Movie Review: Deadpool & Wolverine

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A-

Third time is definitely the charm for the Deadpool movies as this is the best one yet. 

In many ways the story is pretty standard stuff for superhero films, but it is told very well and even has some surprisingly heartfelt moments. Still, no one comes to this film for the story. They mainly come from the characters, the humor and the action. All of these are simply wonderful here. Deadpool and Wolverine work so well as a duo that you may wish these two teamed up earlier. The differences in these two's personalities make for some wonderful comedic moments. Wolverine works so well as a straight man to Deadpool's obnoxiousness because unlike most straight men, who won't take any of Deadpool's crap. And being that Deadpool can't die allows Logan (Wolverine's real name) to take all the anger he wants to out on Deadpool, while still playing the moments for comedic effect. I personally feel Deadpool's comedy works best when he has good characters to play off of (which is partly why I prefer the second Deadpool movie over the first). Wolverine is simply the best character that the movie version of Deadpool has had yet in this regard. Yet the relationship between the two is more than just comedic. There are actually some very touching and heartfelt moments between these two foul mouthed superheroes. Over the course of the film, they really do grow a bond that has a real heart behind it. All of this is helped by the wonderful chemistry between Ryan Renyolds and Hugh Jackman, who seem to have the time of their lives working together. The humor in this movie is truly laugh out loud funny. While the previous two films each had some truly hilarious scenes, this movie hardly has any jokes that miss. You could argue that there are funnier scenes in the first two films, but this movie has the strongest ratio of jokes that hit over ones that don't. The whole audience was laughing out loud throughout nearly the whole movie. This is quite rare for a 2-hour film to remain this funny for its whole length (note that most of the great comedies are under an hour and a half). The comedy here wonderfully mixes juvenile sexual humor with smart and clever meta-humor (there are a lot of references to Disney buying Fox). If one gag isn't to your liking, there are six more that will make you laugh out loud. Meanwhile the action is wonderful as ever. For anyone worried that Disney was going to tone down this aspect of Deadpool, luckily this was not the case. There is as much over the top gore as you could possibly hope for. All of it is way too over the top to be gross or disturbing. Instead, it is just pure R-Rated fun. This movie also benefits from a very strong villain, who is a lot of fun and can truly feel like a real threat to heroes who can't die. 

Underneath all of this over-the-top R rated fun, this movie also serves as a wonderful tribute to all of the 20th Century Fox Marvel movies as a part of superhero cinema that has sadly come to a close. This is not only shown in the number of great cameos, but also in the overall tone of the film. While it may make fun of these movies, you can tell underneath that the filmmakers have a real respect for them. 

This movie was directed by Shawn Levy who had previously worked with Ryan Reynolds on Free Guy (2021) and The Adam Project (2022). His other work includes the Night in the Museum trilogy (2006, 2009, 2014), Big Fat Liar (2002), Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), The Pink Panther (2006) and Date Night (2010). This is his first but hopefully not last superhero film.

It is important to watch this movie with as large of an audience as possible. The sold-out theater audience I saw this with were laughing and cheering all the way through. That feel was simply contagious and made it impossible not to have a great time. This is a perfect crowd pleaser.