Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)

 

The snarky and violent "Deadpool and Wolverine" is entertaining but in a very specific way. It appeals to the naughty child in us, who is anxious to see all of the things that are held up as role models, taken down a peg or two. We don't want anything to be so highfalutin that we can't make a vulgar joke about it and share it with our friends and hope that they are amused by our cleverness. So congratulations Ryan Reynolds, all of your friends, me included, found your smart ass commentary and visuals to be funny. The fact that they're funny however does not mean that what you're doing is automatically good. I was entertained, and that's the goal most of the time for a movie, but I also want to be moved emotionally by what I see, and that almost never happens in this particular film.

Of course Ryan Reynolds and the filmmakers already know that this is true. The opening sequence has Deadpool behaving as if he is a necrophiliac with the remains of Wolverine from the "Logan" movie. That film had a deliberately dramatic bent to it, and it was a fitting conclusion for that part of the X-Men story. What "Deadpool and Wolverine" does, is simply pretend that that story doesn't matter, and proceed as if it's okay to engage in mocking it as part of our own self-referential style. One of the problems with these films that are set in a Multiverse, whether it is something from the quantum Realm, something from a different timeline, or some magic variant of either the two, is that the stakes seem unimportant and as such the drama is largely missing.

I would have a hard time telling you exactly what it is that the two lead characters are trying to accomplish as the task in this plot. This movie is mostly a chance for fans of comic books who love it when characters that they follow fight one another and fans can indulge themselves in exactly that. Wolverine gets resurrected from the dead, or from some other timeline, primarily so he and Deadpool can bicker with one another like a battling pair of married people, or a buddy cop movie where the partners act like they hate each other, and cover up their true feelings with false bravado. In what would be the second act of this film, we get stranded in a place that were unfamiliar with. The Void doesn't seem to follow any rules that will make it easy for us to understand how characters might manage to escape their situation, and we are returned to the presence of characters that have long been forgotten. That of course is the point of the movie, to give some of those superheroes a final act that they have been denied.

It's been so long since I saw the Blade trilogy that I'm not exactly sure why it is I should be happy about the return to the screen of the actor who embodied that part, but I was. I never saw the Electra movie, so I don't know whether this return is necessary or not. I did appreciate however, the joke that came up when Chris Evans made his appearance in the film. The direction that the moment took was one of those entertaining meta incidents, that the filmmakers clearly planned, relished, and executed so craftily. I hope it doesn't spoil it for you that I even mentioned that actor's appearance in the film.

Grotesque violence as humor is not new, in spite of what people who are seeing Deadpool might think. For example in Pulp Fiction from 30 years ago, we accidentally have a character shot in the face and disappeared for us, as criminals ineptly try to cope with the event. It works as humor because it's shocking, and it stands out against all the other things that are going on in the film. The problem in "Deadpool and Wolverine" is that this sort of violence is in every scene, and it is repeated over and over and over again. There are just so many times you can go over the top and get a laugh from doing so, otherwise it just feels like you're pressing. Which is frequently the way I felt while watching some of those scenes. The best example of it was the resolution of one of the characters who appears tangentially in the film. His demise was so quick and grotesque that it was shocking and funny at the same time, but that was not true in most of the other cases. The violence appeared to be the whole point of those sequences.

I recommend the film to people who are fans of superhero movies, and who have struggled with the DC Universe, and what has happened in the MCU. The The Fourth Wall comes down frequently, with commentary by Deadpool about the lack of planning, and coordination, around the comic book films and characters. Reynolds doesn't spare himself from the mocking, and while such self depreciating humor is easy to appreciate, it also seems a little contrived as a way around the failures of earlier films to connect with us on an emotional level.

I don't resent the success that the film has, I'm quite happy that theaters are full and movies are doing business. It's just a shame that audiences are flocking to this while ignoring movies that are probably of greater worth and certainly a lot deeper. The kind of humor that we laugh at may very well reflect our culture and in this particular case not in a very positive look. It would be nice to say that we were the culture the laughed at Jack Benny, Albert Brooks, or Woody Allen but this film suggests that what we really find funny as a culture are The Three Stooges with knives. I like The Three Stooges, but I also recognize their humor is not as complex. The fact that we are amused is good, but it will not be longer lasting and it may not be worthwhile.

Deadpool 2

Two years ago, the character of Deadpool was revived from a disastrous turn as a secondary character in a largely reviled X-Men movie. The character in that film was the mercenary named Wade Wilson, and the actor playing him was Ryan Reynolds, but in the most misbegotten script tuning imaginable, the character had his mouth removed permanently. Is there any way you can imagine Deadpool from two years ago and the one in this movie without the mouth that roars: sarcasm, cynicism non-sequesters and insults? It's enough to stage a revolt, which is apparently how Ryan Reynolds managed to wrangle the character back into his hands and become the embodiment of this non-X-men mutant.

"Deadpool" (2016) had so much going for it and it was so fresh, it was inevitable that there would be a sequel.  What is not inevitable is that it would work a second time. The original director was not attached, we've had a series of very successful "Avengers" films filling the void for the last two years, and the surprise of the filthy language, gross visualizations and overall snarkiness is going to be gone. Well never fear my friends, the people who are responsible for this property know what they are doing and they understand the treasure they have in Reynolds. They were very careful not to blow it while at the same time not trying to repeat the whole movie as a simple cash grab. Look there is nothing very deep in the film, it is not creating a universe that we will be seriously invested in, rather it is creating an alternate Marvel Universe, one that is closer to "Thor Ragnarok" than an X-Men movie.

Let me explain how this movie won me over in the very first few minutes. Anyone who has been on this site before will have discovered that I am a James Bond fan. Hell, I'm even an apologist for some of the worst 007 films. I thought I'd seen the perfect parody of the Bond signature title sequence in the comedy film "Spy Hard". It turns out I was wrong. Nothing against Weird Al, but the title sequence from "Deadpool 2" has taken every trope used in the Daniel Craig Bond films and turned them into a perfect visual parody. The song is an Adele knock off that lacks the silliness of Weird Al, but fits the CGI  heavy synchronized graphics of recent Bond films more accurately than the Leslie Nielson joke film. It was a joy to watch and it matched the brilliance of the titles from the first "Deadpool".

After the opening, we settle in for a story of redemption, hardly the thing that you would expect from this film series. Deadpool 2's time altered opening sequence, like the first film, starts us a quarter of the way into the story, then takes us back to the beginning, and climaxes with the events we saw in the opening. OK, so they copied the exact device they used in the first film, but they did make it work anyway. Along the way we are reacquainted with some of the characters from the original film, but a new timeline is introduced as well. This second set of events brings the main story  plot into focus. A futuristic soldier comes back in time to stop a series of events from his time period. Look, if you are going to rip off another story, you might as well go big and do "Terminator". Of course the movie not only acknowledges that it is doing so, it has a lot of fun along the way mocking itself for doing so.

In my review of the first "Deadpool" I suggested that it was not outright parody. I withdraw that statement. This movie is so full of pop culture references and self aware criticisms, that it is a little difficult to take any of it seriously. So don't. Instead, you should luxuriate in the mocking of all comic book movies, regardless of what Cinematic Universe they occupy. I was on a podcast recently where one of the guests suggested that the offensive language in "Midnight Run" might have been done for shock and laughs but that it does not have the same appeal to someone at forty, that it might have had for someone at fifteen.  That may be true, and if you hate the use of the F@#k bomb and the potty mouth antics of smart ass hipsters, then you will be less enamored of this movie. It has enough references to body parts, sex acts and other taboo topics, to fill a couple of Guy Richie films. It also has some great fight choreography that is acknowledged as being ridiculous while at the same time being entertaining. This movie is not just a parody, it is a paradox. It undermines it's very premises while still managing to tell a story that in the end was worth telling.

As is my policy, I have not given away any spoilers, so you are safe to read on. There are several post credit moments that will take you out of the film that you just saw and put you into several other perspectives. You should enjoy them. Along with the title sequence, the end credits serve as the rye bread to the film's sloppy Reuben sandwich. You get the spiced meat, served with sauerkraut plot points and a sweet thousand island dressing that every word from Deadpool himself represents. I don't know if it is a great movie, but I do know it was a great meal.Just sit down and eat it, don't worry about counting the calories. That would be like trying to keep track of all the people killed in the story, a distraction and nearly impossible.