Shawn Levy | 2hr 7min
It was only a matter of time before Deadpool’s gimmick of irreverent, self-referential superhero gags would grow thin. For his greatest critics, it happened back in 2016, though at least that first movie injected a fresh burst of cynicism into the genre. The 2018 sequel shook up the stakes with a mission to save a young boy from a villainous future, and hilariously satirised superhero team ups. The greatest development that Deadpool & Wolverine has to offer is a surprisingly sincere examination of Logan’s legacy after Hugh Jackman’s ‘retirement’ of the character, but as a matter of coherent storytelling, this movie jumps between half-baked ideas with all the awkwardness of Marvel’s disjointed multiverse.
In fact, it is this attempt to tread the line between paying homage to Fox-owned Marvel properties and bringing Deadpool into the Marvel Cinematic Universe which keeps Deadpool & Wolverine from focusing its narrative. Its countless cameos may service the franchise’s most loyal fans, but most bear such little impact that they could easily be swapped out for any other retired Marvel character, with only a single exception bearing sizeable weight on Wolverine’s arc. This interaction produces one of the film’s most touching scenes, honouring the character that Jackman has spent over two decades exploring. Even in his repartee with Ryan Reynolds, the two actors hit on a buddy comedy dynamic that carries us through an array of contrived plot beats.
Still, their star-fuelled charisma can only take Deadpool & Wolverine so far. By the time we get to a second hand-to-hand fight between our titular antiheroes, we are left to wonder where the stakes are in a duel where neither superpowered combatant can be properly wounded. Of course, the easy answer to this is that the film cares more about cheap wisecracks and shocking audiences that ‘they went there’ than building a solid story – not that this possesses the subversive edge of The Boys, The Suicide Squad, or even previous Deadpool movies.
In the grand scheme of superhero movies, Deadpool & Wolverine is far too caught up in its throwaway nods to Marvel’s history to escape its own fourth-wall breaking criticisms of the genre, whether those be needless paragraphs of exposition or stale clichés. We only need to look at its development of Wolverine’s legacy to see how digging up old IP does not need to be a mindless, gratuitous exercise in moneymaking, and can enrichen long-established archetypes with fresh perspectives. Within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this alternate Wolverine may be one of the most singularly effective uses of the multiverse conceit. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the rest of Deadpool & Wolverine’s overstuffed narrative.
Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in cinemas.
I thought this was one of the worst superhero movies ever made. Also what is a P(poor)?
Yeah I was pretty unimpressed. I’ve added two new tiers to my system, Par and Sub-Par. I don’t anticipate I will review a lot of films at this level since I enjoy writing positive reviews rather than negative, but I thought I should open it up to capture the full range.
Are there any other Par or Sub-par films that you have reviewed? Plus why is Deadpool & Wolverine not ranked SP but ranked P? It was completely forgettable.
Not yet. My focus will still largely be on higher quality films, but I want to put the full range out there so the lowest rating isn’t just a Recommend. I would say most films rated Par are forgettable – it’s essentially the same as calling it mediocre. A sub-par is a little more heinous. But my more detailed thoughts on the movie specifically are in my review.
I would say a Par film should at least have one or more interesting/excellent scenes even though the rest of the movie can’t live up to it/pretty bad. This film felt like one big joke. I wasn’t involved at any point.