Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) – Timely

Released: 25th July
Seen: 27th July

Six years ago, a little independent film called Deadpool 2 was released to cinemas, doing incredible business and cementing the legendary Merc with the Mouth as an iconic addition to the superhero genre. I know it feels like an absolute eternity since 2018, it was a different time before a plague basically upended our world and changed absolutely everything but you have to remember that 2018-2019 was probably the peak era of the modern Superhero genre, culminating in the cataclysmic cinematic event known as Avengers: Infinity War, followed a year later by Avengers: Endgame. Looking back with the gift of hindsight, Endgame marked the point where the superhero genre peaked and it’s probably never going to be that great again but at the time it felt like there would be no end and surely the next big thing would be another Deadpool movie. Surely it would be, Deadpool 2 was the 5th highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office, it was so popular they re-released it with new footage to make a Christmas movie, surely this meant that we’d get another run around with the funny red menace.

…then the plague happened, no one wanted to go to the movies anymore and Superhero films entered a slump. 

Look, I’m the first to admit that I’ve enjoyed many of the superhero movies that have come out in the last 5 years. I liked Black Widow, I enjoyed Eternals, and I think everyone was too hard on Thor: Love & Thunder but even I can admit that this recent set of films from the Marvel team hasn’t been anywhere near as good as what came before. A combination of resting on their laurels and having to follow one of the biggest cinematic events of all time means everything kind of pales in comparison. While all this is happening there’s also the behind-the-scenes insanity where Disney bought Fox and now has to work out how they’re going to handle the Marvel characters that Fox owned (one of which being Deadpool), So, during probably the biggest period in Superhero movie history, the meta mutant himself hasn’t been around to make fun of any of it. Well, he’s back, he dragged Wolverine out of the graveyard on the way here and god damn it’s good to have him back.

Deadpool & Wolverine picks up 6 years after the after-credits scene in Deadpool 2 with Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) giving up on superhero life and trying just to live a normal life as a car salesman. Things are going like absolute shit when the TVA (Time Variance Authority) turn up and takes Deadpool away, telling him that his world has lost its anchor person and will soon vanish. That anchor person just happens to be Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) who died at the end of Logan in a way that everyone thought was emotional and it would be truly stupid to undo… so Deadpool goes to undo it, gets Wolverine back to save his timeline and the world while also spending a glorious 2 hours just ripping Marvel (and pretty much everyone in the superhero genre) a glorious new asshole. It’s insane, it’s silly, it’s jam-packed with images meant to make everyone at Comic Con experience some kind of nirvana and it’s one of the most fun films in recent memory.

From the moment that the film opens with a hyper-violent corpse-desecrating battle set to the classic song Bye Bye Bye by N*Sync, you will know if Deadpool & Wolverine is for you. If you sit through that opening fight scene with the dumbest grin on your face, broken up by intermittent laughter and a stunned “Are they really fucking doing this?” then this film will work gangbusters for you because it never drops that tone. The insane combination of extreme violence, profanity that would make George Carlin go “Tone it down” and the liberal use of gloriously wild and random soundtrack choices basically make up the entirety of this film and god damn it’s fun. It’s fun because the film is having fun with itself, never taking anything too seriously. After all, Deadpool & Wolverine knows what the fuck it is. This isn’t some Oscar-bait film where everyone’s trying their best to look like serious actors, this is a big fun superhero movie about a character who knows he’s in a superhero movie only now he has Disney money to play with so everything can be as big as possible.

It’s almost stupid to even consider trying to call out any of Deadpool & Wolverine’s flaws because the movie does that job for you. Sure, you could complain about the pacing (even though it’s fine, the pacing is genuinely fine) but the film literally has Deadpool look into the camera and go “It’s alright folks, we’re almost done here” so why bother? Do you want to complain about the cameos? Yeah, the film lampshades how many there are going to be and revels in every single one because fuck you. Do you want to be upset about how the existence of this film hurts the ending of Logan? Cute, this film literally jokes about how they’re pissing on that ending because it’s very funny for them to do that, what else have you got? Any possible criticism you could come up with is brought up, addressed, mocked and then sent on its way by a film that knows the audience it’s playing towards and that audience is going to love every second of this.

From start to finish, Deadpool & Wolverine is genuinely one of the funniest films that’s come out in recent years. It rapid-fires jokes so fast that you’ll miss jokes because you’re still laughing at the last one. Some jokes are broad and aimed at a general audience, some jokes require some knowledge of the MCU in general for it to work, and some jokes are ones that’ll only work if you know an upsetting amount about the personal lives of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman but there’s so many of them that if you don’t laugh at one, another joke will be along in a minute to claim you. If you somehow don’t laugh at the entire film… I mean, I did tell you earlier about the opening fight scene being the litmus test. Also by this point, you should know if Deadpool’s humour is your kind of thing, especially before going to see a film with him and Wolverine. If Deadpool didn’t make you laugh before, this is him on steroids so that should help you out.

Of course, it helps a lot that Deadpool has Wolverine to bounce off of. If Hugh Jackman was going to come back to play Wolverine after the glorious ending of Logan, he picked the right film to do it in. This is the one version of Wolverine that Hugh never had a chance to play before Deadpool was a thing, Wolverine being a hard-drinking swearing asshole who wore a comically bright yellow suit for longer than a 15-second cameo? Never would’ve happened, this is basically just a reminder that Hugh is going to be truly impossible to replace as this character so good luck to whoever tries. Throughout the film, he basically has to play the straight man to Deadpool’s insanity and he’s so good at it, able to give the film a much-needed anchor for the crazy to hang off. 

But obviously, despite this being a team-up movie, the best part of this is just Deadpool himself. Ryan Reynolds turns Deadpool into the roastmaster general and spends the entire film roasting the Superhero genre as only a fan could do. It’s hilarious and brutal at times, his entire performance is almost Bug Bunny-esque in how joyfully insane he is and it works. It makes every minute of the film soar by, the insane energy that just oozes out of Ryan is what makes this character work so well and he is probably at the peak of his powers here. Fans are used to a Deadpool that knows he’s in a movie, that’s kind of the joke of the character, but this is a Deadpool who knows he’s in a post-endgame movie with an ungodly budget and no strings to hold him down, so he’s going to go for broke every single time. It’s still unsure how on earth they’ll work this character into the larger MCU, hopefully, this isn’t the last we’ll see of him but if it is then Ryan made sure to leave everything he had on the screen so it’s the best the character will ever be.

What stunned me most about Deadpool & Wolverine was that underneath all the hilarity and silliness is a genuine heart, best displayed by what plays during the credits (Not spoiling specifics, but it did make me cry a little). Under all of this is a story of two characters who have a long history, a history that’s filled with a fair few highs but also some incredibly low points. The superhero genre in general is full of those low points where people think it’s impossible to be saved and needs to be scrapped and started again. Deadpool & Wolverine use their silliness to point out that the low points are always going to be a part of the franchise’s history, but that doesn’t mean we should just pretend they didn’t happen. Somehow this film celebrates those low moments, takes a loving potshot at them, before pointing out how they learned from those lows and improved. It’s a strangely emotional tribute to a cinematic history that’s spanned 24 years… all in the same film where they say an ugly dog is 90% clit, cinema is fun like that.

Deadpool & Wolverine is easily the best of the Deadpool franchise so far, a much-needed roast for the MCU and a reminder that these films can just be fun and silly. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, has some of the best action scenes the MCU has done in a while and it is absolutely littered with cameos and nods ranging from the obvious to the ‘Fans will get why this is funny”, but it all works. It’s just a good time, it’s a film designed with entertainment in mind above everything else. Sure, it’s pandering to its audience and playing upon their nostalgia but it’s doing so correctly. It’s showing you what it thinks you will enjoy because it also thinks those things are cool, it’s having fun with the audience in a way that few films get right. Deadpool & Wolverine gets just about everything right, it’s hard to be mad about that.