A listless Wade Wilson toils away in civilian life with his days as the morally flexible mercenary, Deadpool, behind him. But when his homeworld faces an existential threat, Wade must reluctantly suit up again with an even more reluctant Wolverine.
The MCU has been in an existential crisis since Avengers: Endgame. The franchise has been plagued with numerous box office flops and critical failures as it tries to find its footing. There have been some saving graces with Spider-Man: No Way Home, Loki, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but they are a few in the sea of mediocrity of the MCU. The MCU has now put its hopes into Deadpool & Wolverine, the third movie of the Deadpool character, but the first time in the MCU, since Disney’s acquisition of Fox in 2019. The movie will obviously be a box-office success because of Deadpool and the return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. As well as please every fanboy comic book fantasy. However, I found myself woefully disappointed with this latest installment.
Throughout, Deadpool & Wolverine, I sadly found that it had the same faults as Thor: Love & Thunder. Where we have a very serious story, in Deadpool’s case, the destruction of his timeline/world, but being told through an unserious and comedic lens. This tonal dissonance made it difficult to take the movie seriously. Every joke, argument, and stupid decision, causes the movie to feel like there is no tension. In the first two Deadpool movies, its unserious tone worked because of the low stakes of the story. However, because of how high the stakes are in Deadpool & Wolverine, it causes Deadpool to be an annoying little shit who can’t read the room. I understand that is the point of his character, but it is hard to cheer for him when he is unintentionally doing everything in his power to not save his world.
As for the story, the story is as messy as its tone. It meanders through its loosely constructive narrative, filled with poor needle drops and endless amounts of cameos. However, I will give the movie some credit as it properly utilized cameos as they were woven into the movie’s narrative, rather than lazy fanservice. The cameos served as a farewell letter to the Marvel characters that were under Fox’s control from the late 90s to 2019. The action pieces were a bit of a mixed bag, with some being good while others were derailed by either poor CGI or terrible needle drops. As for the comedy, it was even more of a mixed bag, as less than half of the jokes stuck with my audience. It felt like Ryan Reynolds tried to stuff in as many jokes as possible, leading to the story and jokes never being given a chance to properly breathe.
The acting was fairly standard for Marvel as everyone did a good job, but nothing was spectacular. This is easily Ryan Reynolds’s weakest outing as the character as he is trying way too hard to be funny. He has his moments where he delivers, but he needs to back off the jokes. Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Paradox were both wasted as their characters were reduced to exposition mouthpieces. But the performances they do give are filled with enough campiness to make up for their atrocious dialogue. However, the one performance that everyone wanted to see was Hugh Jackman returning as Wolverine. As to be expected, he delivers an excellent performance as he proves to everyone on the planet that he is the only person who can play Wolverine.
Overall, I am left disappointed by Deadpool & Wolverine. Yes, it is an entertaining movie that gave exactly what the MCU needed right now. However, it continues the dangerous trend of the MCU being reliant on cameos, jokes, and world-ending stakes to keep its audience engaged, instead of well-crafted stories. But, given how much money this movie is going to make, that is not going to happen. Sadly, this will be the last MCU movie I will watch. The only way that Marvel will get my money is if they cast certain actors or they finally decide to change their formula.
My Rating: C
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