Deadpool & Wolverine spoiler-free review – Brace for tight underwear

Only time will tell if new superhero action comedy Deadpool & Wolverine is Hugh Jackman’s last big screen appearance as surly, Adamantium-clawed Logan. What is certain right now, though, is that the film – which has the most famous of the X-Men team up with Ryan Reynolds’s red-suited “Merc with a mouth” – is a surprising tribute to the Fox era of Marvel movies.

As a little context, before there was the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) under Disney, and before Disney swallowed up the studio in 2019, it was 20^th Century Fox that laid the groundwork for the modern superhero film. 2000’s X-Men is arguably the movie that kicked off the costumed blockbuster resurgence that has dominated the box office over the past twenty-plus years. While the X-Men franchise racked up main series entries and spin-offs (including three Wolverine solo films), there was also the likes of Daredevil, Elektra, two Fantastic Four reboots, and the first two Deadpool movies. Elsewhere, other studios were making films based on Marvel characters like The Punisher, Blade and, of course, Spider-Man.

Fox’s superhero films enjoyed inconsistent fortunes to put it tactfully, but seesawing critical and commercial success aside, they exist, and audiences have a nostalgic fondness for many of these flawed efforts.

All this talk of behind-the-scenes business matters because Deadpool & Wolverine is a kind of bridge between the 20^th Century Fox and Disney style of superhero movies. And like its main character, the film’s script is consistently fourth wall-breaking, delivering meta-level jokes about the genre and executive decisions that have shaped it. It even goes so far as to acknowledge recent viewer fatigue, with Deadpool at one point quipping, “We’re entering the MCU at a low point.”

On that note, you want to see Deadpool & Wolverine as soon as possible as it’s going to be hard to dodge spoilers for the few weeks. The film contains loads of cameos, many of them jaw-dropping, while frames are stuffed with easter eggs for both die hard comic fans and mainstream superhero movie enthusiasts. Rewatches are very much in order if you want to pick up every in-joke.

This said, wink-wink references can’t and shouldn’t carry a movie. Deadpool & Wolverine intelligently integrates these moments thanks to the film’s thematic and narrative framework. While 2018’s Deadpool 2 dabbles in time travel, this time around the concept of the multiverse is central, which makes unprecedented interactions possible. It also adds an unexpected amount of poignancy as, deftly slotting into this concept, the Fox era superhero films are positioned as isolated universes dead or dying due to the Disney buyout. They simply are no more, and some never were, having failed to escape development hell.

It needs to be appreciated that though Deadpool & Wolverine has enjoyed a lengthy marketing campaign, somehow its actual plot (we can’t say the same for a lot of the jokes) has stayed under wraps. Without giving too much away, six years have passed since Deadpool 2, and Reynolds’s title character, AKA Wade Wilson, has slipped into a funk over his inability to be a hero of significance. When he learns from Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Paradox and the Time Variance Authority (TVA) that his world is fading out of existence, Wade suits up and seeks out a hero with universe-saving experience – specifically “The X-Man” Wolverine. Unfortunately, in a multiverse of Wolverines, Deadpool can only recruit a Logan who is a self-loathing, cynical pariah. The pair instantly clash, but must put aside their conflict, and play nice with others, when they encounter Cassandra Nova (The Crown’s Emma Corrin), the ultra-powerful, and unhinged twin sister of Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men.

Spoilers mean we sadly can’t talk about anyone else not already mentioned, but Corrin is a delight, balancing on a knife’s edge between juvenile delight and the malice of an unsocialised child. That said, Deadpool & Wolverine is a two-man show, with Reynolds and Jackman slipping back into roles they have defined for well over a decade. The pair are the comic characters brought to life at this point, and fans can delight that they’re now embodying one of Marvel’s most celebrated team-ups: two mutant antiheroes with regenerative abilities.

Bringing Wolverine and Deadpool together is actually a smart move for multiple reasons. Straight man Jackman balances out the obnoxiousness of Reynolds’s anarchistic smart mouth, but even the latter – maybe because of Jackman’s pathos-loaded presence – is playing Wade with a bit more sincerity. The Deadpool movies have always sprinkled emotional tenderness amidst the extreme R-rated violence and explicit language, but Wade’s motivations and own oddly tragic status come through clearer this time. It’s apparent that Jackman, and especially Reynolds (as a driving creative force on the project), are aware of fan wants, but deliver on those desires in a way that is more than fan service.

The only major gripe about Wolverine & Deadpool is that the action isn’t always as satisfying as other elements. Barring a climactic showdown evidently shot for a large chunk in a single take – which manages to feel like a side-scrolling beat-‘em-up  as a result – the action scenes are a bit underwhelming, especially after the involvement of far more inventive directors like Bullet Train and The Fall Guy’s David Leitch in the franchise. Director Shawn Levy has action experience in the form of Free Guy and The Adam Project (both starring Reynolds), but here substitutes visual clarity for Bourne-esque fast cuts and camera shakiness. Worse, some of the sequences run too long, with an opening credits sequence that feels especially tedious as it hinges on a single gory gag for its entirety.

Still, it sets the tone for the movie to come. Deadpool may technically be part of the MCU now, but this is no safe cookie cutter entry – in both established ways, and more enjoyably unexpected ones. Let’s f$*ing go, indeed.

Deadpool & Wolverine is in cinemas, including 3D and IMAX, from 24 July.