REEL | Ryan Reynolds Kills the Multiverse – 'Deadpool & Wolverine'

"Aim for the middle and you'll never miss."

20th Century Studios / Marvel Studios

Best of enemies, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, make their much-anticipated team-up in their first official R-rated Marvel Studios effort, the straightforwardly titled Deadpool & Wolverine, combining the previously unrelated 20th Century Fox-produced X-Men franchise into the current MCU continuity. Directed by Shawn Levy, the jam-packed Deadpool crossover sequel delivers a surprisingly emotional ride overstuffed with the usual self-referential, wisecracking dirty jokes and excessive violent action.

Less of a direct follow-up to the two previous, scrappier Deadpool films spearheaded by Reynolds, DvW has the tricky task of ushering Marvel into its mutant era while paying off some of its previously seeded interdimensional elements. Brit newcomers, a bald-headed Emma Corrin and snively Matthew Macfadyen, co-star as Professor X's long-lost evil twin from the womb, Cassandra Nova, and a rogue agent from the Time Variance Authority (TVA), the bureaucratic multiversal time cop agency introduced in Loki, trying to recruit the motormouthed Canadian mercenary anti-hero, Wade Wilson.

Most of Reynold's usual supporting cast anchored by his love interest, a revived and appealing as ever Morena Baccarin, is sidelined to the setup before Deadpool gets entangled into the Marvel Cinematic Universe-hopping plotline filled with an exhausting amount of mind-melting cameos and fan service galore. Levy's flat visual style hardly adds to the quips and dizzying fun as he jettisons the previous two films' grimy quality for a brighter, shinier gloss. There's also a severe lack of real-world characters as almost the entire film exists outside of Earth or time.



Scripted by the five-man team of Reynolds himself alongside original franchise scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick with comic book writer Zeb Wells and Levy, so much is packed into the two-hour runtime structured as a needlessly convoluted multiversal road trip mission across a limbo-like nether region called "The Void," aping the Wasteland from Mad Max. Both Reynolds and Jackman are game as they channel the mismatched, high-energy buddy pairing, reminiscent of 48 Hrs. or Midnight Run, that audiences have been seeking. An older Jackman, in particular, is a highlight finally donning his famous bright yellow costume.

For those worried Deadpool might be neutered under Disney's control, there's just as much relentlessly filthy meta-humour and ruthless violence as ever. It fondly remembers the post-2000s era of superhero movies it helped usher in while also roasting it and the current state of studio blockbuster movie fare.

Deadpool & Wolverine offers a cathartic journey that closes off the previous big-screen X-Men incarnations while introducing some contemporary elements into the MCU's dense mythology. However, much of it feels like an expensive corporate diss track squarely aimed at non-Marvel superhero fare for and by the terminally online post-millennial masses. It's a fun time starring two of the more charismatic actors to don red and yellow spandex but really stretches its comic book storytelling beyond anything resembling cinema.


More | YVArcade / CBC / Indiewire / Inverse