deadpool and wolverine
06-08-2024
★★★🟆☆ / 3.5 of 5 stars
spoiler warning!
tldr; good turn-off-my-brain popcorn film. don't think too hard about particular plot issues and character arcs - focus on enjoying the visuals, choreography, and the classic deadpool humour. lots of oneliners and cameos of people i dont know so not the best for folks unfamiliar with marvel films (pre and post disney's mcu), but still a fun watch otherwise. i will definitely rewatch.
so i watched deadpool and wolverine on opening night at my local-run theatre, and its been about a week or so since then so i figure its about time that i talk about it. apologies for my run-on sentences and half baked opinions throughout this!!
just for context, my friends and i watched logan ahead of time as preparation, and i also feel its important to mention i'm not really a big marvel person ! i've only seen a handful of films.
generally speaking, deadpool and wolverine was very much a classic deadpool film, with all the classic hijinks that come with this series of films. from the slapstick humour, to the seven layer irony cake, to the overdramatics of each scene - but i worry maybe this was actually keeping the film back from reaching its full potential. i think that the over-reliance on these jokes don't really allow for previous jokes to breathe or even allow for the serious moments to simmer a little bit. generally speaking, scenes should go action > reaction > action > reaction, etc etc, but this film doesn't really do much of that. its a lot of action > action > action > reaction > action. maybe that's just me, but i feel that previous deadpool and wolverine films really mastered this aspect of writing, but not this particular film. because of this issue, i found it was a little difficult to follow the scenes or feel any real depth to the characters or scenes.
there's a sort of over-reliance on previous knowledge regarding marvel and x-men comics or films. i know this is common for marvel films as a whole (especially with the whole mcu-thing, but that's a different can of worms), but i think it's such a shame that it's made it difficult to enjoy the film as a non-marvel follower. deadpool & wolverine has a lot of cameos, and i mean A LOT of cameos, and i unfortunately did not know any of these faces or the particular heroes they were representing. so, whilst the audience that surrouded me, including my friends, gasped and freaked out all excitedly with the same-level of intensity as the cameo scenes, i was just kind of awkwardly sitting there and constantly asking 'who is this? why are they important?' i felt that the film didn't provide enough context to the characters to make me care about their motivations and raison d'etre. i think the best scene that actually fulfilled this need for exposition was the conversation between x-23 as i felt it was a natural and well-written back and forth between the characters, providing just enough information for me to understand x-23's position, and understand the backstory for this universe's logan. i felt that i could really care for these characters, and it made logan's character arc feel quite powerful, despite the fact that there wasn't much more substance than this (and, despite not being a marvel-watcher, i at least had the context of the film 'logan', and i'm satisfied that i did not need it for this scene). unfortunately i could not say the same for any of the other characters.
i really really really wish the title characters of this film actually had more to them. in particular, more of a character arc and more of an 'i want' motivation. wolverine, as i stated previously, has a simple but relatively powerful narrative arc. he failed to save his x-men and feels like a massive fuck-up, he thinks the tva will help him save his world after deadpool says they can (they fight after he finds out wade was wrong), has a pick-me-up speech from x-23 that i described earlier ("im the wrong guy", "you were always wrong guy, until you weren't"), assists deadpool in saving his world from cassandra nova and the timeline ripper and thus provding he is capable of saving worlds, and not as much of a fuck-up as he thought. short and sweet, though not much more than that. hugh jackman very clearly enjoyed his time as this wolverine, and it was fun to watch him have fun with that. deadpool, however, i couldn't say the same for. the film starts out with deadpool after the events of the second film: wade is working a deadend job that isn't fulfilling after getting rejected from joining the avengers, which strains his romantic relationship but ensures everyone he cares for is safe. he is then whisked away by a guy called paradox from the tva and finds out that his timeline and everything he cares about is about to be removed from existence within the next 72 (?) hours because wolverine, a key anchor of his world, had died. deadpool then retrieves a wolverine from another world after finding his one is definitely, absolutely dead, before getting thrown into 'the void' by paradox. the two then later get picked up by the resistance, fight cassandra nova to get out, and save wade's world from silent doom, finding his calling as a world-saving superhero once again and getting back with his girl. except for the inciting incident, nothing goes awry in his storyline, he gets everything he wants to move the plot forward, and doesn't really have a dip before the climax to add an extra emotional punch besides maybe failing to connect the matter and anti-matter channels of the timeripper before it's too late. it's just a little flat for me, but i'm not really sure how to improve it since, as i understand it, this film is supposed to be a way to officially link the x-men and deadpool to the mcu full and proper.
rapid fire thoughts: the sets were kind of boring, repetitive, and derivative (no, being self-aware doesn't make it any better); the sad points didn't really feel sad enough as the emotional crux of this film didn't feel as defined as previous deadpool and wolverine films, leaving the third quarter of the film running a little flat; while i love some classic deadpool humour, i think it was a bit too much and took away some enjoyment from certain parts of the film for me - the very very start of the deadpool and wolverine fight being the biggest example, i think; my biggest issue is that there are SO many unanswered questions for me- what happened to gambit, blade, x-23, and elektra after wade and logan jumped through cassandra's portal? how did the timeline start regenerating after deadpool and wolverine's stunt in the timeline ripper? the exposition on the tva is so strange and i dont understand where it is supposed to be set in comparison to this 'sacred timeline'? why is the timeripper's technical description so vague? so on and so forth.
obviously, i didnt hate everything: the choreography of the fights are so well executed. i constantly have gambit's moves and the opening credits scene stuck on repeat in my head, and the final part of the fight between the title characters is HILARIOUS - no one can convince me otherwise that these two men weren't having their equivalent of gay sex here, and the car transition really doesn't help. the soundtrack was also immaculately put together - it really helped me feel and understand what the tone of each scene is, even if it didn't 100% get it, and the song choices were iconic and didn't feel out of place at all. also the mustiple deadpools was really fun to see, my personal favourite being nicepool, as well as the wolverine variants with my personal favourite being the tiny, comicbook-accurate wolverine. that scene is so silly. the cgi was good enough that i didn't pick it up or register it too much durirng my watchthought, which i will always think is a plus, except for the standout moments like the opening credits, of which i only have good things to say. of course, wolverine's storyline was my favourite throughline in the plot of the movie and the classic deadpool humour is hard to not giggle at. the costume design is also top notch, no notes.