Rating: R | Runtime: 128 minutes
Release Date: July 26th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Marvel Studios / 20th Century Studios / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Director(s): Shawn Levy
Writer(s): Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells & Shawn Levy / Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza (Deadpool character) / Len Wein, John Romita Sr. & Herb Trimpe and Roy Thomas (Wolverine character)

I made an educated wish.

Zero percent. That’s how important Ryan Reynolds is to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “sacred timeline.” It’s why he was allowed to do whatever he wanted besides snort cocaine on-screen.

Wade Wilson (Reynolds) used Cable’s time-travel device in Deadpool 2 to save the lives of everyone he loved while also flippantly deleting Origins-era Deadpool (Reynolds) and Green Lantern‘s lead actor (Reynolds) without any consequences whatsoever. The TVA couldn’t have cared less about these shenanigans because each one proves an inconsequential speck of money-printing dust in canon (heck, one isn’t even a Marvel property). Wolverine, though? Hugh Jackman? The moment James Mangold earned an Oscar nomination killing him in Logan was the moment Fox Marvel died (sorry, Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants).

This is fact. It’s known. And now it’s become the paper-thin metaphor holding Deadpool & Wolverine together. Because this is a nothingburger of a film in the sense of independent narrative weight or MCU lore. It’s a fun, irreverent lark—a gift from Kevin Feige to both Reynolds (to finally fight alongside Wolverine while in possession of a mouth) and Jackman (to finally act in an MCU film) for filling Marvel’s coffers for so long as the bastard stepchild that wouldn’t play ball when Sony did. (Perhaps that’s the real reason Disney purchased 20th Century Fox?) It’s a eulogy for a bygone institution given heartfelt tribute during a mid-credits behind-the-scenes montage of Fox’s many X-Men and Fantastic Four iterations.

How is this movie over two hours then? Because Reynolds and new BFF Shawn Levy love a cameo-heavy, nonsensical actioner that puts fan service above everything. I can imagine the script breaking and pitch to Marvel was pretty much: let Wade stumble backwards into becoming a bona fide hero while also bringing Logan back to life both to introduce mutants into the MCU (since Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were never allowed to use that term and thus were believed, by way of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”, to be Inhumans instead) and keep Jackman as a viable entity for future films. Everything else is loose filler and explosive set-pieces connecting the dots.

It does work, though. Reynolds and Jackman know their characters and their audience too well for it to simply fail. Sure, critics lambasted the finished product because it is objectively a bad movie, but no one involved in its creation sought to make the opposite. They merely sought to entertain a rabid (yet frustrated) fanbase with a joke that simultaneously rewarded those of us who understand the callbacks spanning multiple studios and decades of work (including Furiosa because someone thought the Void looking like Mad Max was funny) and didn’t punish those who couldn’t since none of it matters to the bigger MCU picture beyond the folding-in of estranged IP anyway.

It’s therefore impossible to really comment on the script since it’s all action figures on a shelf being taken down to be used on the floor for the current conflict before getting tossed aside until their specific powers can be exploited again. The TVA? An easy explainer for the dissolution of Fox Marvel as a “pruned timeline.” Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen)? A one-off bureaucratic self-insert for Feige that expands on the self-deprecating robotic AI joke set forth in “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” that makes him into a vindictive villain looking to cannibalize ultimate Marvel power. Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin)? A badass antagonist who wields the power of Xavier and malice of Magneto without needing to pay Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellen.

Do those three entities matter beyond helping Wade and Logan advance along their roller coaster tracks towards infamy? No. They’re each as briefly rendered, subversively wrought, and purposefully expendable as the litany of famous faces (Chris Evans, Wesley Snipes, Dafne Keen, Jennifer Garner, Channing Tatum, and Aaron Stanford—amongst others) who grace the screen. They push, pull, and die so Deadpool and Wolverine can work out their much-needed trauma through the ultra-violent therapy of R-rated fantasy juxtaposed against classic jukebox pop tunes. It’s not a coincidence either that Reynolds breaks the fourth wall to mention how long fans have waited for every subsequent action sequence. This is moviemaking by Reddit thread at its core.

So, it’s also the perfect last/next chapters within its dueling enterprises. For the trilogy: Deadpool had a story with purpose that was augmented by its humor. Deadpool 2 had humor failing to hide the reality that there was neither a story nor a purpose. Deadpool & Wolverine gives us purpose augmented by humor despite not having a story. For Fox/Disney: it’s an effective metatextual conclusion for a studio that doubles as a multi-million-dollar intermission gag of dancing concessions seeking to reinvigorate an audience grown tired of a middling post-Endgame phase of executives publicly throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. New fans won’t be made from watching it, but existing ones might just get their second wind.

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(L-R): Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson in 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios’ DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2024 20th Century Studios / © and ™ 2024 MARVEL.