Movie Review: Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) co-written and directed by Shawn Levy

Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is feeling a bit insignificant, mostly because his girl (Morena Baccarin) has dumped him. She has realized he only cares about himself. To show he has greater ambitions, he tries to join the Avengers and gets turned down almost immediately. He lives the lackluster life of a car salesman until his birthday party is interrupted by the Time Variance Authority. The TVA wants to take him in for the time travel shenanigans from the previous film, though they really have an ulterior motive. When the TVA official who pulled him in (Matthew Macfadyen) explains what he really wants, Deadpool doesn't want to play along, partly because he doesn't understand and partly because it reinforces his insignificance. He makes up his own plan (getting a hero who can save his world, i.e. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman)), which doesn't quite work out, so he keeps on coming up with other plans as the movie gets wilder and weirder.

The movie has a lot of action, a lot of jokes, and a lot of gore. The plentiful fights are mostly played for comedy and involve a lot of bloodletting. Deadpool's jokes stick to his two standbys--adolescent humor and fourth-wall-breaking remarks. Wolverine's laconic, grim dialog provides some laughs too. The high body count has so much blood being spilled, it's hard to take seriously and helps to mask a lot of mean-spirited acts. 

One or two characters point out that Deadpool is more a joke than a hero, a reality that he bristles at and tries to change. Of course, reality itself is on the line since the universe Deadpool is from is about to collapse. He travels through several other universes in search of a Wolverine to help him out (since his own universe's Wolverine is the one who died in Logan). He winds up in a "dumping ground" universe which allows for a bunch of cameos from previous films and new characters who appear for the sake of some laughs and to move the plot along. Deadpool does do something heroic at the end but it does not really change his character. This is probably deliberate since who wants a Deadpool who behaves like an actual adult? His appeal is his ultra-violent, ultra-selfish, ultra-jerky behavior.

The Wolverine Deadpool winds up with is the most interesting character. He has an actual character arc with pathos. He provides a welcome contrast to both Deadpool and Jackman's previous Wolverine character. But he's still stuck in a Deadpool universe. At one point, the two main characters fight all night, which points up the pointlessness of their conflict. Both have a healing factor that means neither can really kill the other. There's a lot of mayhem but no real stakes and viewers already know how the situation will turn out. With all the fourth-wall-breaking, I was fully aware of how the movie would turn out and had a hard time finding the peril credible. 

Not recommended--this a lot of Deadpool humor and violence, cranked up past 11. If you enjoy that, you'll like the movie. I have had my fill of Deadpool.

Book Review: Deadpool Killogy by C. Bunn et al.

Deadpool Classic Volume 16: Killogy written by Cullen Bunn with art by Dalibor Talajic, Matteo Lolli, and Salva Espin

A trilogy of stories tell how Deadpool goes on various killing sprees, so naturally the trilogy is called a "killogy." If done right, the story could be a fun bit of light entertainment, right? We'll see...

The story starts out with Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe. Deadpool is taken by the X-Men to Ravenscroft Asylum where they specialize in rehabilitating people like Deadpool. Unfortunately, the main doctor turns out to be the villain Psycho Man. In attempting to mind control Deadpool, Psycho Man accidentally releases a new personality in Deadpool who decides to destroy the entire Marvel Universe, heroes and villains alike. So Deadpool goes on a joke-filled killing rampage. It's not quite funny enough to justify the gore and the ending is a rather obvious use of breaking the fourth wall. I wasn't too satisfied with the first part.

The next story is Deadpool Killustrated. In an attempt to eliminate heroes in all the different Marvel multiverses, Deadpool uses science (!) to go into the "Ideaverse," where he can kill off all the classical literary inspirations for the Marvel characters. That would eliminate even the possibility of the heroes existing. The idea is fun, especially when they link characters like Moby Dick's Ahab to Hulk's General Thunderbolt Ross or Pinocchio to The Vision. But too many of the links are just random. At one point, Deadpool complains that killing these classical characters is a lot harder than it should be. That point was when he was taking out the sisters from Little Women, which really should have been a cakewalk for him. His complaint is completely unconvincing. So Deadpool Killustrated is hit and miss.

The book ends with Deadpool being told he is "the progenitor of all things" so in order to eliminate them he has to eliminate himself, thus Deadpool Kills Deadpool. But there's a good Deadpool out to stop the evil Deadpool, and a bunch of other Deadpools on each side. How many weird Deadpools can they come up with? My favorite was Pandapool, "the species that endangers you!" The self-aware and meta- shtick only goes so far, and this story outruns the fun by at least twenty pages.

Throughout the book, Deadpool mentions how he is a comic-relief or side character, and this book shows that, in spite of a lot of creative ideas, he doesn't carry a whole story without looking non-sensical and ridiculous (and not in a good way). I know it's intended as light entertainment, but it just doesn't hit the mark for me. I can't recommend it, in spite of some very creative ideas.