Deadpool and Wolverine saw you from across the bar, and they like your vibe.
It doesn’t matter if you haven’t enjoyed the MCU since Avengers: Endgame pushed the stakes of the franchise off a cliff, or if you’re cautiously optimistic about the rest of the Multiverse Saga – come for Deadpool and Wolverine’s blockbuster chemistry, but stay for the frankness with which they comment on the past, present, and unfocused for years now, and it’s about time someone let the air out and had some fun with it.
In that way, Deadpool & Wolverine is a perfectly timed and well-sustained cinematic fart, released with confidence and comfort in the space it creates for future nourishment.
It’s not going to single-handedly save the MCU from the larger bout of indigestion it’s suffering through, but it’s a refreshing mea culpa that demonstrates that Marvel can still let ‘er rip loud and proud when it really counts.
The Shawn Levy-directed superhero comedy gets off to a roaring start, with Deadpool riffing on the action before the Marvel Studios fanfare is even finished and running afoul of the Time Variance Authority from Loki almost immediately.
There’s an electricity to the opening act – after all, this is Deadpool’s first time in the MCU, and like a comfortably inebriated cousin giggling into your ear after Thanksgiving dinner, there’s no sure way to know what weird, hilarious nonsense will spill out of his mouth, or how hard it will make your aunt clutch her pearls.
With a decade-plus of Marvel Studios storytelling (and marketing) to skewer, Ryan Reynolds is off to the races with jokes aimed at every corner of the Sacred Timeline.
Reynolds’ command of Wade Wilson’s whipping wit is wazor-sharp as ever – applying it to the current state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he’s able to bring the self-important franchise down to Earth.
You can practically see Reynolds slamming a binder full of Kevin Feige-focused jokes onto a table and recording every single one.
