General [SPOILER WARNING] for Deadpool. It’s as funny as the first and way bigger in good ways!
I can’t believe Van Wilder caused a superhero franchise. Ryan Reynolds finishes his Merc with a Mouth trilogy with this third installment, bringing along his long time buddy Hugh Jackman. How lucky it must be to now be a part of the MCU, AND have one of your oldest friends play the most famous X-Men character who Disney just bought a few years ago! This is the one time I’m approving of a formation of a mega corporation: relish in your moment, Disney/20th Century Fox.
That merger is how Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) has now ended up in the Marvel Movies. After getting his Avengers application rejected, Wade settles into a life with his X-Force buddy Peter (Rob Delaney) selling cars. Because of Wade’s multiverse shenanigans in the last film, Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfayden) from the Time Variance Authority drags Wade in, to move him to another timeline and destroy the one his loved ones like Peter, roommate Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), and paramour Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) live in. Desperate to save the people he loves, Wade steals a multiverse travel device and searches for the perfect Logan (Hugh Jackman) to help him stop Mr. Paradox before it’s too late.
As 22 Jump Street pointed out, most comedy sequels get more money to do the same thing and be a lot worse. Deadpool & Wolverine is one of the few exceptions to this rule. The simple reason: more money means more chances for big extended jokes built around meta humor. Each super hero movie has a cameo or two right? Usually, they’re in the movie for a few seconds, then we move on. In this film, the cameos last minutes, and sometimes across multiple segments, giving each character a beginning, middle, and end to allow enough time to mine all the jokes possible out of the premise. And generally, most of the jokes work on multiple levels, depending on how invested you are in superhero lore. There’s some obvious ones about multiple roles, truly shocking character returns even Deadpool is impressed by, and my personal favorite: a character shows up that never actually was in a movie, and now we see EXACTLY why. That runner had me dying laughing because I know why they’re there, but on the surface it’s still extremely well executed that everyone was laughing, just for different reasons. Outside of the cameos, that Disney money means we get licensing of the best pop songs around for completely graphic montages of mayhem. That’s right, despite the paycheck, Reynolds makes sure Deadpool’s essence remains f*cking intact, earning that hard R rating every 8 seconds or so.
But the movie is called Deadpool & Wolverine for a reason. The minute they end up together, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman effectively put on the greatest show(man). The two are as dynamite as any romcom pair, with the motormouthed Reynolds and gruff Jackman a match made in comedy heaven. Cause when Jackman’s tired of Deadpool’s latest runner, he simply punches or stabs him, and then we get a superhero fight! Even when they’re fighting, they’re sniping at each other with words in addition to fists, keeping the audience in a constant high. That effortless friendship also helps when the story in small doses transitions to something a little emotional, with each of the pair selling their opposite ends of the “jaded exterior with gooey heart” superhero. Jackman in particular shows his versatility as Logan, playing another version of the character he hasn’t played before; Reynolds, in one glorious, disgusting opening, honors Jackman’s request to keep the 2017 movie’s ending sacred. By the end of Deadpool & Wolverine, the line between characters and actors was so blurred for the two the movie could have been called Deadpool: Reynolds & Jackman.
Along the way, Marvel got lost in its own hubris and forgot the best part of superhero movies: having fun. So they pushed all their movies back, and brought in Deadpool and Wolverine to give Kevin Feige a swift kick in the balls and remind him what people love about these films, whether they be the Fox X-Men or the Avengers. I don’t know if Ryan Reynolds will end up being Marvel Jesus, but he somehow got Marvel to approve the phrase “blow job queen of Saskatchewan.” Wow, the MCU must be desperate!