Deadpool & Wolverine

No spoilers here, but if you do want to go in completely blind to Deadpool & Wolverine I would stop reading now.

Still here? Ok, how do we even start with this one?

It’s equally easy to either be cynical about this endeavour or completely fanboy all over it and treading the line between these two extremes is key.

Make no mistake, this is a film for the fans and finally aligns these two iconic characters, brings them to Marvel Studios and effectively into the MCU, and also serves as a loving tribute to the Fox series of X-Men films.

It’s also clearly an attempt by Marvel to put some bums in seats and smiles on faces of a public who have seemingly begun to turn away from superhero stories in general and convince them that the franchise has a broader future for everyone and not just the hardcore.

So an absolutely MacGuffin filled, nonsensical and arguably canon-breaking and frustrating plot is brought forward to bring Deadpool into the TVA and bring a variant Wolverine into the story whilst still keeping the ending of Logan intact (well, until Deadpool gets his hands on it – I’ll say no more.)

It’s so meta and fourth wall breaking that there will be those who’ll argue that the silliness of the convoluted plot is actually the whole point and some sort of winking joke on the genre as a whole.

I’m not sure though, I think there has to have been a sleeker and more efficient way of matching the universes and, like the previous Deadpool films, the plot is the weakest element.

It’s also, like the previous films, nowhere near the point of the movie. You’re here for the jokes, the commentary, the violence, the fun and the ‘did-he-really-say-that?’ real world nods to Hugh Jackman’s career and personal life, Disney’s reputation and the general state of Marvel.

It’s here that this delivers in spades with uproarious comic relief, brilliant jokes and some absolutely incendiary, A-star cameos that you won’t believe. Like No Way Home before it, it should cause plenty of gasps in the audience.

Will this all hold up on future watches or for future instalments? Has Ryan Reynolds’ schtick been taken too far and is Deadpool as a character just slightly annoying at this point? Did the Fox films even need another send off after the masterpiece that was Logan? It’s fair to say these are gripes that some will have.

What cannot be denied are the poignant moments that both Reynolds and Jackman share here. When Reynolds goes serious, you can tell just how much this means to him and Jackman is nothing short of a revelation. We know and love him as this character but he has some incredible moments here when he does finally get the mic’. Playing an even more surly and sullen Logan (if that’s possible) he is the throbbing heart of the film from the get go.

Is it actually a good movie? That’s surprisingly hard to say to be honest. It is uproarious fun and it’s lovely to see the MCU just revel in its toybox for a moment and enjoy putting these characters on screen.

It’s also nice that this doesn’t try to shoehorn too much in and does leave some possibilities open for the future. Make no mistake, this is a misty-eyed look back rather than a look forward and that is very much to its credit.

Sometimes you just have to enjoy a film for what it is and when something is this fun, so clearly made to entertain, well put together and when everyone is having such a good time you can’t help but smile.

Haters be damned, for two hours the MCU is at its cinema-packing, crowd pleasing almost-best. Let’s f**king go.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️