Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
A spoiler-free review.
Men Will Be Boys
Deadpool & Wolverine is the third asinine, hyper-violent looney tune featuring Marvel’s “Merc with a Mouth.” It’s a predictably outrageous romp through the multiverse that hits the same notes as its predecessors, except this installment features Hugh Jackman in Wolverine’s classic yellow suit!
It’s a big moment for X-Men nerds, and I’m happy that their wet dream has finally been realized, even if it comes at the expense of Logan’s (2017) emotional closure. I only lament that this long-awaited cinematic consummation is, at its core, a cynical cum tribute to the corporate consolidation that made the movie possible.
Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is as eager to please as he’s pleased with himself, which is a great deal, and Hugh Jackman has fun earning a massive Marvel paycheck. Old Man Logan ditches the grizzled wisdom of age, devolving into the perpetual adolescence that a Deadpool movie demands. One can only imagine how much money it took to convince him to crawl out of his noble grave, don the yellow suit, and jab his razor-sharp claws into Deadpool’s nuts.
In an attempt to shore up the post-Endgame MCU, Daddy Disney, our benevolent entertainment overlord, has allowed Deadpool to continue existing, pushing the boundaries of their family-focused brand.
Deadpool’s gleeful profanity has always had a smug streak, but that sense of self-satisfaction is heightened by Mr. Mouse’s “brave” decision to let Reynolds call Jackman “the thundercunt from down undercunt” and joke about pegging.
Unfortunately, nine years after Deadpool shattered the comic book genre’s fourth wall, most of the shock value has long since dissipated. In 2024, Deadpool & Wolverine’s over-the-top obscenity is only intermittently amusing. The movie is good for a few genuine guffaws, a handful of chuckles, and a litany of heavy nasal exhalations.
Deadpool & Wolverine also lacks Deadpool 2’s scraps of pathos. Deadpool’s chosen family is reduced to a photograph that symbolizes what he stands to lose, yet with the fate of the multiverse on the line, the stakes have never felt lower. Perhaps that’s because the film’s raison d'etre is its titular match-up, and everything else is MCU window-dressing.
Deadpool & Wolverine’s most distinctive sensibility is its strong appeal to millennials. The needle drops speak for themselves. Additionally, the film mines its most interesting material from the fizzled failures of Marvel’s early aught output, before Iron Man (2008) successfully established the MCU. However, the sensibilities of those early entries into the superhero genre clash with Deadpool & Wolverine’s distinctly self-aware, post-MCU ethos.
In 2024, Deadpool’s head is firmly entrenched up its own ass, a crude contortion that the film insists is intentional. Be that as it may, Deadpool’s schtick has become so muddled in meta-irony that it has lost any novel point of view.
Is the film critical of the hyper-saturated genre, or has it become the corporate product it once savagely ridiculed? Both, but the latter taints the former.
While the film seems to regard that duality as a point of pride, I’m not buying it. Disney executives have approved all the profane transgressions, defanging any of the film’s notional attempts at substantive subversion.
Deadpool & Wolverine will delight its character’s most ardent devotees. More casual fans, such as myself, may find the film a suitably entertaining diversion.
Although the film can’t sustain emotional or intellectual investment among audiences, it will pay dividends to Disney’s investors, which is far more important to the MCU’s future than any of Deadpool & Wolverine’s acts of heroism.
Until next week, my fellow film freak.
Engaging from start to finish. The humorous tone pairs well with the delivery, please do more reviews!