Deadpool & Wolverine Blu-ray Review
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, October 20, 2024
Reactions to
Deadpool & Wolverine have been perhaps surprisingly wide ranging, at least judging by the completely nonscientific method of
hearing from friends who saw it during its theatrical run and, no matter what they may have ultimately thought about the film, helped propel its box
office receipts to stratospheric heights (as this review is being
written, the film is highest grossing R rated outing in history). The mere fact that
Deadpool & Wolverine raked in such untold amounts of
cash might indicate
de facto that the film was "successful", but there have still been a number of naysayers, or at least less than
enthusiastic respondents to the film's unabashedly chaotic, joke a minute (second?) ambience. There are two "pro tips" this particular reviewer might
offer in terms of, well, (character name pun incoming) wading through the cartwheeling morass of this film: first, take a
deep breath before
pressing play, and; second, have the pause button on your remote handy, since both banter and some actual presentational moments may require a
quick "instant replay" in order to catch everything that's zinging by the viewer (and listener) at virtual light speed.
Poor Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds). Not only is he both physically and emotionally scarred courtesy of all the
mishegoss (technical term)
he
encountered in
Deadpool and
Deadpool 2, even ostensible opportunities offered by the increasingly labyrinthine
"multiverses" in Marvel's ever expanding cinematic (and television) productions don't present much other than
more disappointment.
Consigned to being a used car salesman, what's a hapless former kinda sorta superhero to do? That quandary actually takes a few minutes to be
revealed, as in expected fashion,
Deadpool & Wolverine opens with a veritable onslaught of "meta" material, with Deadpool (and/or
Reynolds, not that it really makes much difference) breaking whatever rubble is left of the veritable fourth wall, and riffing on everything from
Disney's takeover of the erstwhile 20th Century Fox to the seemingly unsolvable problem of how to integrate the character of Wolverine (Hugh
Jackman) into the film, since that character is, to paraphrase
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, actually
quite dead.
While the writing is more than clear enough that no one should be overly confused, it turns out that one arguably fairly obscure reference (at least
to those who don't have Disney+) turns out to be a major plot point. For those either unacquainted or uninterested in
Loki: The Complete First Season, that show's TVA, which most
definitely has
nothing to do with the Tennessee Valley, is back, as are certain concepts like "the sacred timeline". That's how that, um,
maybe
not dead
everywhere Logan is able to be resurrected or at least repurposed, as Deadpool is supposedly recruited by the
Time Variance Authority to be what he's always wanted to be, namely a hero, though it turns out in this case because Deadpool's version of Earth is
about to be eradicated.
That's because what might be thought of that Earth's "anchor tenant", Logan, has died. And so Deadpool of
course heads off to any number of alternate universes to try to find
another Wolverine to bring back to his Earth to make everything
right.
Got that? Please refer to the above comment about pause buttons on remotes, but, joking aside, the actual clarity of the screenplay is almost
surprising considering how far fetched and "technical" it tries to be. But the plot is almost irrelevant in a way (which may either be a good or a bad
thing, depending on your point of view), since the film is a nonstop smackdown not just of characters in the frame, but in a very real way, of the
audience. Okay, so we have Deadpool from this Earth working with (after two acts of internecine "warfare") a Wolverine from
another Earth, with both a smarmy TVA middle manager named Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) and Charles Xavier's bat
guano
crazy twin sister Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) as nemeses (actually working at cross purposes rather than with each other). So what does the
film do? Take off on one flight of fancy after another, dashing through an often hilarious array of "Marvel cameos" (including a scene stealing turn
by Chris Evans in both the film and its expected sting in a brief post credits coda), as well as all of the above mentioned "meta" references, which
will keep even any longtime Marvel fan poring over both past issues and past adaptations to figure out.
Deadpool & Wolverine has the good sense to almost
never take itself seriously, though it perhaps flirts with actual human
emotion a couple of times, at least until one of Deadpool's patented potty mouthed asides enters the fray. This can admittedly be an exhausting
viewing experience, but it is also consistently smart and often
very funny.
Deadpool & Wolverine Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
Part of the unceasing "meta" approach this film utilizes jokes about Disney offering a foul mouthed R rated production like this one, and there's kind of
a slightly comical subtext for long time Disney fans attending this line of humor: if the studio is now "tolerant" of incessant F bombs and other verbal
naughtiness, not to mention unbridled carnage offering what might be called Jackson Pollock arrays of blood spray, how can Disney
still be
sitting on material like
Song of the South, refusing to offer it to at least
home theater buffs? All of that aside, how you react to this film may be augured by how you respond to Ryan Reynolds' cell phone commercials. If you
think they're endearingly quirky, you'll probably love this film. If they annoy the living you know what out of you,
that will probably be how
you feel about
Deadpool & Wolverine. I found
Deadpool & Wolverine to be, yes, exhausting, but also hugely enjoyable. Technical
merits are first rate and the supplements a lot of fun.
Recommended.