Deadpool & Wolverine

While the premise of Deadpool & Wolverine is clear enough, add Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) to the MCU, the plot of the film (which features five different writers) feels a bit stitched together haphazardly from various other TV and movie properties without bringing much new to the table. If what you are looking for is a fun summer movie with an excess of blood, sarcasm, in-jokes, and cameos, with yet another odd-couple pairing like we got in the more satisfying Deadpool 2, then Deadpool & Wolverine delivers. Without doubt, it's fun. However, like previous Deadpool films, Deadpool and Wolverine is more outlier than core franchise tale offering little to build on for the future.

At over two-hours, the film does drag a bit as the Ryan Reynolds' snark meter gets dangerously close to insufferable at times as well. Far too much, and somehow not enough, time is spent on the early TVA setup which still feels incomplete. If you've seen Loki, the organization (with some notable changes) should make sense, but if you haven't I don't think what you are given here is enough to explain the setup which likely will lead to many questions.

The story is simple enough, Deadpool's universe is getting pruned (except not exactly pruned because that's been changed for some reason). Without the presence of an anchor being following the death of Wolverine in Logan (also a more satisfying movie... are you seeing a pattern here?), which confirms that film took place in Deadpool's reality, his universe is decaying. Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), a middle-management agent for the TVA, has decided to help hasten it on its way while also offering Deadpool a pass to the sacred timeline (i.e. the MCU) while everyone and everything he loves is wiped out of existence.

To no one's shock other than apparently Paradox, Deadpool balks at the offer. Rather than accepting the deal, Deadpool steals TVA tech and goes in search of a new Wolverine to fill the whole in his universe (without ever thinking about what will happen to the universe he removes Logan from). After jumping into various realities to find Logans who won't work for various purposes (but providing a fun opportunity to showcase different versions of the character we otherwise wouldn't see in in film), Deadpool finds his Logan and the bickering pair are stuck together for the rest of the film needing to work together, when not trying to kill each other.

Our villain here is Paradox with apparently unlimited resources at his disposal (up until there isn't) along with Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) who is introduced as the ruler of the Void which gets a Mad Max makeover (complete of course with Deadpool commentary) during out heroes' time there which takes up a bit too much of the film leaving the narrative of saving a universe stalled. While Paradox is only threatening in a bureaucratic sense, Nova provides some actual opposition as, to a lesser extent, do her minions who fans will likely recognize.

Despite stealing a premise from an MCU property in Loki, nearly all the references and cameos to Deadpool & Wolverine come at the expense of the dying 20th Century Fox universe rather than the MCU. And there's a ton for those whose watching of super-hero films predates Iron Man. As teased in the trailers, we also get some alternate versions of Deadpool including Dogpool and Lady Deadpool (who, like most of these isn't much more than a cameo).

In a film about excess, Deadpool & Wolverine gets stuck at times spending too much time in various locations like the TVA and the Void, and various running gags such as Nicepool, leaving the actual saving of an entire universe for merely an afterthought once the script gets all the fan service out of its system. True, it delivers on promised stand-out moments, as you would expect, but in terms of its story it is a bit disappointing more isn't ultimately made of this first-time pairing which is somehow results in the weakest of all the Deadpool films to date. To put it another way, Deadpool & Wolverine is a film I would go back and watch clips of but likely would never watch all the way through again.

Watch the trailer

• Title: Deadpool & Wolverine
• IMDb: link