Mostly Hits the Bullseye

(080824) Although this might be a dubious compliment, Deadpool & Wolverine is easily the best and most entertaining superhero film project of the year. While it may lack the freshness of the other Deadpool films, which is understandable since it is the third film in the series. But this multi-verse saga is still often hilarious, exhilarating, and exciting, although it is rarely thought-provoking. Also, manages to accomplish almost everything the similar multi-verse film the Flash failed to do. It accomplishes this while reminding us of the best parts of the previous Sony and Fox, Marvel Universe films and ties all those stories together. Finally, it points at or hints at future Marvel projects. It also gives us a feeling of closure while avoiding the mindless mayhem at the end that dragged down the Flash.  

The film is just the high-quality Marvel product that Disney needed at the perfect time. It seems to have struck a chord, and it brought back some of the people who gave up on the Marvel Universe after its disappointing series of Flop-Busters over the last few years. The failure of The Marvels and The Eternals seemed to show that the public had bad case of superhero film fatigue. Already an enormous critical and box office hit, it has earned over 500 million dollars, proving that superhero film fatigue is if not a myth, then at least over-hyped.
 
The film is directed by Sean Levy, who is mostly known for doing humble low-brow mainstream comedy films like The Pink Panther and Night at the Museum. He is ideal for the film and gives it just the right light touch, and it is his best and most clever work. The director has said that he found inspiration in the classic comedy, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles which also featured a silly character (played by John Candy) who constantly irritates a more serious character (played by Steve Martin) during a journey. 
 
Much of the credit for the film’s success must go to Ryan Reynolds who is simply wonderful, and he carries most of the film. Without him, there would not have been any Deadpool films because he kept arguing to make the first one for years, and the only reason it got made was he leaked the trailer for the first film which FOX did not want to put out which created a demand for it.  
 
Praise for Reynolds in no way disparager's the efforts of Hugh Jackman who is also quite terrific, and he has perfect chemistry with Reynolds. It is enough to just put these two actors together playing these two characters to produce a guaranteed hit. My only complaint is that Logan gave the Fox X-Men saga the perfect ending, and while this is a fine film it never hits a mark quite as high.   

The film includes many Deadpool and Wolverine variants and actors who previously played Marvel super-heroes in other films such as: Wesley Snipes, Jessica Alba, Henry Cavill, and Chris Evans. They do not always play the characters fans might expect. I was slightly disappointed that Snipes’ character never fully displays the abilities of his old character although he has the same speech patterns. The sequence in which Deadpool meets the alternate versions of many familiar characters lacks the dramatic intensity of the similar sequence in Dr. Strange and the Multi-verse of Madness but it's still fun to see them. Additionally, there is also a showdown between Wolverine and Deadpool against the Deadpool Corps including many characters from the comics such as the Deadpool head from Marvel Zombies. The most annoying variant is Nicepool who Is not scarred and is always annoyingly pleasant. He has an ugly dog that Deadpool wants to adopt which pisses off Wolverine.  
 
Deadpool & Wolverine follows the structure of a very violent buddy film more than a superhero film. It is like the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby Road films such as Road to Bali in which two opposite people bond while they travel to different exotic locales (in this case it is different alternate timelines). Like Bob Hope, Wade often breaks the fourth wall and reminds the audience that everyone is happening in a movie. These self-referential jokes are done much better than the ones in the sad, humorless She-Hulk Disney series. Many of the jokes make fun of either Fox (which used to make the Deadpool films) or Disney which bought Fox. Supposedly there was a whole sequence that mocked Disneyland which was cut from the film and will hopefully be on the DVD or streaming cut. Also at one point, Wade turns to the audience and says about Wolverine: “Fox killed him. Disney brought him back, they’re going to keep doing this until he’s 90,” suggesting that Hugh Jackman is living out a version of hell or Nietzsche's eternal recurrence.  
 
The film begins with Deadpool retiring from the mercenary business and living a non-violent lifestyle using a starting point similar to Westerns like High Noon. He is in a committed relationship with his ex-dancer girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin from Firefly), but he is afraid she will leave him if he does not make something of himself. He tries to join the Avengers, but he gets turned down in a humiliating way by Happy Hogan who used to be Tony Stark’s driver but now he oversees security. At a low point, The TVA (Time Variance Authority) from the Loki series apprehends Wade/Deadpool at his birthday party and sends him on a mission. He is told the universe will end because the anchor Wolverine in his universe (Logan) died and his reality will unravel early. Deadpool escapes and tries to find a Wolverine from an alternate universe to replace the dead one. As it turns out after seeing many potential alternates of Logan (including a giant size one and a tiny one) he finally settles on one who lost his world and feels tremendous guilt because he didn’t act on time and is drinking himself to death. The two spend lots of time violently clashing and it is exciting for a while, but it eventually does gets tiresome.
 
Deadpool and Wolverine traveling across different realities is a great excuse to parody different film genres. When they arrive at a desert the film has a duel which parodies Sergio Leone’s’ spaghetti westerns. Then when they enter a post-apocalypse realm the film pokes fun at the Mad Max films Wade even name-drops Furiosa. This post-apocalyptic universe is called the void, and our heroes get attacked by alternate versions of some of the Legion of Evil Mutants. It turns out that they are ruled by a version of Professor Xavier’s evil twin Cassandra Nova (played by trans-actor, Emma Corrin). She is truly a great and monumental foe, and she is powerful enough to challenge the entire X-Men team. To better challenge her, Deadpool and Wolverine escape and convince some mostly second-string superheroes to help them attack Cassandra’s citadel. I like the way most of the alternate heroes are depicted in their cameos, but the Vampire Slayer Blade character does not display his vampire-based powers nearly enough  
 
The violence is at least as graphic as the last two films and at times it is overdone. But one of the best scenes is also one of the most violent. Wade dances while he is fighting in synch with an NSYNC song that is playing while he destroys all his enemies with the skeletal remains of his universe’s Wolverine. 

Despite my minor complaints, this film will satisfy superhero film lovers. Because it builds on earlier films so much, it might not make sense to someone who is not familiar with some of the previous Deadpool and Fox X-Men films. If nothing else viewers will learn more lively synonyms for cocaine (I liked devil’s dandruff best).