Deadpool & Wolverine
I have been out on the MCU since Thor: Love and Thunder and had been less and less interested since Endgame. I know I’m not alone in saying that, but it’s the truth. The superhero movie has gotten stale and lifeless. I also did not particularly care for Deadpool 2. The marketing for Deadpool and Wolverine has been fun, and I really can’t place why, but I bought a ticket to see it, hoping and thinking that it would at least be fun.
I am so glad I did.
This movie is so damn fun. It’s also FUNNY! It was laugh out loud in the theater and then laugh on the drive back home replaying some of the jokes in your head funny. I’ll go so far as to say that it provided some moments that gave me fits of laughter in the theater that I can’t remember the last time I had.
I figured there would be gratuitous cameos, but all of them felt like they meant something, and you could tell the actors were having fun doing them. It was a breath of fresh air for this convoluted multiverse universe.
When you have two characters like Deadpool and Wolverine, it’s hard to make the stakes feel real. This movie of course had gratuitous violence. D & W mowed through endless waves of enemies with bloody splashes and crude gestures galore, but in my opinion it rarely felt over the top.
The biggest sticking point is that for me at least, it nailed all the beats. It didn’t feel too long. The humor was actually funny and didn’t feel corny or cheesy outside of moments where it played off that feeling, and there were genuinely touching moments. I felt foolish but there were two moments that actually had me on the verge of tears.
I went in expecting to have fun, but not expecting the savior of the MCU. I don’t think it wanted to be that. I don’t think it tried to be that. The beauty of the Deadpool films is that they can stand alone in a larger universe, and I think they really nailed it with this entry. It’s hard to see where they go from here, but I think that lends to this entries beauty. I will say that if this is Hugh Jackson’s last ride as Wolverine, job well done. He has been a staple of comic book movie heroes close to my entire life, and I consider myself lucky to have been along for the whole ride.
8.4/10