‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Hints Marvel is Out of Ideas

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Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO –In “Wolverine & Deadpool” we witness the complete and utter exhaustion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This movie is like sitting next to a particularly annoying Twitter/X feed that never stops announcing its own cleverness, but whose quips aren’t nearly as funny as it thinks they are. I may be in the minority, but I’ve always found Deadpool to be a little exhausting.

If this was the movie that was supposed to set things right with the MCU, then I’m afraid Marvel Studios is in deep trouble. We begin with Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) at a snowy mountain grave of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), only to find that he did indeed die at the end of the film “Logan.” Deadpool dispatches a bunch of time cops who arrive in the scene with the metal corpse. That may sound like all kinds of awesome on paper but on screen it’s fairly predictable.

Deadpool & Wolverine
Photo credit: Walt Disney Studios/Marvel Studios

This time Deadpool is encounters a rogue middle manager (Matthew Macfayden) of the Time Variance Authority, who decides that Deadpool’s timeline has outlived its usefulness and could use some pruning. I personally enjoy the TVA, even if the multiverse has been done to death. Wolverine and Deadpool treats its rich world and quirks as little more than retro window dressing.

So Deadpool hops timelines looking for another Wolverine to save his world. This is only the first of the film’s steady lineup of stunt cameos and in jokes. He finally finds a drunk and washed up Wolverine drinking his troubles away in a seedy bar and brings him back to his timeline to help him save the world.

But they each get captured and sent to rubbish bin of history called “The Void,” where discarded pieces of the MCU must serve a form of purgatory. It also where we encounter a twin sister named Cassandra (Emma Corrin) of Charles Xavier from the X-Men who seeks to rule all time and space.

The film sets the tone which takes breaking the fourth wall and winking at the audience to an unhealthy extreme. I know better than to expect to care about anything or anyone in a Deadpool movie … everything is is just fodder to laugh at. But the incessant commentary here constantly takes us out of the action.

Deadpool Dog: Ryan Reynolds & Hugh Jackman as the Title Characters
Photo credit: Walt Disney Studios/Marvel Studios

For example, there are quick references that pats the pop culture enthusiasts on the back for getting the jokes about Disney Studios buying 20th Century Fox, the MCU, Wolverine and even improbably Hugh Jackman’s real life divorce. I wanted some kind of story to hang these long lineup of self referential gags, but there is nothing. So it’s just one quip after another which turns into a real chore to sit through.

“Wolverine & Deadpool” has elements that could work. But the final product is less than the sum of its parts. The characters of Wolverine and Deadpool are both best experienced in small doses, and the film itself is a smorgasbord of snark that only makes you sick afterwards.

By SPIKE WALTERS Contributor HollywoodChicago.com spike@hollywoodchicago.com