Rating – ***1/2 (3.5/5)
Oh thank you Deadpool & Wolverine for breathing life back into the superhero universe – something that was desperately needed now, more than ever. The world of superheroes has been on ventilator fighting to survive and then comes the third installment of Deadpool – who manages to coax Wolverine to join him for one helluva ride.
In case you didn’t know, Deadpool & Wolverine are now a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) courtesy the acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Disney – something which has a truckload of jokes directed at it, and to their credit – hilarious ones too.
And that’s what mainly Deadpool & Wolverine is all about. Jokes, jokes and more jokes. To have a film that constantly takes digs at the real-life occurrences ranging from Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) breaking the fictional world and referring the real world is so much fun.
Be it Reynolds saying ‘Human body has 206 bones, 207 if you’re watching Gossip Girl’ (thus referring to his wife), even joking about Hugh Jackman’s (Wolverine) real-life divorce to tons and tons of references about Marvel films and the problems they have been facing, new entrants, former exits, and jabs galore.
Apart from the fun and jokes, Deadpool & Wolverine does feel like a slog as there is potentially no meaty story to be invested in. You see a formidable build-up to the villain in the form of Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova but a recurring problem of having yet another underwhelming villain continues with this one as well.
One or two half-decent scenes is all that Cassandra gets and that’s it. They really need to fix this, period.
However, director Shawn Levy is certain to never let the giddiness, goofiness, sarcasm and wit take a backseat even at the cost of a story.
To have Deadpool say that this multiverses madness is so confusing couldn’t hold more true as the jumping of universes continues to be a double-edged sword which never entirely hooks you on to proceedings and leaving you with more questions than answers but still opens up umpteen possibilities.
The one thing that cannot be denied by any means that this is the most fun an MCU film has been in the past three to four years (except Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) thus making up for a jostling bash of nostalgia, laughter and some cockiness as well.
The action, surprisingly is rather minimal but even with that Levy exhibits his technical prowess. The fight sequence of Deadpool and Wolverine with the hundreds of Deadpools is meticulously performed as a single moving take – with ample fun and gore.
This is the kind of farewell to the X-Men world which might or might not satisfy you because instead of having a heartfelt and deep goodbye, it focuses on cacophonic madness with references taking over raw emotions. To their defense, as the end credits rolled, you do see some lovely BTS bloopers of Jackman and all the people who were associated with the X-Men world where they were just having a lot of fun filled with candor. That might have you drop a tear or two.
The post credits scene isn’t worth to be sticking around for but you should, as it is funny. I can foresee many out there having a rather polarising take on this film but given the fact that we were dealing with a potentially dead MCU streak, the big guns who are now officially in this universe announced a triumphant entrance and just made sure that this universe will rise from the ashes.
Deadpool really wants to be an avenger, we cannot wait to see him meet the avengers in one way or another.
