accompanying fireworks obscured some of the drones. Nevertheless, this is a SDCC moment for the history books, and my wife was there to catch it.

Where to Watch

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is currently in theatrical release only, with no digital or physical media releases announced as of this writing.