A Bloody Mess: The Deadpool & Wolverine Review

Maturity is realizing that at some point everything and everyone I hold dear will die, I’ll always have to pay taxes, and maybe the Deadpool movies aren’t as good as I once thought they were.  When the character first graced the silver screen in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the decision was made to remove his greatest assets: his loud mouth and attitude. Deadpool was never given the opportunity to show the world that he could be their favorite superhero, unless you were already deep into the comic book lore of the character. That changed in July 2014 when test footage leaked online showing the character as fans knew him, allowing curious viewers to wonder when this film would happen and finally give Deadpool the respect he deserved. It’s 2024 and now Deadpool is a household name, and for the third film in the franchise, they’ve added another beloved character to the mix: Wolverine. 

Deadpool & Wolverine is the third film in the Deadpool franchise, but the first one to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Disney acquired Fox in 2017. The Fox merger always meant a lot to the MCU because of the breadth of Marvel characters that were tied into it—namely the X-Men and Fantastic 4. Up until that point, Disney/Marvel had played nice with other studios for the characters they wanted to use. But while Disney played the long game, fans of these franchises were clamoring for their debut within the larger framework of Marvel’s game. 

Finally, we have a film where they can address everything fans wanted, but that doesn’t seem to be Marvel’s game. Deadpool & Wolverine opens with Deadpool needing Wolverine’s help with something the audience isn’t privy to, causing him to desecrate the grave of Wolverine from Logan. He’s tied into some time shenanigans with the Time Variance Authority (TVA) from his antics during the post-credits scene of Deadpool 2. It’s up to Deadpool to find a Wolverine variant to prove that he can be a hero to save his timeline. If all of this is confusing, it’s because Marvel has done such a great job tying all of their lore into TV shows that may or may not impact a movie that you may or may not see. The point is, Deadpool’s timeline and universe is at risk unless he makes a gamble to save it. Convoluted, sure, but if you’ve followed Loki it makes sense, although acting as an unnecessary way to tie the shows to the Fox properties to the larger episodic MCU. 

Let’s start with the good. Hugh Jackman is back and playing the character he’s comfortably slipped into for over two decades—but this time, he plays it differently. Wolverine is grumpy and a hardass, but for once he’s that with reason. He failed to save the people he loved most and has to live with that regret for the rest of his life. This isn’t the Wolverine from Logan, who’s down and out because of the history that we have with him, this is a different Wolverine—one with scars and way more of a drinking problem than the previous movies portrayed. He’s vicious, aggressive, and down to scrap at the drop of a hat. 

Reynolds as Deadpool is what you’ve come to expect, and if that works for you this won’t be the exception. With each film, you can tell that he truly loves the character,clearly feeling some sort of kinship with him that makes Reynolds give each performance his all. Say what you will about Reynolds's snarky humor, but it works for Deadpool. The fourth wall breaks are still present and as funny as that concept allows them to be, but never too offputting. Reynolds also finds a way to still add motive to a wildcard and bring the character back down to Earth when he starts to get too off the wall. With Wolverine, their chemistry is like getting together with one of your best friends and sticking the landing on whatever bit or scheme you get up to. 

The Marvel of it all is still there, from the cameos to the big third act that could have potential implications for the rest of the MCU. Here the cameos work very well, giving some of a cast of old heroes a chance to shine and finally close out their story arcs. But it’s the tie-ins to the other Marvel properties, mainly Loki, that don’t work here. They have to force in the TVA in order to give this movie some sort of plot that ties into the rest of the things to come. The movie does a decent job at attempting to buck against doing that, but at the end of the day these things are a part of a bigger storyline and there has to be something to justify the millions of dollars dumped into it instead of just allowing it to work on its own. 

A big fear of mine was would this movie only exist to explain the more lackluster recent outings of the MCU, but the movie ultimately doesn’t seem very interested in acting as a bridge film despite the implications of Wolverine’s and other characters’ presences. This still ends up hindering the movie, because instead of watching it for the next beat, you wonder what trick the movie is going to pull up its sleeve to point at the audience and go “Hehe gotcha, you liked that right? That cost a lot of money, I hope you liked that.” Some of these, like the introduction of Deadpool’s team of cameos in the Void, are home runs. Others leave you scratching your head and wondering if it was really necessary, besides being a nice nod to the legacy of the films that came before the MCU was established. 

In terms of the story, the movie is a bit of a mess. It can be hard to track why Deadpool is doing the things he’s doing or why he’s on this journey besides the baseline of “well he has to.” Sometimes it feels like he’s just meandering through the greatest hits of previous superhero movies, while other times it feels like an homage to the earlier works of the MCU. Some fights are reminiscent to the first time we saw all these characters on screen together in The Avengers and the excitement of seeing them fight onscreen carried them. But ultimately a lot of these scenes are weightless, filling in time that could be dedicated to giving us more understanding of these people and this world. It’s never boring but the thought experiment only goes so far. There are too many cooks in the kitchen trying to decide whether this movie is the third entry in the Deadpool franchise or if it’s going to kick off larger events seven movies down the pipeline that dedicated audiences will still have to go back and watch a 30-minute YouTube video to refresh themselves on. 

The film feels sanitized in a way that the other two Deadpool movies hadn’t, and for good reason. These movies aren’t just superhero movies that get released, you see them and can then move on from them. They’re cultural icons and they lead box office revenue. What used to be a fun romp has become a social experiment in how far they can go before audiences peter out and look for the next thing. The previous movies were raunchy, immature, and frankly kind of gross. Deadpool & Wolverine seem like it wants to do that again, but knows that the stakes are too high to pull off the same trick. It’s a solid first R-rated outing for the MCU, but it’s also probably the lightest R you could get aside from the violence and language. The raunchiness is swapped out for gorier fights than we’ve seen in the MCU before, and the foul language is present, but to a lesser extent than the previous movies. Watching a Deadpool movie used to feel like catching something during the late-night hours of the Comedy Central lineup—now, that’s been swapped out for a Disney+ version, with the same concept but not quite the same execution. 

All this to say, Deadpool & Wolverine is a respectable effort. Rewatching the previous two films, I was apprehensive about this one. The jokes hadn’t landed like I remembered and the stories weren’t as compelling as when I saw them in theaters with friends. Maybe it’s because I’ve moved past the edgy comedy that the previous two movies cut their teeth on. Maybe it’s because the MCU has had some big homerun comedies like the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, and this humor doesn’t fit the mold of what I’ve become accustomed to in this universe. 

Watching this series of films grow has been interesting regardless. In the first film, it was like watching a baby learn to walk. By the second film, the teenager had learned to cuss and tell a decently compelling story about a party they had gone to over the weekend. By the third film, the kid we watched grow up is finally graduating college and getting ready for the real world, realizing that numbers matter and that in order to survive you have to make some caveats to the person you once knew. 

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