**SPOILER WARNING*** ***SPOILERS GALORE*** The discourse around the larger MCU has been interesting to monitor in recent years. The diehard fans seem content with a lot of Marvel’s recent efforts, but the casual fans seem to be growing tired of the multiverse saga. At least, that’s been my experience on social media. Film critics seem to pull less punches with the quality of each release. Unfortunately, I don’t see Deadpool & Wolverine swinging the momentum back to Marvel. The conversation around this film seems to range from “fun” to “hollow,” and maybe the answer is, as is often the case, somewhere in between.
It’s an easy film. Sometimes, that’s all you need. Deadpool & Wolverine is bursting at the seams with the trademark Deadpool humor. The fight scenes are fantastic, specifically the ones we get between the Deadpool and Wolverine characters themselves, who are relentless in their pursuit of new ways to torture the other. It’s loaded with easter eggs, callbacks, and cameos – so if you’re the amateur detective and diehard Marvel fan, it’s fun to keep tabs on throughout the movie. And, it all plays out with a fantastic soundtrack laid on top of it all. Sometimes, that’s all you want. If that is enough for you, then I imagine you’ll leave the theater pretty well pleased. Personally, it was not enough for me.
This is the latest in a slate of easy projects from Marvel. It is gratuitous fan service in a long line of movies and shows that have been gratuitous fan service, projects that rely on the element of surprise instead of character development and storytelling. I don’t think the situation with Jonathan Majors and the turmoil of the Kang character, who was clearly meant to be the MCU’s next big bad, helps matters. But, there’s a larger issue at hand with the aimless feeling permeating throughout the MCU’s current run. While this multiverse story sounds interesting on the surface, it erases the stakes from the universe when any variant of any character can be plucked from another universe at any time and inserted into what we’re watching. Emotional depth is the casualty here.
Not to mention, it’s confusing for some! We watched Gamora die! We cried when Thanos sacrificed her for the Soul Stone! That should mean something! Instead, a Gamora from another timeline pops up and suddenly we’re off to the races like nothing happened. And, I don’t care what the fanboys say, it’s confusing! Tell me you don’t have a friend or relative who watched Avengers: Endgame, saw Zoe Saldana pop up on screen, and said “wait, I thought she died?” Your stories have no stakes when there are no real consequences, and we’ve seen that unfold in recent films and shows all too often. Comic book stories are circular and formulaic to begin with. You pick up a run and it’s understood that the story you are holding is encapsulated within itself. Someone may die at some point throughout the story, but you might see them pop up in a later run because that is a separate story of its own. If you don’t abide by that unwritten rule of comics, I can’t imagine you’re going to enjoy reading them.
The problem with the MCU is that they’ve created this Sacred Timeline where all of this stuff is supposed to be apart of the one main arc. When you apply that “no one ever dies in comics” principle to this cinematic universe, you lose the stakes. That simple. It’s a tricky spot for Marvel to be in, and after the Infinity Saga concluded, I was not envious of the braintrust trying to figure out ways to top it. To this point, it feels like they still haven’t gotten their feet beneath them, which brings me to my main gripe with Deadpool & Wolverine. It’s just perpetuating this fruitless storytelling problem.
This films tells you a lot without showing you a lot. Deadpool wants to be an Avenger so that he matters. “Okay, there you go, audience! Now, you know what Deadpool is fighting for!” Then, they follow that up with “we’re not going to bother with silly character development – we have a Channing Tatum Gambit cameo to shoe horn in here!” They introduce the film’s big bad as Charles Xavier’s sister so that the casual fans know right away she’s powerful. They figured, “well, if she just rips Johnny Storm’s skin off the audience will figure out pretty quickly that she’s bad. We don’t need to explore the character too much.” Logan is sad because he watched the X-Men die and didn’t do anything about it. “We don’t have the budget for all of these actors, so we can just tell the audience and it’ll be fine, I’m sure.” I thought there was some meat left on the bone with X-23, who had to have been feeling some pretty complex emotions. But, nope – “we’re going to have this scene by the campfire and check that box off our list!“
There’s the tired trope of self-sacrifice leading to growth for our characters. It all just felt like easy set-and-forget storytelling for the sake of getting those cheap pops when Blade shows up. And, I have a very sophomoric juvenile sense of humor. I’ve loved the comedy of both previous Deadpool movies, but man, they beat you over the fucking head with it in Deadpool & Wolverine. And, that’s confusing too – what did you guys want to do here? A raunchy comedy? Or, a heartfelt story about growth? Was this your effort to do both? Because I think there might be a disconnect here. They snuff out Paradox at the end when our heroes emerge from the ashes to confirm that he’s been a villain all along! It reminded me of Scooby Doo with Paradox stopping just short of saying “I would’ve gotten away with it if not for you meddling kids!” There was too much of that.
I know it sounds like I’m completely trashing this film, but it’s more frustration with the bigger picture of Marvel than just this standalone film. Reynolds and Jackman are fantastic together. The movie has plenty of funny moments and zingers. Any emotional depth we get does draw from Jackman’s Hall of Fame caliber acting well. It did serve as a nice little homage to all of the 20th Century Fox X-Men films. And, for fucks sake, we NEED the Henry Cavill Wolverine movie! Deadpool & Wolverine is a good time to get fucked up to – have a few drinks or indulge in some other vibe-altering substance of your choice, get the boys together, and have a night at the movies! But, I’ve grown tired of the hollow storytelling effort from Marvel, and maybe it’s simply time for me to acknowledge that I might well be over it all.
Something can be “disappointing” without being “bad.” And, my deepest feelings about this film deal more with the bigger picture problems around Marvel than the film itself. Fanboys sour when every Marvel movie doesn’t get a 5/5, but the truth is there’s enough redeeming qualities about it to still be enjoyable. It’s the perfect film to have on during a Sunday afternoon when you’re cleaning the house and running around all over the place. You can dip in, watch a few minutes as you’re waiting for the dry cycle to complete, and dip out without missing too much. Ultimately, that’s why I land on a 2.5/5 for this film, which people forget is still a good movie. It’s a fun film at face value, but don’t look for much underneath.
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Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
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