‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Review
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Matthew Macfadyen | Written by Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells, Shawn Levy | Directed by Shawn Levy
Is it possible to have soulless fun? Fun where there is no meaning behind it, where you even question your sanity and morality. Well, if there is then it’s surely Deadpool & Wolverine, the 34th film in the ever-growing Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The MCU has been in a pretty dire state in recent years. With box office misses and critical bashing on some of their recent projects the universe needed something to bring it back to life. Their answer: to bring Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine back to life. Deadpool & Wolverine marks the 12th onscreen appearance of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and it’s without a doubt the films best decision, and one of the only highlights.
For nearly 25 years now no superhero casting has come close to the brilliant performances Hugh Jackman has put in as the famed Weapon X. The height of which was Jackman’s performance in Logan (2017), perhaps still the greatest performance by a hero in any superhero movie, and yes, even better than Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man. It seems funny now to look back on when he was first cast and the doubts many had over the music man from down under. All these years later and fans are flocking to see him back, in a film that will no doubt break some box office records. This time Jackman is back and it’s not the Logan we know, but through the use of the multiverse Deadpool has found another variant to team up with.
The return of Wolverine does bring some of the only fun to this film, every time he’s on screen it brings a sense of joy, but it always feels like it’s a false joy, one that’s been born from previous films. The joy is not earned or developed in this film, no emotional moment or character arc comes from anything done within the film. It’s all built on how you feel about these characters from previous instalments and in the end, adds nothing new or interesting to these characters. With Wolverine it does feel like they have taken a character that meant so much to so many and just added him to something so trivial. As for the character of Deadpool, the filmmakers rely on everything he has built on in the last two films and expect audiences to care for the relationships built previously. But now more than ever, Deadpool has started to turn into the very thing he was meant to be, that annoying friend who just won’t shut up or take anything seriously. A trope of the character that was once fun and fresh now brings us, the audience, the same feelings many characters who interact with Deadpool end up feeling – exhausted.
If you’re not going to get character development or emotional payoffs from a Deadpool movie, then surely you will get some laughs. Well, after a while even the jokes become bland, and there were definitely less laughs than any previous Deadpool film. Some of the jokes and quips feel repetitive, like you’ve heard them in the last film. That’s not to say there are not laughs to be had. The film does produce a number of laugh-out-loud moments, many of them coming from some of the film’s cameos. Many of the cameos produce some of the best laughs and fans of Marvel will be satisfied and surprised with many of the characters that make an appearance.
The main issues of Deadpool & Wolverine do seem to stem from the writing and directing. The directing in particular is an issue many Marvel movies have had, but here there seems to be a real lack of creativity and no clear voice behind the camera. The only time the film really comes to life is through the charisma and quality of its leads, and through them there is some fun to be had. I have no doubts many will love this, but with the lack of vision, or any real storytelling quality, I can’t help but feel the MCU is still waiting for that electric shock to bring it back from the dead. Hugh Jackman was almost enough to get a few beats of the heart, but he’s not helped by the team behind him, and the MCU remains a cold corpse, now starting to rot.
** 2/5
Deadpool & Wolverine is in cinemas now.
