Deadpool movies might as well begin with a fun qualifier for audiences: This isn’t a typical superhero movie; in fact, all genres and tropes are ripe for mocking by this foul-mouthed mercenary hero.
In the first “Deadpool,” in the midst of a fight that includes decapitation and maiming, Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool says, “I may be super, but I am no hero. And yeah, technically this is a murder. But some of the best love stories start with a murder. And that’s exactly what this is: a love story.” In the sequel, Deadpool says, “Believe it or not, ‘Deadpool 2’ is a family film. True story,” as he creatively murders a whole warehouse of Russian criminals. Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” plays in the background.
We’ve got a violent superhero movie that’s also a low-key sendup of tender rom-coms, then another violent superhero movie that pokes fun at the loving family film. So what’s “Deadpool & Wolverine”? Nothing as exciting — just another formulaic Marvel Cinematic Universe movie with a saucier rating.
This third installment of the Deadpool franchise fails to deliver on that same knowing play with genre. The jokes are mostly about leaning heavily into the rules and standards of the superhero genre as orchestrated by Marvel — a bad omen for the Deadpool brand, formerly of 20th Century Fox before Disney acquired it in 2019.
The new movie picks up a thread from the previous one when Deadpool uses a time-travel device to save the love of his life, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). It’s a blatant deus ex machina, and the film casually undercuts its own emotional arc in order to make meta jokes about whether time travel could have changed the trajectory of Reynolds’s career.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” seems to have forgotten its own joke about the earnest use of cheap plot devices like that — it dives headfirst into the commercial wholesomeness, overextended plotlines and shameless fan service that have come to define the majority of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the last few years. In the latest film, Wolverine’s back from the dead (see the end of “Logan” to catch up), thanks to the multiverse, and he and Deadpool team up to keep Deadpool’s timeline from being decimated by the Time Variance Authority (see “Loki” to catch up).
That premise jumps universes and timelines in an unabashed attempt to usher the newbies, a.k.a. the characters owned by 20th Century Fox, like Deadpool and Wolverine, into the same universe where Earth’s mightiest heroes are doing the whole costume-and-cape bit. In other words, we’re watching a business merger cosplaying as entertainment.
That isn’t to say “Deadpool & Wolverine” is unwatchable; many of the raunchy jokes still land, and the pair have great chemistry to go along with their vivacious fight scenes. But what made the first two “Deadpool” movies so refreshing was that they positioned themselves as the antithesis of Marvel and DC films. They were naughty, of course, with swear words and gore, but also playful and clever as they satirized the genre. Deadpool was struggling to figure out what his version of heroism looked like, a vision that was often at odds with moralistic, PG-13 heroism.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” feels less daring, less original. And, most disappointing, it feels less like Deadpool. The film is more of an extended episode of the Disney+ series “Loki,” with spicy Deadpool flavor.
There are also many more superhero cameos this go-round, meaning more fan service than in the previous two “Deadpool” installments, where the recurring joke was that the studio couldn’t afford (or didn’t have the rights to) characters beyond two or three X-Men. The Marvel tie-in, starting with the reintroduction of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, opened the floodgates. Jennifer Garner appears as Elektra, Wesley Snipes as Blade, Channing Tatum as Gambit, and — you get the point. Only Chris Evans’s appearance — not as Captain America but as Johnny Storm from the generally ignored “Fantastic Four” (2005) — hints that the movie is in on the joke.
Even Deadpool’s character development in this chapter — his aimlessness after being rejected by the Avengers, the challenges in his relationship with Vanessa — is sweetened with dollops of sentimentality that feel more Disney than Deadpool. Jokes about whether the multiverse is passé — in the thick of a scene about the multiverse — are another weak attempt by the movie to have its superhero cake and eat it, too.
There was always a ceiling to the amount of self-effacing hero mockery that the Deadpool films could pull off; for all their self-aware writing, the plots still served a superhero movie formula. The films were never meant to be totally subversive. But Deadpool’s hero mockery was more effective because of all the ways his vulgarity, violence and selfishness were proportional to the actual heroism. Disney, and its Marvel universe, used to be a punchline. Deadpool was, in many ways, an exception.
It’s a whole different story in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” in which Deadpool wonders if he’s the Marvel messiah, breathing fresh life into the cinematic universe. But he’s no harbinger of change. Now he’s just another product on the Marvel assembly line.
Read More: Disney Comes for ‘Deadpool’
