Deadpool & Wolverine

“Marvel Studios presents their most significant mistake to date – “Deadpool & Wolverine.” A listless Wade Wilson toils away in civilian life. His days as the morally flexible mercenary, Deadpool, behind him. When his homeworld faces an existential threat, Wade must reluctantly suit up again with an even more reluctantlier… reluctanter? Reluctantest? He must convince a reluctant Wolverine to… oh hell, just watch the movie. Synopses are so stupid. But heed this… Warning: Some flashing-lights scenes in this film may affect photosensitive viewers.”

It’s no shocking revelation that the MCU hasn’t been performing as well as in the past. Many of their latest films have been panned by audiences, perhaps finally reaching the breaking point of an oversaturated market of superhero films. Trying to look at the MCU as a whole from the outside perspective is almost impossible. The amount of content you need to consume in order to be caught up with a particular callback or plot device is astronomical, leaving some of the average movie-goers lost and confused. It’s an understandable trend, one that the filmmakers must figure out how to overcome without sacrificing the story they want to tell as a whole. Deadpool & Wolverine doesn’t really offer us the stand-alone film that might placate to that particular audience, but what it does do is offer fan service of the most epic type, bringing a team-up that people have waited decades for. It’s a hell of a lot of fun, and a step in the right direction in the MCU.

Not only do you need to be familiar with Fox Marvel IP, but also the Disney+ shows that introduce the TVA. There’s a lot to unpack in the story, but Deadpool assists along the way by breaking the fourth wall as usual, with some clever and funny commentary on the Fox acquisition by Disney and his introduction into the MCU.

We’ve learned that Wade has hung up his Deadpool persona in order to spend time and protect those closest to him. More than anything, he wants to help people, but comes to find out he may be doing it for the wrong reasons. When he’s finally presented an opportunity to step into that role by someone in the TVA, it means letting those he loves die in order to fulfill his dreams. Unwilling to let that happen, he enlists the aid of the iconic Wolverine, who may have problems of his own to overcome.

I won’t go into too much detail if you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t seen this yet, but for me, someone familiar with the films but not the comics, it met my expectations and then some. Ryan Reynolds and Wade Wilson blur together in a role he was born to play, with his fourth-wall commentary mentioning the lives of both Ryan and Wade, where one ends, the other begins. As much as I loved Logan and thought it was the perfect send-off for Wolverine, I’m glad Hugh Jackman decided to give it another go. The story respects the ending of Logan, with the exception of the opening montage, and we’re introduced to another version, an even more broken and troubled man, and are given everything we’ve ever wanted from a Wolverine character and more. I went into the film somehow without reading spoilers of the cameos in it, and it was an absolute blast seeing these characters, some we haven’t seen in decades, step into frame and have a fun contribution to the story and type of resolution.

While Deadpool & Wolverine is funny, certainly action-packed, and a thrilling ride for fans, the plot feels secondary to a few key sequences that the filmmakers knew the fans would want most, notably the confrontations between Deadpool and Wolverine. To me, the entire film felt like a first act, probably also due to the poorly developed antagonists. Despite this, I don’t think fans care too much after the fantastically memorable sequences in the film.

Deadpool & Wolverine is now available at Digital retailers, and will be released on 4k UHD, Blu-ray and DVD October 22^nd. We were given a digital code to review this film, but an interesting note for the upcoming 4k release, it will be the first physical 4k Disney release to finally include Dolby Vision. While they include it on their digital releases, they don’t usually include them on the physical except rare circumstances such as the release of Avatar overseen by James Cameron . I’ve been critical of Disney’s treatment of their physical releases in the past, as their audio leaves much to be desired as well at times, but this seems to be a step in the right direction and great news for fans of physical releases.