Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
This is the third go around for the
snarky, fourth wall busting superhero Deadpool, and he's brought along a
friend. Like the title says, it's Deadpool & Wolverine, and this
movie delivers what fans want to see.
Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), is having a midlife crisis. His girl (Morena Baccarin) has left him, he has no foe to take down, and he is told he doesn't have what it takes to become one of the Avengers. Soon, however, he is recruited by the Time Variance Authority (TVA), who tell him that the multiverse is in disarray and that his current timeline, in particular, is deteriorating because of the death of James "Logan" Howelett, aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), who was a binding force in this universe. Deadpool then searches the multiverse for a suitable variant of Wolverine to replace the one who died in this timeline.
The best Wolverine variant that
Deadpool can find is a drunken loser, and these two don't get along. In fact,
the only thing they do have in common is that they both have regenerative
powers. Eventually, the two are thrown into the Void. There, they must battle
Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), the twin sister of X-Men leader Charles Xavier,
for control of the multiverse.
Director Shawn Levy's film has all that
you come to expect from a Deadpool movie—crass humor and grotesque gore
and violence—and it's often hilarious. The gags come at a mile a minute, so if
one joke doesn't land, the next five will. A reference to the Will Smith Oscar
slap is lame, but the repeated jokes about Walt Disney Studios and the fact
that they now own the studios that made the first two Deadpool movies—20th
Century Fox and Marvel Studios—are extremely funny. I am not going to spoil the
superhero cameos, but one running gag about a certain character's accent is a
hoot.
Reynolds is in top form doing his
Deadpool shtick, but it's Jackman's committed performance that makes Deadpool
& Wolverine work as well as it does. Jackman wisely plays it straight,
which allows the comedy to hit harder, and he also give some heart to all this
mayhem.
