Movie theaters, and viewers, have been holding out on a savior. Very little has clicked with audiences this summer, with family fare sequels and the occasion horror flick being glimmers of hope. That was until a certain superhero graced our screens and deemed himself to be our Jesus. That person I am speaking of is Ryan Reynolds. His Deadpool serves as a counterpoint to the usual gifted people in capes we normally see. But when he is co-opted, it comes as a bit of a mixed bag.
To sum up the plot of Deadpool and Wolverine would impossible without taking up all the space on this page, but let’s try. A shadowy organization recruits Deadpool to join their forces and save humanity. In the process he learns that his universe will be destroyed and everyone he cares about, unless he recruits his own savior: Hugh Jackman. I know that he is playing Wolverine but the agency Deadpool is joining here isn’t the TVA, it’s Marvel. And humanity here is the stockholders.
The home of heroes hasn’t been doing too well in recent memory from the theatrical releases to their streaming content. When they came back during the pandemic, everything seemed fine, although I will never forgive them for how they mucked up Wandavision (arguably their best show). However, one bad move after another, they find themselves here.
Deadpool has always been its own thing outside of the Marvel universe, even in the comics. It is hard to imagine where the MCU can shoehorn anything from this film and retain what was quintessentially itself. The trailer to the new Captain America before this film started spoke volumes; how can something so earnest sit along something so droll. Never has anything seemed so oil and water.
There is so much snark and irony infused in Reynolds’s performance that it feels like the ultimate piece of 90s nostalgia, all too cool for school attitude. That post-modern hyperactivity so ingrained in the character, he couldn’t have been created at any time in history except the last decade of the 20th century. But Ryan wants you so desperately to love him, which is sad to watch.
In many ways Deadpool is just as grating to me as Ferris Bueller; complete with all-knowing snark and casual asides to the audience. Only here, we don’t even have a Cameron we can feel sorry for. As much as the script would like us to side with Wolverine at his loss and his hand in it, we are never given any direct reference to it. His backstory is as much a MacGuffin as the Time Ripper in the climax. In a fight sequence within a car where we should be hanging on our every breath at the outcome, the rub is these characters are regenerators. Each impending blow has the impact of a paper cut; so this is just a humorous detour to pad the runtime. The only person who knew the assignment, besides our fearless leader, is Emma Corrin in a late attempt to rope in an antagonist. She knew what silliness this was and all I can say is money well spent.
I am sure there are readers screaming at their paper right now about how I need to turn my brain off and enjoy the movie. To those people I say, how can you do that? There are too many meta humor and in-jokes to just shut my synapses down without melting my head down to a pulp from all the eye rolling I was doing, cue the Tony Stark meme. All said, it was a fun ride while it lasted but has no staying power beyond the first go-around. Sorry Marvel, I think your days may be numbered. Or at least we will see.
