Review by Tim Robins
WARNING: SPOILERS AND TRAILER PROFANITY AHEAD
Deadpool & Wolverine is a mildly amusing action movie with added jokes about STDs and the state of the Marvel Multiverse. You’d have had to watch a lot of movies to ‘get’ every joke and every guest appearance and, to be honest, anything much about the story.
(I am going to keep quiet about the many cameo appearances, because they serve as punchlines to the plot).
In the film, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is hauled up before the Time Variance Authority and informed his timeline is dying because of the death of Wolverine in Logan. Apparently, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is an “anchor being”, whose presence in a universe holds it together.
Deadpool thinks he’s been anointed as a “Marvel Jesus” to save the timelines, but the truth is the TVA wants Deadpool to speed up their destruction. Escaping with the worst Wolverine in any universe, the duo end up in the void now littered with the remains of the 20th Century Fox universe.
In the void, they meet the evil Cassandra Nova (from Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men). Much fighting ensues between a team of Deadpool, Wolverine and various heroes (I’m still not telling you), the forces of Nova, and an entire multiverse of Deadpools.
The plot never gets in the way of all the fighting, although the fighting never gets better than in the title sequence. The opening action sequence is inventive, gory and profane. The young adults in the audience were into the rude quips but it was the Fox universe characters who were excitedly received with giggles and, in one case, audible gasps.
The central conceit of the film is that The Fox Universe is rapidly dying off and its remains can be seen scattered around the void. This is a poignant and clever idea – we even see the Fox logo lying among ruins. There’s also a poignant theme about not being left behind. This is set up in flashbacks in which Deadpool tries to join the Avengers, but fails after admitting that he was responsible for the demise of X-Force. But the threat of entire universes being killed in favour of a “Sacred Timeline” isn’t visualised particularly well, so fades from attention. Loki did this better but perhaps dramatising timelines dying would have been too reminiscent of the snap in Avengers: Endgame.
There are a lot of references to comics (good). Nova was an unexpected choice of villain, played as a rather generic villain, by Emma Corrin, but gives the movie grounding in comic book lore. My feeling is that Corrin is a bit young for the character, and her character in the movie is a bit disposable, as is everyone else. The main threat comes from a Mr Paradox (Mathew MacFadyenn) of the TVA – but even he takes a backseat to the action.
Of all the meta-gags, my favourites were a reference towards comic artist John Byrne’s brown Wolverine costume, and a “size accurate” Logan. My favourite gag was a shop named ‘Liefield’s Just Feet’. The film also recreates some Wolverine covers.
I am not sure how anyone who hasn’t seen almost all other Marvel products will grasp the details of the plot. Some familiarity with the Fox films and the Loki TV series would certainly help. Even I had trouble recalling what the purple smoke monster was (It was Alioth, from Loki season one).
The premise of the void will be recognisable for lovers of The Five Doctors. Voids where anything can pop up are a blessing for stories that want to celebrate a franchise’s past without having to specify in advance who will be available to appear in them.
The legion of Deadpools were late in arriving and a little too close to the end of the film. The climactic threat had already been signalled and the characters were claw, blade and bullet fodder. Still, some were entertaining – I was pleased to spot a Welshpool alongside Dogpool, the pet of Nicepool (the latter also played by Reynolds). Nicepool cements his place as the funniest character in the film by announcing “I identify as a feminist!”
This is the first time that I’ve seen a Deadpool movie in the cinema and the audience had fun, including, I was surprised to find, myself. The fourth wall breaking is rather unsophisticated and doesn’t match its use in Annie Hall or even Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, although I doubt any of the audience had seen those, by now, ancient comedy classics.
I was also a little surprised by the comments Deadpool directed at Wolverine. I seem to be alone in feeling there was no real chemistry between Hugh Jackson and Ryan Reynolds, so the “bromance” quips just didn’t land. And I hadn’t expected Deadpool’s dialogue to be so affected. At times, it all became a bit “Carry On Across the Multiverse”.
The irony is that Deadpool & Wolverine may well have saved the MCU. In America the film has been breaking box office records for an R rated movie. (It’s rated “15” in the UK). But Just because Deadpool & Wolverine is rated “R” doesn’t mean that the film is for adults.
Deadpool & Wolverine is an easy watch aimed at young adults and others who are prepared to do pre-or-post movie archeology among the ruins of another studio’s take on the Marvel Universe. It may even be possible that Deadpool & Wolverine has acted as Marvel Jesus, and brought the MCU back from its deathbed.
Tim Robins
Deadpool & Wolverine is in cinemas across the UK and various multiverses, er multiplexes worldwide, now
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A freelance journalist and Doctor Who fanzine editor since 1978, Tim Robins has written on comics, films, books and TV programmes for a wide range of publications including Starburst, Interzone, Primetime and TV Guide.
His brief flirtation with comics includes ghost inking a 2000AD strip and co-writing a Doctor Who strip with Mike Collins. Since 1990 he worked at the University of Glamorgan where he was a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies and the social sciences. Academically, he has published on the animation industry in Wales and approaches to social memory. He claims to be a card carrying member of the Politically Correct, a secret cadre bent on ruling the entire world and all human thought.
Categories: Features, Film, Other Worlds, Reviews
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