'Deadpool & Wolverine' Review: Maximum Effort, Minimal Payoff

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman go maximalist for this spotty, though fun, actioner

Nostalgia is king currently. Chalk it up to the massive uncertainty in the world or the last four years of COVID, but as an audience we’ve collectively decided we want to spend our theater time — and our dollars — revisiting what we once loved. And Deadpool & Wolverine is certainly ready to scratch that nostalgic itch, with adamantium claws, no less. The trouble is Deadpool and the gang are officially Marvel characters, and we’re not talking about the Marvel of even 10 years ago. We’re talking the Marvel of the last three, and that’s not exactly a high-water mark.

Deadpool & Wolverine suffers from the same problems that have plagued all the Phase Four/Five Marvel films, from Thor: Love and Thunder to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels. There’s a ton of stuff in the movie — people getting ripped apart, things flying through the frame and characters, characters, characters — as well as a ton of exposition. But nothing feels like a cogent plot but more a means of getting Deadpool and Wolverine from Plot Point A to Plot Point C. The results are a mixed bag of occasionally funny one-liners and characters you forgot you probably complained about online in the 2000s, but it’s hard to muster up more excitement for this iteration of Deadpool or Wolverine.

We meet Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) as he’s attempts to find something passing for meaning in his life. He’s refused acceptance into the Avengers and spends his days selling pre-owned certified vehicles (and bitching about Hondas). When the Time Variance Authority (TVA) comes knocking at his door Wade is tasked with helping them locate Logan, aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). The two must team up to stop a big bad, expose some form of government corruption, and enjoy an awesome soundtrack.

That plot synopsis says it all because the script — credited to Shawn Levy, Rhett Reese, Ryan Reynolds, Zeb Wells and Paul Wernick — feels like everyone sat down to throw out ideas and then just smushed them onto the page. We meet Deadpool as he’s literally digging up Logan’s grave, one of several plays on the joke about them beating a dead horse with this movie. We then get the whole “I bet you’re wondering how I got here” pivot to Wade begging Happy Hogan (Jon Faverau) for a job before another time jump to Wade living an incredibly boring life. A required shot of Deadpool’s friends — whom you won’t see again till the finale because why would you — illustrates that Wade’s world is small, but he has love in his life.

It’s weird to have Wade continuously talk about how he has people he loves, but we never see any real interactions with them. Outside of Rob Delaney’s Peter — who singelhandedly steals every scene he’s in — everyone else, including Leslie Uggams’ Blind Al, are in a stray scene or two. The first two features were all about Wade’s love of Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and his connection to community, but for the most part Deadpool and Wolverine sees him and Logan discuss their need for people without having any real connection to them. An extended sequence in a place called the Void sees the pair reunite with forgotten comic book movie stars of the early 2000s, but even then there’s no sense of them being a true team. They meet, they form a plan and execute it all in a scene.

Things feel decided on by committee and strung together with little means of true propulsion. When this movie was being filmed Marvel was still committed to interconnecting their Disney+ shows with their features. Now, with Phase 5 yielded more misses than hits, they’re committed to moving away from that. Unfortunately, this film still has that mentality. So if you didn’t watch Loki the idea of the TVA and Matthew Macfadyen’s villainous paper pusher Mr. Paradox will just look like a weakling character going on a power trip. Not to be confused with Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), another villainous character on a power trip, this time with connections to the X-Men.

Macfadyen’s character kickstarts things with a bizarre plan that isn’t fully articulated. What’s his end goal? Who knows. Either way he’s quickly abandoned for Corrin's Cassandra, another soft-spoken female baddie who’s issues are chalked up to “people like my brother more.” Corrin is certainly having fun, but she’s got one character trait: Evil. And little else.

The majority of Deadpool and Wolverine’s two-hour runtime is filled with the titled characters being annoyed with each other and going on extended rampages together. Think of it like Midnight Run with far more blood and claws. Reynolds and Jackman have witty repartee, but there feels like a divide between the two. Part of that is the fact that Reynolds spends so much time in Deadpool costume it’s hard to garner any reactions from his line readings. My movie partner wondered if he just ADR’ed everything. Jackman is doing all the heavy lifting, mostly because Logan had such heart and depth to it. A scene of him discussing the demise of the X-Men to Dafne Keen’s Laura reminds you why James Mangold’s 2017 feature is so fantastic. A shame it’s the only scene between the pair.

When things get too series there are extended fight sequences, needle drops and cameo reveals which packs everything in and doesn’t prevent the smell of this being a massive vanity project. Negging on 20th Century Fox ad nauseam gets old fast, especially since Disney has bought the company and pretty much strip-mined it. The movie makes comments about the state of the company’s capitalism but has all the bit of a 7-year-old kid sticking their finger in someone’s face and saying “not touching you.” Annoying, but that’s all. The cameos that are included also are purely fan service. One cameo in particular that I won’t reveal because it’s not even on IMDb, weirdly enough, stings especially hard considering Marvel’s delay in bringing in superheroes of color.

An online tweet mentioned this movie was firmly not for Gen Zers and it’s true. But it’s also not a movie accessible for those who didn’t terminally consume comic book movies in the aughts. My movie buddy is Gen X and didn’t understand half of the cameo jokes because she didn’t even remember seeing the movies, let alone knowing the fancasting or projects that were announced but never happened 20 years ago. This is a movie firmly for comic book men and while that’s all well and good there should still be a story there. The movie feels like the equivalent of Willy Wonka giving you access to the chocolate room and saying nothing is actually edible. It’s nice to see, but it’s purely there to get your dollars.

Deadpool and Wolverine will definitely get audiences. The question is will it get new audiences? Is this like Avatar, where fans will wait so long that it doesn’t matter when they saw the last movie? It’s possible. The movie is certainly not bad, just suffering from Marvel-itis, much like countless other movies the studio has made over the last several years. Jackman and Reynolds are fun, but they’re wandering through a landscape where they don’t know the route. It just feels so empty.

Deadpool and Wolverine is in theaters this Friday.