Deadpool & Wolverine: Overhyped?

The highly anticipated Deadpool & Wolverine movie is out now! David Ho gives his review on the latest Marvel cinematic offering

There has been a superhero fatigue that has set in after the steady treadmill of Marvel movies for almost two decades, dating back to Iron Man in 2008. In more recent times, we’ve had up to four films released in a year. That’s a lot of comic book content churned out for the silver screen from one company alone.

At the moment, we are right smack in the middle of Phase Five of the Marvel cinematic universe. The last few films of this phase – The Marvels, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – have not been met with the same heated enthusiasm as previous offerings.

But just a couple of months ago, Disney CEO Bob Iger talked about the entertainment conglomerate’s goal to dial down on the rush of Marvel releases. So enter Deadpool & Wolverine, the only Marvel movie we are getting in 2024.

D&W plays like a buddy cop film. It works well enough in that capacity, gliding along on the charms of the movie’s two lead actors. Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool bounces off on Hugh Jackman’s gruff Wolverine(s) with great comedic timing and sass. Jackman’s return to the character (and in a classic comic accurate costume!) is reason enough to get excited for the film after Wolverine’s death in 2017’s Logan, which is immediately referenced in the opening.

It is also buoyed by cameos aplenty (mild spoiler alert). We see a good mix of returning superheroes, even those from films going decades back, like Jennifer Garner’s Elektra, Wesley Snipes’ Blade, Dafne Keen’s X-23, and even Chris Evans back in his first comic-based role as the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four. The film continues its nod to long time superhero film lovers with some fan castings made real, with Channing Tatum playing Gambit and even Henry Cavill as a Wolverine variant. It’s almost like a Reddit thread come to life.

But once the dust settles, it’s easy to see how much the film is actually propelled by the excitement of seeing beloved actors returning to familiar roles on the screen. The paper thin plot draws once again on the multiverse concept, with Reynold’s Deadpool aiming to do something meaningful with his life and finally getting a chance to do so when told his particular timeline is ending within the multiverse. The antagonists we get are fairly one dimensional and take backseat to the titular duo’s semi-homoerotic dynamic.

The lack of wit in the actual jokes and fight scenes dims the rewatch value of this film. The action sequences trade witty choreography in favour of copious amounts of gore. While getting bloody has always been a signature of Deadpool, it feel hollow when not supported by fights that never go further than endless stabbing and throwing stunt actors around.

The drab locations – which include a forest, the inside of a car, a Mad Max-esque wasteland world – also doesn’t make for compelling battlegrounds. The best of these settings is the car and the rest just don’t lend themselves as places where clever and dynamic battles can be choreographed. The way a couple of key fight scenes are ended with either a jokey diversion or a classic ‘the power of friendship’ tactic also feels unsatisfying.

We get a lot of pop culture references thrown in, most notably the use of music from Nsync and Madonna. The well documented studio dramas (namely the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company) and personal lives of the star-studded cast are also thrown in as jokes with the usual wink wink nudge nudge and breaking of the fourth wall. But most of these jokes seem arbitrary. It doesn’t bode well for how this film will age or cater to those that don’t grasp the references.

Much like 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, the movie acts as a love letter to superhero fans and a way to tie up the multitude of movie incarnations thanks to studio shuffling. We definitely get hit in the feels during the ends credits scene when they play B-roll from previous films, and we see a then unknown Jackman goofing around and talking about playing Wolverine on the first X-Men movie 24 years ago.

Superhero movies have come a long way, at least long enough for them to be able to cash in on nostalgia like they do with D&W. This makes for low hanging fruit that Reynolds and co grab on to for an easy hit. The fact that the Marvel train is slowing down and we are in a pretty dire season for new films helps this project, which might otherwise be quickly forgotten.

Verdict: Watch this if you are a Marvel and/or pop culture fan. The film is busy enough and packs enough star power to keep your attention, but it’s not going to stand out as a notable work in the Marvel oeuvre without the name checking.

Images by Disney unless stated otherwise

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