Let’s Fuckin’ Go

When 20th Century Fox was bought and merged into Disney, it was assumed that the various X-MenLaunched in 1963 and written by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the X-Men featured heroes distinctly different from those featured in the pages of DC Comics. Mutants who didn't ask for their powers (and very often didn't want them), these heroes, who constantly fought against humans who didn't want "muties" around, served as metaphors for oppression and racism. Their powerful stories would form this group into one of the most recognizable superhero teams in comics (and a successful series of movies as well). films, and the franchise as a whole, would come to a conclusion. Disney had their own universe, the Marvel Cinematic UniverseWhen it first began in 2008 with a little film called Iron Man no one suspected the empire that would follow. Superhero movies in the past, especially those not featuring either Batman or Superman, were usually terrible. And yet, Iron Man would lead to a long series of successful films, launching the most successful cinema brand in history: the Marvel Cinematic Universe., and there was clearly a desire to get a new cast of X-Men into their franchise. Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants were burned off, and the Fox franchise came to a close… except for one guy: Deadpool. Ryan Reynolds had fought tooth and nail to get the Merc with a Mouth onto theater screens and he wasn’t going to let the character wither away and die just because he had to work with a new corporate daddy. And, frankly, Disney would have been dumb to kill off the most consistently successful part of the old Fox franchise. Initial rumblings about not knowing how Deadpool would fit into the MCU aside, everyone assumed Reynolds’s favorite superhero would appear on theater screens again eventually.

And so he has. Surprisingly (at the time the film was initially announced), he managed to come along with a buddy no one expected: WolverineAlthough not one of the original X-Men, Wolverine is certainly the most popular, even before he was played, to much acclaim, by Hugh Jackman in the Fox film series.. Hugh Jackman had retired playing the character right before the first Deadpool came out, giving a stellar sendoff to the angry Canadian in Logan. No one expected him to return to the role, or any version of the role, again. But apparently Reynolds’s seductive voice, and the desire to do a crossover with Deadpool, was enough to lure the actor back, one last time. The resulting film, Deadpool & Wolverine, marks the 34th film in the MCU (their 48th work overall), and also acts as a fitting conclusion for the entirety of the Fox era of superhero cinema.

But how does it work on its own? Well, that is a harder question to answer. I’ve been watching the rise of superhero films, flick by flick, as they came out in theaters. I saw the highs of Blade and the lows of the Fantastic Four. X-Men redefined what could be done in a superhero film, and then Spider-man came along and did it again. There’s been a constant push for superheroes, even before the MCU came along, and then Marvel went and changed the game all over again, making supers into the biggest stars at the Box Office. If, like me, you’ve kept up with everything superhero related for the last thirty years and you know the ins and outs of all these universes, then Deadpool & Wolverine is going to be the ultimate payoff for you, delivering on everything you’ve been seeing and enjoying ever since the superhero boom started.

If, however, you aren’t elbow deep into every single franchise, then you might not care as much. For opening weekend I hit the theater with my wife and two of her friends, and those two friends were not as old, or as deep into cinematic lore, as I am. They didn’t care about all the cameos, the deep cinematic lore, then nods to everything that’s come before. They didn’t even see all the X-Men films leading up to this movie, being young enough that X-Men: First Class was their gateway into the franchise. For them this film was overstuffed and aimed at a different audience, and that’s fair. It is and it was. But if you are that audience then, damn, this film is a feast for your geeky eyes.

The film opens with acknowledgement about all that’s come since Deadpool 2. Since then, six years have passed, and Avengers: Endgame came and went. We see Wade Wilson (Reynolds) in a meeting with Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) applying to be an Avenger. When that doesn’t go well, we learn that the next six years saw Wade on a downward spiral, breaking up with his fiancee Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) because the rejection from the Avengers forced Wade to hang up his superhero suit. All of his friends want him to pick up the suit and be a hero again, but Wade is too dejected to bother. He’s happy hanging out with his friend Peter (Rob Delaney), working at a used car lot, just being Wade.

But then, during Wade’s birthday party, the TVA (from Loki) show up to cart away Wade. They need him, as Deadpool, because he’s “special”. He’s worth saving even though the rest of his universe is about to slowly die. One TVA agent, Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), has built a time ripper to destroy the very fabric of Wade’s universe because, in a couple of thousand years, it would all die anyway so it might as well be put out of its misery now. The reason why the universe is dying is because the key figure of the universe, Logan, died (back in Logan) and without him the universe can’t survive. To try and stave off the TVA, and save his universe, Wade knows just what to do: find another Wolverine, transplant him into Wade’s universe, and call everything square. Things, naturally, don’t go to plan.

The plot of Deadpool & Wolverine is, yes, needlessly complex. The movie has to justify having Deadpool around, while keeping him in his universe (and not part of the true MCU), set up a reason for him to go dimension hopping, and then also find a way to work a Wolverine in without desecrating the memory of Logan. Well, okay, it does do that last one just a little, on purpose, but in a hilarious way, and it doesn’t undo the death Logan found at the end of his movie. Regardless, though, this is a lot of setup, and heavy lifting, the film has to do to get the ball truly rolling. If the film front-loaded all of this it would be an absolute mess. Thankfully, the movie doesn’t do that.

Instead, the film opens en media res, having Deadpool already be on the hunt for Logan. This then leads to one of the bloodiest, more over-the-top action sequences seen in a Deadpool (or MCU) film to date, all while Deadpool literally dances to N*SYNC. It’s so weird, and off the wall that it sucks you right into the movie and keeps you from questioning anything. DId you have it on your MCU bingo card that a hero would murder thirty or so people while “Bye Bye Bye” played over the opening credits? No, well then you clearly weren’t expecting anything Deadpool had on offer.

That is, frankly, the strength of this film: any time the plot gets weird, or convoluted, or too bogged down in exposition, Deadpool cracks a joke, the film throws in a battle, and it all distracts from what could be just another paint-by-numbers superhero film. Two heroes having to team up to take on a villain that wants to destroy the world? That’s every other superhero film in existence. Heroes from other continuities crossing over together? Spider-man: No Way Home did that a couple of years ago. On paper there’s nothing special about this film over the others that we’ve seen. But when you have Deadpool around, things always take a turn for the more interesting.

That’s not to put all the credit on Reynolds, although he is, as always, great as Deadpool. Credit also has to go to Jackman who, as a different version of Wolverine, is able to really get into this new character and find the heart and pathos for this character. This Wolverine is a down-on-his-luck hero, the last of the X-Men in his world, and he’s been living in a bottle of whiskey ever since. This film is his redemption arc, and Jackman is able to invest everything into this character, as he did with Logan, to make a real person you care about. This is the reason why Jackman’s Wolverine was beloved by fans, and the movie knows it and uses it.

For fans of the last three decades of superheroes, there’s plenty more to like in this film. I don’t want to spoil all the cameos, but I will say that this film is an absolute love letter not just to Deadpool and Wolverine but also the whole X-Men franchise up til now. This doesn’t feel like an MCU movie so much as the last Fox X-Men movie we’ll ever get, the crowning last act for that whole franchise. It’s great to return there, with many characters coming back to enjoy one last time in the spotlight. Even beyond them, we get characters from other Fox films that didn’t even cross over, plus a few extra surprise hero cameos. Everyone that might have gotten wiped away by the rise of the MCU gets a nod, and it’s great to celebrate all of these heroes coming together one last time.

Of course, that’s its greatest strength and it’s biggest weakness. You have to want to be in this universe, with all of these characters, knowing everything about this world, to truly appreciate this movie. If you don’t know the ins and outs of the X-Men films and Fox’s superhero franchise then you might be lost. If all you wanted was another MCU film, then this absolutely isn’t for you. It’s a truly hard-R superhero film, just like the previous two Deadpool movies, and it doesn’t wait for you to get the references so you can keep up. It goes and you just have to be able to keep up with it because you knew what kind of ride you were in for.

It is glorious… but it also leaves me thinking that Marvel can’t pull this trick too many more times. Avengers: Endgame is the biggest superhero film of all time because of its mega-super-ultra crossover status. It was, in essence, too big to fail and it tied up ten years of movie-making history. Spider-man: No Way Home did the same thing for the Sony SpidermanSure, DC Comics has Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, but among the most popular superheroes stands a guy from Marvel Comics, a younger hero dressed in red and blue who shoots webs and sticks to walls. Introduced in the 1960s, Spider-Man has been a constant presence in comics and more, featured in movies regularly since his big screen debut in 2002. films, with a massive, multiversal crossover that tied up their whole franchise of superhero filmmaking, and it, too, was a massive success. And now we have Deadpool & Wolverine, which is going on to be the biggest hit Marvel has had in years, and it’s doing it on the back of a massive, multiversal tale that ties up all of the Fox superhero franchise storytelling. Marvel doesn’t have many more of these tricks to pull off, and it’s telling that all of its biggest hits (even Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3) are conclusions of stories.

Is this one of the most daring and silly and fantastic superhero movies of some time? Yes. It’s great to have Deadpool back, and to see Wolverine one last time (even if Jackman hangs up the mask for good after this), and this film delivers on all of its promises. If you love these characters, and these films, Deadpool & Wolverine will not disappoint. But if you’re coming in here expecting to see how Marvel is going to reinvent itself, striking a bold new path forward, I don’t think you’re going to find that in this movie. The parts that are the least interesting are the bits tied to the MCU, while everything great comes from a franchise that is basically dead now. This film will make massive piles of cash for Marvel and Disney but it doesn’t, in any way, act as a beacon for “What’s Next”. It doesn’t want to, and it can’t.

Marvel needed a hit and they got one, big time. Deadpool & Wolverine delivers for the studio and gives fans what they want. But there’s absolutely no path forward from here for the old MCU, and until Marvel figures out what’s truly next the only thing clear is that Deadpool can continue dancing his heart out in his own little universe. That will remain watchable even as the MCU itself crumbles.