The Deadpool films gave 20th Century Fox carte blanche to do basically what they wanted to do. The R rating allowed the filmmakers to use a lot of vulgar language, blood and guts violence, and quite a bit of dirty humor.  When Disney bought 20th Century Fox studios their first mission was to do another Deadpool film exactly like the first two installments in this franchise. Fast forward to 2024 and Deadpool and Wolverine have finally come out. It’s exactly like what fans are hoping it would be.

Similar to the first two movies in this trilogy this third Deadpool film starts with a slow-mo action scene with Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) wrecking shop against a bunch of TVA cops. The reason they are coming after Wade is that his timeliness is being destroyed and there is only one person who can help him save it and that’s Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). The problem is that’s easier said than done for Deadpool. Reluctantly Logan agrees to help Wade Wilson. This situation is more than they bargained though.

Shawn Levy, the director, and co-writer of the script of Deadpool, helped give this film an Odd Couple or 48 Hrs vibe. The funny banter between Reynolds and Jackman is the key to this movie’s success. Their friendship off-screen didn’t hurt their on-screen chemistry. They have a great give-and-take when it comes to the dialogue. Deadpool is dubbed the merc with a mouth, but Jackman’s Wolverine has a few moments where he gets a good monologue. The ad-libbing by Reynolds is legendary by this time in his career. He uses his sense of humor to break up some of the tension between the pair and the villains they encounter on their journey. 

The Disney + streaming service has introduced fans to a realm at the end of time called the Void. This is where discarded or unwanted characters are sent. They represent disturbances in the essential timeliness. This is where Deadpool and Wolverine end up. They have to figure out who is responsible for their timeliness being destroyed or on the brink of destruction. After an encounter that seems like they entered a war world straight out of a Mad Max film, they find that Kassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) is the one who is responsible.  She is the sister of Professor X. She’s not as nice or benevolent as he is though. She has a nasty streak in her. She has a big dog known as Eliath who obeys her. Which isn’t good for Wade or Logan.

With any Marvel movie, you know that they have great casts. This film is no exception.  There are plenty of cameos from some big-name actors in this movie, but the people I can mention. Those are Matthew McFadyen (Succession) as a high-up officer in the TVA. He has ulterior motives for bringing the pair of mutants to the void.  Back for the third time in this franchise is Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Rob Delaney as Peter, Morena Baccarin as Venessa, and Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead. All of them have brief appearances, but they are pretty funny. The cameos are important, but the voices of a couple of the Deadpool variants are finally revealed. I figured Lady Deadpool was None other than Reynolds’s wife Blake Lively and another variant sounded like Matthew McCaughey. Dogpool is quite cute as well. 

As a kid, I’ve dreamed of comic book movies like this one. These two characters have had such a great run in the films with Hugh Jackman playing Logan/Wolverine for close to 25 years now and Ryan Reynolds having played his character Wade Wilson/Deadpool for 10 years. It’s finally time they teamed up. I know fans are going to go crazy for this movie. I felt there were a few things that weren’t explained though that took me out of it. It doesn’t mean the film is bad by any means, it just the script doesn’t explain some things involving the villain, Wolverine, and the connection to the MCU. There was a lot going on here, so it makes sense everything isn’t fleshed out completely.  What I got was good though.

With Deadpool and Wolverine, you are going to get a lot of blood and guts. As I mentioned, the opening sequence was bloody, violent, and brutal. The blood and guts were flowing everywhere. After that though there were other action fight scenes that helped bring this movie to the level I expected. One, in particular, in particular was set to Madonna’s “Life A Prayer”. Some of this was shown in the trailers but that was just part of that amazing sequence.  This movie lived up to the hype in this regard.

One of the things that make the Deadpool films popular with fans is the Fourth wall breaking. Where Deadpool turns and talks to the audience watching the movie. That was always a fun thing to look forward to in these films. One of the ones that I loved was how Wade/Deadpool said he was Marvel Jesus. I wouldn’t go that far, but the movie will get fans very excited with all its fan service. The pointing the finger at the MCU, Disney, Fox and themselves is quite entertaining to say the least.

Deadpool and Wolverine were as good as advertised. It had the 48 Hrs and The Odd Couple vibe I was looking for while also bringing the comic aspect fans were looking for. The fight scenes were pretty awesome. Plenty of people were getting those claws and got shot. The cameos were surprising but very cool. There were a couple of things I would have liked to be explained in more depth such as the villain, Kassandra Nova. All in all this was mostly what I was looking for in a Deadpool and Wolverine movie. It just wasn’t as high as my expectations wanted it to be.

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen