Deadpool & Wolverine
The future is always built on the uncertain ground of the present; when the Marvel Cinematic Universe was launched in 2008 with Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr, an actor whose career seemed only a few years before to have been irretrievably sacrificed on the altar of chemical indulgence, it was one of the biggest gambles in Hollywood, but it paid off and with the roster of superheroes expanded as the stories grew bigger, encompassing divergent universes, it was inevitable that characters from the fringes would become involved.
With a dedicated fanbase despite what could be considered a cult appeal, Deadpool was released in 2016 as part of the separate X-Men cinematic universe at a time when the rights to that Marvel range of titles was owned by 20th Century Fox, since folded into the Marvel Cinematic Universe overseen by Disney via shenanigans as complicated and nefarious as any supervillain plot depicted onscreen, allowing the eternally foul-mouthed masked vigilante to become the unlikely co-lead of the astonishing and unprecedented thirty-fourth film in the seemingly unstoppable series.
To those familiar with Wade “Deadpool” Wilson, played by Ryan Reynolds in a continuing symbiosis of actor and character where it is sometimes difficult to discern what is scripted, what is talent and what is pure mischief, his introduction into the broadly family-friendly values of parent company Disney might be presumed to have required his customary and often creative verbal assaults to have been toned down, but opening with scenes of bloody violence and the desecration of corpses it would appear any suggestion a code of conduct might be introduced was laughed out of the room as soon as it was made.
The film titled Deadpool & Wolverine, directed by Shawn Levy and co-written by Reynolds himself, that corpse is of course Wilson’s long-time man-crush, the epitome and unwilling poster boy of the X-Men himself, last seen dying the death of a hero in Logan but now sought across the dimensions at the behest of a rogue agent of the Time Variance Authority who warns that the entire reality of that particular timeline is about to collapse having lost the one being who served as its anchor, though rather than being tasked with saving said universe Wade is surprised to learn first that he is in fact expected to ensure its collapse and then to realise that he cares so much that he wishes to save it.
Hugh Jackman the genuine anchor of the X-Men films, the only actor to have starred in multiple ensemble and solo films and not recast when his mutant brethren were regenerated in First Class, he had no reason to return to the role which made him an international star after his bloody and defiant swan song but Deadpool & Wolverine not only offers variants of the adamantium clawed Canadian James Howlett but takes Jackman to places his character has never been, despair, a good deal of drunkenness, and depths of rage even attacks on the students of Xavier’s Academy could not provoke.
Most frequently directed at his jabbering travelling companion whose superpowered immune system presumably rejected any attempts at sensitivity training, they are the odd couple to end all odd couples at the end of their tethers and the end of the world, tossed into the dimensional dumping ground of the Void where it is presumed that they can make no trouble only to find that making trouble is what they are best at, gathering an odds-and-sods jerry-rigged team of rejects and misfits played by second tier stars unlikely to make it intact to the end credits.
Sometimes feeling more like a series of sketches rather than a carefully plotted narrative such as The Winter Soldier or Endgame, what Deadpool & Wolverine has working for it is insane pacing, audacity, vulgarity and two leads who can match each other in shameless attempts to dominate the screen and each other, mismatched antiheroes who work best when unencumbered by the restrictions or expectations of others or studio executives who must grudgingly admit that yes, on this occasion they may need each other not only to survive but to save their home universe and what little self-respect they have left.
Is the conclusion foreshadowed throughout, the resolution of differences and resetting of all wrongs inevitable and prompted by dozens of such similar summer blockbusters and their happy if sometimes bittersweet endings? Perhaps so, but the trip is far from predictable and the emotional payoff carried by the dynamic duo of Reynolds and Jackman is genuine, an alternative ending to the tragedy of Logan which does not diminish what went before but allows him to play the game over with different odds in the company of a partner in red spandex who never learned when to just lie down and die.
Deadpool & Wolverine is currently on general release and also screening in IMAX
