Deadpool and Wolverine review: Let’s f**king go

Is Deadpool (and Wolverine) Marvel’s chosen one, anointed to save a once-titanic franchise from sinking into the void? Maybe, but don’t bet it all on red – enjoy it for what it is: a surprisingly sweet splatterfest that kills the past softly (well, mostly). 

Marvel is dead, long live Marvel; ever since Endgame, MCU movies have struggled to recapture the feverish rush of the series’ early years. And yet, something always comes along to reignite fans’ hope, whether it’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 or Loki Season 2. 

This film is more comparable to Spider-Man: No Way Home, for better or worse. It’s bold, poignant, and irresistibly entertaining, but it’s also a bit ugly and its surprises – “get your special sock” because there are plenty – are a heady sugar rush that’ll fade quickly with time. 

The MCU needs a hero, and while Deadpool and Wolverine will leave Kevin Feige looking like Smaug surrounded by gold, it can’t be its savior. It’s too unwieldy, too brutal, and an irreplicable novelty. That’s a good thing; it can’t be a template, because its success lies outside the margins. 

Deadpool and Wolverine looks for meaning in a meaningless world 

The Merc with a Mouth’s whole shtick is irreverence; how do you meaningfully ground a character who exists outside the realm of storytelling and is all too happy to poke holes through the fourth wall at any second? 

It’s paradoxical – but god help me, it works in Deadpool and Wolverine. We open with Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) a bit fed up with life. Against Peter’s (Rob Delaney) wishes, he’s traded superhero’ing for selling used cars and sulking over Vanessa (Monica Baccarin), who’s now seeing someone else. 

Suddenly, he’s ripped from his reality and wakes up in the Time Variance Authority (if you didn’t watch Loki, don’t worry – they just manage the flow of time and rogue timelines). Mr Paradox (Matthew MacFadyen), a high-ranking TVA agent with a radical plan, wants to give Wade the one thing he craves: purpose, for the greater good. 

I won’t say anything about the stakes or what that entails… other than this: it involves teaming up with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), after some customary ball-clawing, stabbing, and scrapping, and they encounter Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin). 

Yes, the story serves as a vehicle for multiversal madness – something it delivers more than the film with that in its title. The cameos are an absolute hoot, and it does feel like Feige flung out the rulebook on this one. 

Yet, for all the laughs, what’s touching is how much affection it holds for the bygone Fox era; it’s a chance to say goodbye to a world nullified by its inadequacy and give thanks for the future it built. “A real ending… legacy.”

Deadpool gets his hard R 

Marvel Studios

This ain’t PG-13, bub: it is hard-R superhero fare. One action scene features an adamantium claw spitroast, another person gets their flesh ripped clean off, and if those moments don’t convince you (they will), just look at all of the blood. This won’t come as a surprise, but the MCU has never been this violent – and who knows if we’ll see such sights again. 

I’ll give Shawn Levy his flowers: the choreography, particularly between Deadpool and Wolverine, is some of the best we’ve ever seen from both characters. Crunchy, but comical; merciless, but relentless. We’ve been waiting years, even decades for their big-screen face-off – and it lives up to the hype.

It all becomes a bit choppy in the third act, save for one brilliantly bloody oner, and that’s before we get to the cinematography: flat, diluted, and even uncinematic at times. It’s your prerogative to not care about color grading, but I do – and we should ask for more from $200m-plus blockbusters. 

The script is as crude, juvenile, and f**k-filled as you’d imagine. Deadpool’s constant meta wink-winking has a low batting average, but the fourth-wall one-liners that connect really land, and Reynolds’ interplay with Jackman is as funny as either star’s ever been. 

Jackman and Reynolds are sensational 

Marvel Studios

But here’s the thing, and this isn’t a criticism: it’s a movie for adults that’s actually for teens and kids. If I was 15, tears would have been streaming down my face from the stomach-clutching laughter – now, bar the odd well-deserved splutter, it was mostly just a lot of nasal sniggers. 

Deadpool often feels like he’s holding up a “Laugh at me!” cue card. But, unlike his concerns throughout the film, he evades the fate of becoming an “annoying one-trick pony.” There’s an evolution of the character here that’s quite endearing, finding hope underneath his ceaseless snark and making him more knowable and human than ever before. 

Credit where it’s due, that mostly comes down to Reynolds’ charisma; as trite as it sounds, he was born to play Deadpool, and it’s miraculous that he manages to thread sincerity through the Merc’s motormouth. 

As for Jackman, Logan devotees (myself included) had good reason to be concerned, but the actor’s return is the answer to a prayer you never knew you made. It’s perhaps the most iconic tenure in pop culture history, and Deadpool and Wolverine honors it. 

(Just to indulge myself briefly, it gets two big things right: we get to revel in Jackman’s insanely ripped Wolvie physique one more time, and when he finally puts on his mask… it felt like Christ returned.)

Deadpool and Wolverine review score: 4/5

Deadpool and Wolverine is a must-see MCU experience; giddy, gruesome, and more emotional than you’d expect. Its issues play second fiddle to the nostalgia and shameless joy you’ll feel in the cinema. In other words, let’s f**king go. 

Before it hits cinemas on July 25, check out our breakdown of the Marvel movies in order and our ranking of the best superhero movies of all time.