I don't know if you've heard about it, but this nifty little indie film called "Deadpool and Wolverine" just came out.
I liked it, but I wouldn't say I loved it. But it still feels like a Deadpool movie... if you liked the first two Deadpools you'll probably like this. It's also kinda/sorta/not really a sequel to the X-Men films, and although I think it treats them well overall, if you're just a huge fan of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine but didn't like the Deadpool movies, I don't think this is gonna win you over... although you might at least get some enjoyment out of watching Logan stab Wade repeatedly in the chest.
The movie's strongest suit is easily Jackman and Reynolds' chemistry together... I could honestly watch these two just hanging out and going on adventures all day long. It does feel a bit like a retread of the Cable/Deadpool relationship from Deadpool 2... stoic, no-nonsense warrior forced to deal with Deadpool's annoying ass. But I think there's a better equilibrium here... Deadpool and Wolverine are more closely on even ground, while Cable often felt like he was off on his own journey and just happened to bump into Deadpool occasionally in the process.
Other than that, the best aspect of the movie is also kind of its worst aspect, depending on your perspective. And this is where I'll be getting into more spoiler territory, so if you ignored the spoiler warning at the start, this is when I get into more than just broad strokes. But anyway, this movie is just packed with fan service for pre-MCU Marvel content. Honestly, it was just missing Spider-Man stuff, which I assume was only left out for rights reasons... and it's also kinda pointless, since No Way Home already thoroughly homaged the classic Spidey films.
But it's not just X-Men stuff... Motherf*cking BLADE shows up! As in real, day-walking, vampire-slaying, Wesley Mother-f*cking Snipes Blade! You also get Jennifer Garner as Elektra, and in one of the best laughs in the whole movie, Chris Evans shows up as Johnny Storm, the Human Torch! He also dies pretty embarrassingly, but even within the film itself they call it out as a mostly budgetary thing... they pack a lot of guest stars in this, and Evans is easily the most expensive one. There's also shout-outs to Punisher and Daredevil, but as much as I enjoyed all this, I feel like if you're not an extremely nerdy millenial who was obsessed with superhero movies growing up, a lot of this movie is going to just be confusing at best, or feel like someone metaphorically jangling keys to hold the attention of my fellow Super-Hero obsessed man-babies. It's interesting because this movie avoids the worst sin of modern Comic book movies, where they're cynically obviously just setting things up for a future movie, but it takes it in the extreme opposite direction, where this is a perfectly serviceable standalone story that really only works to its fullest potential if you've already watched all this stuff before. Like... you only need to be 17 to see an R-Rated movie. Do 17 year olds even know that Chris Evans played Johnny Storm in one of the Fantastic 4 Movies they were told since birth weren't worth watching?
All in all, I fully believe the people involved when they say this was a movie made for the fans. I didn't even talk about all the cameos! But ultimately, something made for the fans will always suffer a little bit because it won't be ideal for new viewers. If, thrugh some twist of fate, this is your first-ever Marvel movie... uh... good luck. You'll probably never see this review, because why would you?
I do want to comment on something this movie addresses right off the bat... Logan was such a perfect end to the X-Men stories, it feels disrespectful to even follow it up. It was a perfect note for Jackman to retire from the character, and this movie, as fun as it is, is no Logan. But I think they handled that as best they could... for one, it's a different Logan for this movie. It is a bit weird to lean into the Multiverse stuff so heavily, but still introduce a brand new Wolverine from an unknown continuity... it's not like this is the Age of Apocalypse Logan that showed up for quick cameo, or a version of the character that treats X-Men origins as its own continuity... it's just a brand new version of the character that was invented for this movie and that comes from a continuity with its own lore that isn't directly tied to any specific X-Men film.
So, the opening credits is Deadpool digging up the corpse form Logan and using his adamantium skeleton to kill a bunch of TVA agents. Speaking of the TVA, that's really the only tie-in this movie has to the MCU... Deadpool visits the MCU dimension briefly in a flashback to show he tried to join the Avengers, but it's honestly a scene you could have cut from the movie, since it had no real impact on the plot other than establishing that Deadpool knows who the Avengers are. They make clear that Logan still sacrificed himself for Laura/X-23, his healing factor really did stop working by then, and they even make that Logan's sacrifice a major part of the plot. The film establishes that different continuities have an anchor character, and once that character is died, the entire continuity slowly fades from existence, even back through the timeline.
I think that's a nice way to establish that the ending of Logan was so impactful it basically ended the X-Men series, even if they did actually keep making movies after that point. It's a great meta-textual explanation for the events of the movie, but also it introduces a really stupid piece of lore that I'm certain nerds will latch onto... the idea that each continuity has an "anchor" character that determines the fate of the entire world they come from. This felt, to me, like a very obvious 4th Wall joke about franchises, rather than any kind of logical lore dump that needs to matter. Within the narrative they even explain that the death of an anchor only causes these realities to vanish naturally after 1,000 years... if you're trying to theorize who the "anchor" is in the MCU, you're just wasting your time.
I think this movie left me satisfied... it felt like a conclusion, rather than a setup. If I never see Reynolds as Deadpool or Jackman as Wolverine for the rest of my life, I feel like I can say they went away on a high note. As much as this has been touted as the "glorious" introduction of Deadpool and Wolverine to the MCU, I'd honestly be disappointed if this version of Wolverine just goes on to be the official MCU version of the character... Deadpool I'm a little looser on, since the character is much sillier and would feel less jarring if he just showed up in a future movie. I'm actually pretty keen on Deadpool taking over the "Stan Lee Cameo" role... where he just shows up for a quick background gag in every movie going forward.
Overall, it felt special, but in an admittedly shallow way. There was a lot of entertainment from just looking at crowd scenes and looking for references to stuff I remember. I'm pleased that the whole movie wasn't just that, but I'm glad it didn't feel to intrusive, and any time the movie paused to give extra attention to a callback it felt appropriate... either because the callback unto itself held enough weight to justify the attention, or because they made a fun joke about the callback that felt right for this world. It's a movie that a very specific section of Marvel fans will adore, the casual viewer will enjoy, and that will be complete nonsense to everyone else. And isn't that just the Deadpool way?
