Deadpool & Wolverine
The Canadian and the Australian team up for a meta, mind-twisting and foul-mouthed CGI romp complete with the obligatory British villain (“the bald chick”).
The X-certificate Men: Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman
Photo by Jay Maidment, Image courtesy of Disney/Marvel Studios
Spoiler alert: Wolverine isn’t dead after all. But then the spoiler is in the title. In the world of Marvel, Disney and, hell, 20th Century Fox, you can get away with anything with the tweak of a loose string of quantum physics. With enough overlapping timelines and the head-butting of multiverses, the annihilated can return from the dead tomorrow with all guns blazing. At least Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine has the good grace to own up to its own absurdities. Thanks to the running commentary of producer-writer-star Ryan Reynolds – like a stream of X-rated ticker tape – this thing could run and run. “Can you imagine the residuals?” Deadpool muses. And so we have the regenerating motormouth teamed up with a grumpy, 200-year-old alcoholic mutant combining their skillsets to save not just this universe but reality as we know it.
Deadpool – aka Wade Wilson – has reached that point in his life when he wants to make a difference. So he applies to be an Avenger – only to find himself being interviewed by Tony Stark’s chauffer, Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau). He fails the gig and ends up as a car salesman until summoned by Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr Paradox, who has a lot of explaining to do (whose amount of exposition is duly criticised by Deadpool). Ryan Reynolds – or his alter ego – is constantly tearing down the fourth wall, making jokes at the expense of Disney, Fox (“suck it Fox!”), all the “gratuitous cameos” (moments before the appearance of a repurposed Chris Hemsworth) and even Ryan Reynolds himself (“Van Wilder!” he exclaims as he’s confronted by an alternative, younger, Deadpool). If it wasn’t for Reynolds’ commentary, Deadpool & Wolverine would just be another time-bending, CGI-congested fight fest. But thankfully Reynolds is a very funny guy and Disney is big enough to swallow his constant carping (at one point he quips, “pegging isn’t new for me, but it is for Disney”).
Many of the jokes will go over most viewers’ heads, but there’s enough here for everyone: Marvel mavens, action junkies, sci-fi nerds, industry insiders and just the sewer-brained. In the communal, safe space of the cinema auditorium, such risqué sexual banter sort of passes muster, especially coming from somebody as seemingly wholesome and clean-cut as Ryan Reynolds. And besides the string of “gratuitous cameos,” there’s a scene-stealing turn from the French-kissing Peggy (a Pugese) as Mary Poppins, aka Dogpool, the canine actor having been voted “Britain’s ugliest dog.” So there’s hope for all of us.
P.S. The vocal enunciation is the most impressive of any Hollywood movie in recent memory, which makes Deadpool’s aside to Channing Tatum (“who is your dialect coach? I think we’re missing a lot of exposition here”) all the funnier.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Aaron Stanford, Matthew Macfadyen, Dafne Keen, Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes, Chris Evans, Channing Tatum, Shioli Kutsuna, Jon Favreau, Henry Cavill, Ray Park, Kelly Hu, Jason Flemyng, Blake Lively, Wunmi Mosaku, Matthew McConaughey, Nathan Fillion, Paul Mullin, Rob McElhenney, Chris Hemsworth.
Dir Shawn Levy, Pro Kevin Feige, Lauren Shuler Donner, Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy, Screenplay Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells and Shawn Levy, Ph George Richmond, Pro Des the late Raymond Chan, Ed Dean Zimmerman and Shane Reid, Music Rob Simonsen, Costumes Graham Churchyard and Mayes C. Rubeo, Sound Samson Neslund, Addison Teague and Eric A. Norris, Dialect coaches Jess Platt and Sonja Field.
Marvel Studios/Maximum Effort/21 Laps Entertainment-Walt Disney Studios.
127 mins. USA. 2024. UK Rel: 25 July 2024. US Rel: 26 July 2024. Cert. 15.
