Deadpool and Wolverine: The Start of Something New?

I'm going to be completely transparent with this article, so let it be stated for the record that I did not take a liking to the first Deadpool movie. At the time I watched it, I was a freshman in college and struggling as hard as I could to beat a roughly decade-long porn addiction that I hated with every fiber of my being, so a lot of the surprisingly strong sexual content in the first film really rubbed me the wrong way. However, as of today, I'm nine months and some change a free man, unchained from the confines of addiction, but amidst the hail of spiritual, emotional, and physical bullets that my war with my habits was, I never really carved out the time to see the second movie focusing on the infamous Merc with a Mouth. Why would I? All that said, I had mixed feelings when I saw that Marvel was making a third Deadpool movie starring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine alongside Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. I didn't know if I would go see it, but once initial MPAA reviews came out for the film, I must say that for all of its inglorious and raunchy tendencies (as well as being an MCU flick), it did look somewhat tamer than the first film and also seemed to finally acknowledge some of Marvel's less-desirable tendencies as a franchise, so I went to see it with a friend, who preferred it over Twisters, which I had been planning to go see. And you know what? While "Deadpool and Wolverine" is far from perfect, I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time in a Marvel movie: genuine anticipation for what's going to come next. I'm going tomorrow to watch it again with another friend, and while that's more about honor and keeping a promise than it is about re-watching Deadpool and Wolverine, I still have a lot of good things to say about this movie in regards to the direction it seems to be taking the now-infamous MCU. Don't screw it up, Feige.

Oh, and I don't know if I'm going to get to Twisters this weekend as I had expected to, but I will put out a review for that film as soon as I get the chance to see it. I also have three more A24 articles coming, so I haven't forgotten my marathon either.

Deadpool and Wolverine is a continuation of Deadpool's character arc from the second film. After asking to join the Avengers (and getting turned down), Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool, becomes a used car salesman until the Time Variance Authority (that organization from Loki) comes knocking, informing Wade that his timeline is deteriorating. Oh, and Wolverine shows up later too, but if I were to summarize that far into the story, I'd be throwing out spoilers, and I don't want to do that.

So, the first thing I like about this movie is that it breaks a bad habit that the MCU has stuck to for too long: forcing unfunny humor for the sake of having jokes in movies that would have benefited from going with a more serious tone. To say it without mincing words, the MCU isn't funny anymore, it never really was, and it never really should have tried to be. And worse, it seems to think it is funny when it's just simply not. However, if you have any concerns that the third Deadpool entry has lost its touch with the humor that defined the first two films due to its incorporation into the MCU, I can assure you that this is not the case because Deadpool and Wolverine is a genuinely funny and uproariously inglorious movie that seems to be relatively unencumbered by a studio trying to make it too much like other Marvel entries. Gone is the stale humor that has for too long defined the MCU, replaced with the trademark wisecracking and expected hilarity that comes with a Deadpool entry. The Merc with a Mouth is still very much his unapologetically R-rated and standup-comedian-esque self, and I have to applaud Marvel for not trying to make this movie too kid-friendly when it was never meant to be. For all of its flaws, and believe me, this movie has them, Deadpool and Wolverine sticks to its guns. It sticks to what it knows makes it special, and because it does that, it actually is kind of a special movie. I can't believe that I'm saying this about a feature-length, stand-alone MCU project post-2010, but it felt like it genuinely had something of a sense of vision, and I really am happy that I went to see this movie.

As far as the characterization of Deadpool and Wolverine goes, it's expectedly strong. I kind of knew it would be after seeing how Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds bounced off of each other in the promotional material for this movie. It's obvious that they both enjoyed making this movie, and that was something really special to see. Both actors are a joy to watch in their roles, and even if the actual plot and narrative flow of the movie don't quite match their energy, that may only be because these two have given us the most engaging performances in an MCU film in a long time, if not ever. I would have been completely happy watching two hours and seven minutes of these two sitting in a bar, drinking, fighting, insulting each other, and murdering anyone who walked in the door because their opposing and conflicting personalities perfectly complement each other, and it was a joy watching Wolverine get gradually more and more worked up and ticked off by Deadpool's wisecracking until it inevitably led to another violent brawl between two superheroes who can't kill each other, but still fight like two siblings in a minivan on a cross-country road trip (and yes, this movie does feature a minivan, if you're wondering).

As far as the actual plot of the film goes, this is the one area of the film that could have used some serious work. The film meanders meaninglessly for maybe twenty to thirty minutes before delivering the much-needed exposition that would have kicked our story off, and even after the exposition has arrived, this movie seems more concerned with its characters than it is with crafting an effective narrative flow, and it introduces a lot of McGuffins and characters that will make the audience cheer rather than occurrences that would have pushed the plot forward in a meaningful way. A good movie is always trying to end itself after establishing its stakes, but I couldn't help but shake the feeling that Deadpool and Wolverine was more interested in giving the fans what they wanted than it was in trying to tell a truly meaningful story or bring it to a close. I think the best thing I can compare this movie to is The Mandalorian. It's fan service. It might be good fan service, but it's still fan service, nonetheless. And that's not a bad thing, but if this story arc that Deadpool and Wolverine is trying to set up goes the same route that Star Wars did, it will become a bad thing eventually. And all of that said, I think I do need to set the proper expectations for this movie: Deadpool and Wolverine feels less like its own movie, and more like the start of something bigger than itself. And even though it wasn't perfect, I wasn't expecting it to be, and I have to say that if Feige and his crew can stick with a lot of the good habits they've laid down with their latest entry, Marvel might be back on its feet.

Now, as a closing note, even though I did genuinely enjoy this movie, I do need to tell you that Deadpool's incorporation into the MCU has not necessarily made him that much more kid-friendly. This movie certainly earns its middle-of-the-road R-rating, even if it did lose the explicit sex scenes that were in the first film. Imagine it as Guardians of the Galaxy, but every 15 seconds, the characters say maybe 5 swear words and make an explicit, sexually charged joke (and yes, this is the first MCU movie to feature the usage of the infamous "c*nt"). And I get that this is just how Deadpool is, but it's not how I am, and the surprisingly profane and perverse tendencies of the movie make this a film I can't recommend to anyone, especially not to younger MCU fans. And maybe that's just because I've come to expect relatively family-friendly outings from Marvel, but I'm not saying that to discredit the explicit content in this film, because it's there, it's pervasive, and while Deadpool and Wolverine is totally something I would watch again (unlike the first movie), it is probably something a lot of families wouldn't care to watch at all. So just be aware that this movie has set a precedent: MCU inclusion no longer equals kid-friendliness. However, it may equal increased originality, and I hope that this movie can be a valuable learning experience for Marvel, explicit content and all, because maybe in the future, we'll get a more family-friendly and original outing from Marvel that I can easily recommend to what I can only presume was this particular movie's target audience.

Deadpool and Wolverine - 6/10

Ephesians 5:3-4