Deadpool & Wolverine
Mark White
“I am…Marvel Jesus.” Perhaps one of the most iconic – certainly most sacrilegious – bits of dialogue from Marvel Studio’s Deadpool & Wolverine, the thirty-fourth entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) – the fourth film in ‘Phase Five’ of the MCU – as Wade Wilson aka Deadpool FINALLY joins the ‘Sacred Timeline’ and the MCU proper. In a fashion that only Deadpool can deliver, there is plenty of fourth-wall-breaking, visceral action, and supremely sophomoric humor that celebrates the MCU, mutants (we can finally say it!), and the twenty-plus-year legacy of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine – all of which serves to try and re-energize the Marvel film formula, poking fun at its recent failures, and reminding fans just as to why they stick with the ‘saga’ coming from the House of Ideas.
Deadpool & Wolverine opens up with a ‘retired’ Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds). Wade has hung up his jumpsuit and settled for being a car salesman, having his friends close, and a normal life…all of which has left him looking for meaning in his life; Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) has ended their relationship, and life seems to have fallen into a relatable rut…until the Time Variance Authority (TVA) appears on Wade’s birthday, dragging him out of his timeline. Mr. Paradox (Matthew MacFadyen) – an ambitious TVA official angling for leadership of the Authority – tells Wade that his universe is slowly dying as a result of it losing its ‘anchor being’, an individual whose existence is so significant in a universe that it helps focus or center it…and that being just happens to be James ‘Logan’ Hewitt (Jackman), the X-Man who died in Logan. Paradox tells Wade that he is ‘special’ and that he has the chance to unlock that potential – a meaningful purpose – by joining ‘the sacred timeline’ – the MCU proper, Earth-616, etc. – as long as he is willing to leave his world and allow it to die. Not happy with any of these choices (despite a massive Captain American crush going unfulfilled), Wade steals TVA time-jumping tech and sets off to find another Logan that can ‘anchor’ his timeline once again, saving his friends and Vanessa, and giving him a hero’s purpose. He would literally be saving the world!
Of course, the anachronistic, acerbic, and comically self-aware Wade Wilson – in full Deadpool gear – does not succeed at first, or even at eighth, and he eventually finds and captures what the TVA deems ‘the worst Logan’ in the multiverse, leading to the banishment of the inferior Logan and Deadpool to the void at the end of time (as seen in LOKI Season One, Episode Five) facing the remnants of dead timelines…mainly the leftover characters and set pieces of the 20th Century Fox Marvel Films… much to the joy and humor of Deadpool and the audience. So it is up to Wade and Logan to figure out how not to die in the Void (or how to not kill each other), get back to Wade’s timeline, and try and fix what is left of the ‘Fox’ Marvel universe. Cue the mix tape soundtrack, lots of laughs, and violence so brutal it verges on comical.
Upfront, director Shawn Levy knows how preposterous Deadpool and the whole multiversal story are, both in theory and execution. As a filmmaker who has worked largely in comedies with other genres overlapping (and several with Reynolds himself), Levy knows when and where to let Reynolds ‘do his thing’ and let Deadpool be Deadpool, all while adhering to the MCU’s current saga outline for multiversal moments leading to the Phase Six climax of Avengers: Secret War. The script, which Reynolds partly wrote, is sharp, funny, and chock-full of MCU easter eggs; Deadpool & Wolverine is a Deadpool film with MCU parts and components, all whizzing and whirring along inside an R-rated action comedy vehicle…and it largely works. The lack of restrictions on violence and language allows the film to ‘go there’ with some of its humor and its own self-aware existence. With Deadpool, Marvel pokes fun at itself and its shoddy output, as well as the juvenile innocence that comes from the creative joy of this comic book world. So, working together, Reynolds and Levy have put together a violently action-packed, hilariously tongue-in-cheek, geeky comic book comedy with a healthy layer of fan service. The full list of cameos – teased or speculated or otherwise – will not be divulged here, but it can only be said the the inner millennial teenager in many a viewer will punch the air or squeal in delight throughout the film.
The ‘Merc with a Mouth’ joins the multiversal mayhem of the MCU, making a meaningful, yet mightily meandering Marvel movie full of madcap violence and mischief.
That said, there is something missing in this film, and as it slides into its third act, it starts to become clear what it is… the film, much like Wade, is looking for a reason to exist – looking for significant meaning. As much fun as it is to have a winking Wade Wilson reminds us that the last few MCU film entries have been poor (The Marvels or Quantumania, anyone?), or how badly organized (and sometimes terrible) the Fox films were, Deadpool & Wolverine does not provide any serious justification for the threequel’s existence, or for Wade’s distinction for being ‘special’. While it has been years since the events of Logan, the convenient concept of an ‘anchor being’ and the TVA and existing timelines is tenuous at best, especially for those of us who have meticulously followed the MCU’s rules and history. Adding Deadpool to the MCU should not require forgetting/breaking/changing rules of time and reality in the MCU as it suits, just to set up the next joke or set piece for Reynolds to cheekily wave his middle finger at for laughs. Simultaneously, the attempts at cathartic growth for Wade are lost in his schtick and all of the multiversal jokes and surprises, leaving the emotional heavy-lifting to Jackman’s Wolverine in what may be a close-second best in the roll since Logan itself; this Wolverine is burlier, angrier, gruffer and more haunted than ever, with a history true to ‘his timeline’ that does not require much exposition. Jackman’s quarreling and fighting with Reynolds, paired with his guilt, are compelling and engaging, carrying both ‘DP and Wolvie’ through this multiverse nonsense without too much to complain about…this multiversal tale is perfunctory, predictable at large, but isolated enough that it is not of much incident to the rest of the interwoven MCU as a whole. This is NOT Avengers: Endgame, nor is it Deadpool or Deadpool 2.
Marvel Jesus, Deadpool is not. Despite any and all press assurances that the ‘prodigal son’ that is Wade Wilson has joined the MCU as a ‘game changing addition’, the film he arrives in is largely standalone – to the point of being inconsequential, which is puzzling for a film with literal universe erasure at its plot. But…Deadpool’s return does help the MCU. Everything from the R-rating, forcing the Marvel team to own its mistakes and failures, as well as celebrating a legacy of films from the superhero genre’s infancy, the film acts as a revitalizing shot of fun and self-awareness that reminds us of the joy, the wonder, the silliness, and the genuine emotion of these stories and why we love them so much – then and now. So in brining the X-Men days of yore full circle, Deadpool & Wolverine shows us that that perhaps, after a few tough years, the MCU actually has risen again. And if the films yet to come from Marvel Studios can carry this same infectious hyper energy forward, and somehow find a way to tie the tangled knot of the multiverse together… well then there may be hope yet for fans to see more of their favorite stories unfold on screen. Excelsior, true believer…!
Final Thought
Riotously funny for much of its runtime, and lovingly stuffed with fan service moments, the MCU’s returning crude clown shakes things up; weakest of the Deadpool films, but it gives maximum effort. Plus Wolverine in yellow at last!