Deadpool & Wolverine Delivers Much-Needed Superhero Roasting and Geeky Delights

Note: This review does not reveal any plot details or cameos not already shown in trailers, but it does mention some general themes and topics of humor. If you haven’t seen the film or trailers and want to know as little as possible going in, use your best judgment!

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as the title characters in Deadpool & Wolverine. Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios/Marvel

There’s a phrase used in Deadpool & Wolverine that perfectly describes the movie: “educated wish.”

Audiences have become accustomed to Deadpool’s fourth-wall-breaking and meta commentary over the past two movies. They’ve also grown familiar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s tactics of cameos and crossovers. While this third Deadpool film has all that, it also makes smart choices about what will make the crowd cackle and cheer. It’s not really about the potential for Deadpool to interact with the rest of the MCU—in truth, it’s more about fulfilling the dreams of the comic book audience, lavishing them more with in-the-moment references than promises for future films.

Deadpool & Wolverine distinguishes between symbolic and literal commentary on Deadpool’s place in the current Marvel landscape. Much like in the last film, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) gives the audience a rundown of his current personal life and the intellectual property rights. The topic of Fox being bought by Disney since the last film is not taboo, as with most topics in the Deadpool movies. However, Wade’s problem is that he feels like an outsider and cannot play in the other sandboxes. Whether he’s too crude or hasn’t sorted out his relationships, he doesn’t feel accepted and considers hanging up the tight suit.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob Delaney as Wade and Peter. Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios/Marvel

Only when others are threatened by a greater force in the universe does he start finding some purpose. As an R-rated superhero who survived the latest studio merger and came out the other side, he considers himself a Marvel Jesus who is capable of pulling off what PG-13 superheroes cannot. As he demonstrates in the opening fight, he can still combine slicing open bad guys with pop-song dancing.

After years of Deadpool roasting and lusting after the character, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is finally thrown into the mix, and the placement of the always-present X-Men member works well for this type of story. Instead of getting the robust badass from the early X-Men movies or the grizzled loner from Logan, this film combines those two modes. The Wolverine that Deadpool meets is as much a loser as he is, facing a similar sense of existential dread that he buries in banter and booze. But since this is a Deadpool movie, all it takes is a few swift sword slashes to the chest and bullets to the face to get the clawed hero off his barstool and into a comic-accurate costume.

Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios/Marvel

The promised fights between Deadpool and Wolverine are as fun as the fourth-wall-breaking character amps them up to be. Many fans have been waiting for skirmishes between the two reanimating heroes who can take endless slashes, punches, kicks, and bullets to every bone and orifice, and they will not be let down. Nearly every fight is cleverly staged, particularly one that takes place in cramped quarters. There’s always some absurdity present for the mismatched pair, with Deadpool’s eccentricities playing beautifully off Wolverine’s gruff bitterness.

The story is more or less what you would expect for a superhero film involving the multiverse: there’s a threat to all existence with ties to other Marvel properties, and Deadpool and Wolverine step up to the plate. What makes the narrative more fun is that it has the guts to question, distort, and play around with the familiar tropes. Deadpool calls out everything from the tiredness of the multiverse to the general state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe post-Endgame.

Matthew Macfadyen in Deadpool & Wolverine. Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios/Marvel

The knowing commentary does make the weaker spots of the script more apparent. Part of the drive for Deadpool’s fight is that he has a home and makeshift family worth fighting for, but they’re mostly shoved into the background, rarely coming out of the corners to play a role in Wade’s wild adventure. It’s odd that Wade mostly seems to leave his ensemble behind since a central theme seems more about loving the universe you already occupy.

The film has a wealth of cameos, but they play less like crossovers and more like fulfillment of unlikely fan wishes. The many walk-ons felt more like genuine surprises, whether because of unexpected casting or the presence of characters one thought would never return. It’s very much business as usual for Deadpool, tapping into the remains of Fox’s properties, made all the more compelling that the hero would dip into that closed pool more than the grander Marvel one he has been given access to. By the film’s end, it becomes clear that this is less of Deadpool’s entrance into the MCU and more of a tribute to Fox’s era of comic book movies.

Emma Corrin in Deadpool & Wolverine. Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios/Marvel

It’s refreshing that Deadpool hasn’t lost his bite in Deadpool & Wolverine. The movie is still critical of Marvel’s cinematic efforts while giving comic fans more winks than any other superhero saga. It’s still a violent, sexual, giddy mash of Deadpool’s best attributes while having a personal story that meshes with the topical tale. Above all, it’s just fun. It still knows how to tickle the audience just right, especially those who have grown tired of the Marvel formula and desire a more vicious change of pace. All the geeky delights of the title pair are there, but so are jabs about the studio bringing back Hugh Jackman yet again. In the same way that Miles Morales declared his independence from lore in Across the Spider-Verse, Deadpool makes a similar declaration with a gleeful grin that you can feel behind his mouthless mask. He’s doing his own thing, and it’s beautifully bonkers.

Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios/Marvel