Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Matthew Macfadyen, Jon Favreau, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes, Channing Tatum, Chris Evans.
Distributor: Disney
Runtime: 128 mins. Reviewed in Aug 2024
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Deadpool is offered a place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by the Time Variance Authority, but instead recruits a variant of Wolverine to save his universe from extinction.
Probably best to say at the outset, Deadpool & Wolverine is beyond review. Within two weeks of its opening around the world, its box office is almost $1 billion. Which means that worldwide, it has been instantly seen by millions. With much more to follow.
It does raise an interesting 2024 question concerning the two films which have been most successful, Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine. What they have in common is the animation/cartoon style. And they appeal to a wide audience. However, Inside Out 2 appeals to deeper human feelings, to sensitivity and empathy. Deadpool & Wolverine appeals to an emotional bonanza – an excitement extravaganza, no-holds-barred, limitless imagination, potential cosmic destruction, violent visual conflict between good and evil, and superheroes to the rescue. And, not exactly modestly, Deadpool considers himself as a world saviour, a ‘Marvel Jesus’, booking his place in future Christ-figure studies.
There were a lot of writers for this film, including Reynolds, and it is full of disposable, throwaway quips, some of them very funny, references to the ups and downs of the Marvel film franchise, Disney, a collapsed Fox logo, to Hugh Jackman and his divorce, but there for the attentive satirical ear.
And the film presupposes favourable response to Deadpool in the Ryan Reynolds style (and a later Reynolds variation appears, over nice with the pet dog, Dogpool). Wade Wilson with his mixed history and burned face, is eager to be in Avengers story, but put on hold. However, as always with American films, there is a bureaucratic British villain, Macfadyen (now widely-known because of his presence in Succession). There is a bureau for saving timelines, there is a threat to the universe, Deadpool is there to combat but the only person he wants to work with is Wolverine. (And a bevy of jokes about a range of alternate Wolverines, visualised comically, all Hugh Jackman-aggressive). Probably this is the moment in a review to mention what one might call hyper-frequent coarse language.
There are also constant references to the previous Deadpool films as well as to the many X-Men films which fans will enjoy (and quite some entertaining references during the final credits). A surprise for the early viewers of the film but now everybody knows, a lot of cameos from previous superheroes such as Blade (Snipes), Elektra (Garner), and especially Captain America (Evans) and a French-accented Tatum as Gambit. Even Reynolds’ wife, Blake Lively, appears as Lady Deadpool!
While it is acknowledged with specific reference to Furiosa, a large part of the early film is an extravagant variation on the Mad Max movies. Then we discover a new villain, Cassandra (Corrin), a bald half-sister of Patrick Stewart’s Charles (though he and, up until now, we, never knew about her). And she has super destructive powers. Which leads to mayhem, an extravagantly high body count, the confrontation with a legion of Deadpool variations and their slaughter – but the power of regeneration and the possibility of it all over again.
So, it looks as though this is the entertainment to cheer worldwide audiences in the grip of so many war tensions, civil wars and invasions, terrorism of 2024. As they say, the audiences have been lapping it up – but, those with more restrained sensibilities, might find it more than they can gulp or swallow.
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