The first Deadpool movie was a refreshingly unserious counterblast to the superhero industrial complex dominating cinemas in the mid-2010s. With his gleeful pisstaking and fourth-wall breaking, Ryan Reynolds’ motormouth Wade Wilson felt like the wobbly brick in the machine-built Jenga tower that was pre-Endgame superhero cinema.
Eight years on and the superhero landscape now resembles this densely-packed threequel’s barren, Mad Max: Fury Road-aping wasteland The Void. And Reynolds’ sweary superhero has evolved from plucky insurgent to the cornerstone of a potential Marvel revival. So when he refers to himself as ‘Marvel Jesus’ in this splashily violent, timeline-traversing quest to protect his friends and beloved ex (Morena Baccarin, barely in it) from erasure, he’s not kidding. Deadpool & Wolverine is a franchise resurrection dressed as an odd-couple bromance, with a new version of Hugh Jackman’s grizzled Wolverine along for the ride. And it’s altogether too much heavy lifting for a character who lives to snark from the sidelines.
The movie’s big bad has a small-screen quality. Matthew MacFadyen channels Succession’s slimy Tom Wambsgans as a rogue Time Variance Agent (Disney+ show Loki is your course work here) hellbent on destroying swathes of the multiverse for reasons I can’t begin to explain. It’s another winky performance in a movie that asks you to take nothing seriously apart from its own moments of unearned pathos. Only the gruff Jackman, grousing monosyllabically at his chatterbox frenemy, keeps it grounded.
There’s enough gory mayhem and genuine zingers to make it a fun ride
Still, cumbersome plotting aside, there’s enough gory mayhem and genuine zingers to make Deadpool & Wolverine a fun ride in a packed and up-for-it cinema. Even Mrs Reynolds, Blake Lively, gets the dubious honour of a gross Deadpool aside. ‘There are 206 bones in the human body,’ he notes, ‘207, if I’m watching Gossip Girl.’
Most of that fun is in the string of cameos – lips are sealed, although look out for an unexpected appearance from throwback meat product Spam – but the string of meta digs at Disney, Kevin Feige, the MCU, and its lead characters’ former home, 20th Century Fox, have zero rebellious edge. ‘Can you imagine the chaos… the residuals,’ jokes Deadpool of his team-up with Wolverine. Someone definitely did.
In UK cinemas Jul 25, and US theaters Jul 26.