'DEAD' & LOVING IT Road-trip warriors
Filthy fun at a Marvel flick, finally!
GOOD to see you,” Deadpool says to Wolverine early in their new movie. “You’re joining at a bit of a low point.”
The sword-wielding superhuman also known as Wade Wilson violently slices up opponents, but he doesn’t mince words. Everybody knows the Marvel Cinematic Universe, of which Ryan Reynolds’ near-invincible fighter is now a part, has been in a slump with its films flopping at the box office and getting ripped to shreds by critics. While retaking its cinematic crown will be a challenge, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is a giant, promising step forward for the franchise. Director Shawn Levy’s laugh-asecond movie is easily the best Marvel has delivered since 2021’s “Spider-Man: No
Way Home,” and provides similarly nostalgic pleasures in its whiplash-inducing number of retro cameos — none of which I’ll spoil, for fear of my own life.
Safer to reveal is that since the events of 2018’s “Deadpool 2,” Wade has been wading through his daily routine, lacking heroic purpose.
Meta as ever, he also gives us a corporate refresher course. “Disney bought Fox, there was a boring rights issue, blahdeddy blah,” Deadpool says. There’s another terrific gag about the House of Mouse and a certain sex act that I won’t write, for fear of my own job.
Wade still shares an apartment with Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) and was crushed to be denied by the Avengers. Miserable, he’s stuck selling used cars.
It’s at his birthday party when Wade is unceremoniously summoned by the
Time Variance Authority, the mysterious group that protects the “sacred timeline” (a multiverse thing on the Disney+ show “Loki”).
Deadpool’s Earth, the eccentric TVA head Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen of “Succession”) warns him, is at risk of destruction after Wolverine’s death in the 2017 movie “Logan.” The sideburned mutant was vital to its existence.
So, determined to save the world, Wade ventures
off to different timelines in search of a replacement.
The two complicated heroes first met in 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” but they’ve never before gone on a high-tempered road trip in a Honda Odyssey.
They’re the stuff of buddy comedy dreams.
Jackman’s Wolverine is snarling, angry and tortured, while Reynolds’ Deadpool is a witty court jester who always goes for the filthiest joke.
Still, other than getting Logan back into the fold, my guess is that the plot of this film will bear little on the films that follow.
That’s actually a relief. Keeping track of the overlapping stories of 34 movies has become stressful, like paying ConEd in August.
Deadpool gets that. While exploiting the multiverse for its own ends, Wade mocks Marvel’s stubborn and confusing obsession with it. “It’s miss after miss after miss!” he declares.
So true. “Deadpool & Wolverine” is no miss, though. It’s a hit. Finally.