As much I’ve enjoyed watching the evolution of Hugh Jackman’s Logan/Wolverine through nine performances dating back to 2000, I thought the gritty and emotionally resonant “Logan” (2017) was the perfect finale for the character. Logan’s death was one of the most memorable exits in modern superhero movie history and seemingly left no room for him to return — unless it would be in a prequel, or via some sort of multiverse gimmick.
Which brings to “Deadpool & Wolverine,” and as you might have guessed from that title and the most pervasive marketing campaign since “Barbie” painted the summer of 2023 in wall-to-wall shades of pink, the man with the surly attitude, the rapid regeneration powers, the facial hair of a Civil War re-enactment buff and retractable cutlery so impressive his catchphrase should be “Yes, chef!” is back.
With director Shawn Levy (the “Night at the Museum” movies, “Free Guy”) throwing so much at us that it feels as if the movie is in 3-D even though it’s not, and more Easter Eggs than you’d find on the White House lawn on a Monday in April, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is a blood-spattered joke-fest with robust, star-power performances by Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, and so many surprise cameos and wink-at-the-camera routines that they almost forgot to make a movie. The paper-thin story has a putatively complex, Time Variance Authority foundation, but it’s really just the usual plot about the obligatory Megalomaniacal Villain With a Tragic Back Story who wants to destroy every part of the universe except their own little dark corner, just so they can cackle madly and rule over the vast wasteland of existence. While wearing a cool costume, of course.
In this day and age, it’s something of a pop culture miracle that Marvel and Walt Disney Studios have managed to keep the great majority of the spoilers, well, unspoiled, and we’re going to tread extra lightly from here on out, as virtually every scene in “Deadpool & Wolverine” contains at least one element designed to get the hardcore fans geeking right out of their seats. (The more you know of this universe, including the comic books, the more you’ll get out of the movie, but even the most casual fans will be able to follow the core storylines with ease. This ain’t “Oppenheimer” or even “Iron Man.”)
With foul-mouthed humor that leans heavily into jokes about oral sex and male sexual tumescence and slice-and-dice violence that also regularly aims for the crotch, “D&W” easily earns its R rating by the opening title sequence and continues down that dark path, often accompanied by the expected needle drops of pop songs. (Highlights include Reynolds as Deadpool expertly mimicking *NSYNC’s dance moves as he slaughters dozens of henchmen to the sounds of “Bye Bye Bye,” a couple of tunes from movie musicals and the late Eric Carmen’s “Make Me Lose Control.”)
Through circumstances we’ll leave for you to discover, Wade Wilson/Deadpool has retired from the superhero business and is living a quiet, suffocatingly dull life, while Jackman’s Wolverine is also playing out the string — crawling into a bottle but finding no escape from the heavy guilt plaguing his every waking moment. When an opportunity for redemption presents itself, “Deadpool & Wolverine” becomes a bombastic buddy-cop movie, with the motor-mouthed Deadpool breaking the fourth wall and offering non-stop commentary on the movie, and the growling Wolverine wanting nothing more than to shut this guy up, and yes, they tangle in spectacularly bloody fashion more than once.
The electrically talented Emma Corrin (who portrayed Diana in the fourth season of “The Crown”) makes for an intriguing albeit somewhat stereotypical villain as the telekinetic mutant Cassandra Nova, the twin sister of Dr. Charles Xavier, who presides over a vast wasteland with distinct “Mad Max” overtones and has the ability to literally reach into your head and wiggle her fingers around as she plays the ultimate mind games. It’s up to Deadpool and Wolverine to stop Cassandra Nova before she destroys everything and everybody, if only they can learn to stop with the bickering and the beatings of one another and team up!
I’m not sure there’s ever been a film with more callbacks, more surprise cameos, more inside-showbiz references — even a couple of jokes about the personal lives of certain participants. It’s all great fun, and it’s just enough to overcome the uninspired direction, mid-level special effects and hit-and-miss humor. Reynolds of course is a master at playing the rapier-wit anti-hero, and Jackman goes all-in with the return of his iconic character, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the universe if Deadpool joined Wolverine in retirement after this adventure. They’ve pretty much done and said it all.