Deadpool and Wolverine - Spoiler-Free Review
So Mark and I recently saw “Deadpool and Wolverine” and like everyone on the internet, we had opinions. We personally hate spoilers so we’re going to try to avoid ruining things for everyone, but we figured we should share our thoughts with everyone. Mostly to boost engagement because we got comics to sell. How’s that for a fourth wall break?
Only one way to get a head in comics.
Right off the jump, the movie lets you know that it’s gonna force the House of Mouse to own this hard R rating. There were a lot of in-jokes about how they were simply trying to see what they could get away with and it shows. Given the meta nature of Deadpool and even the super meta vibe of the movie itself, none of it felt forced to me. It probably says more about my viewing habits and personality, but after the 37th f-bomb within the first 20 minutes of the flick, I stopped noticing the shock value.
Did he just make a Clerks reference?
Speaking of the meta nature of the movie, the cameos and casting seemed random at first but overall felt very appropriate and really did make sense given the context of the story. Without giving it away, there were a lot of cameos are a reflection of fan casting, and even a few jabs at the fans themselves. I felt personally attacked by one scene in particular since I was very vocal against Hugh Jackman back in the day. Nuff said about that, bub. In some cases, the characters themselves poked at the fourth wall by making references to their real life relationships and careers. Some of those references didn’t become apparent to me until a few days after when I realized how many actors have been married (and divorced) with other actors in comic movies.
I ship it…
I’m struggling to find a way to gripe about the plot of “Deadpool and Wolverine” without giving much away and it highlights that this movie probably didn’t much of a plot in the first place. I think the writers to bring Deadpool and Wolverine together as fast as they could the same way we did as kids when we brought out action figures to our friend’s house and to get our G.I. Joes and Ninja Turtles to fight. The writer part of my brain was a bit annoyed by some of the plot holes but it was swiftly forgotten once Deadpool and Wolverine gave us the fight scene we all paid to see. And as much as I thought the villain did a great job and chewed the heck out of the scenery, I ultimately thought they forgot about them and just slapped them into the final act as an afterthought. But at least it wasn’t one of those annoying “hero and villain are the same” final battles that have become a trope. At least Deadpool warned us to watch out for Checov’s McGuffin right at the start. Thanks Wade!
It’s all fun and games…
…until you get a katana in the tuchus!
As a life long comics fan, most comic movies tug at my heart strings in a funny way. Even the bad ones. But “Deadpool and Wolverine” touched me in ways that made me think I should have CPS give Ryan Reynolds a phone call. As a short and angry kid from Queens, Wolverine and Spider-man (respect the hyphen) were my top superheroes. I was old enough to remember when Deadpool came on the scene as a knock off Deathstroke (something I love playfully teasing cosplayers at comic conventions) who was trying too hard to be Spider-man. But over time, I started noticing that Deadpool taking over for Wolverine as Marvel’s “main man” for a lot of people. This movie felt like the formal “handing off of the baton” from Wolverine to Deadpool and that did get me in the feels. On that same note, the movie itself felt like a tearful goodbye to the Fox universe but also wink and a nod to much of Marvel’s cinematic history beyond the MCU. Some people forget that Kevin Feige had a hand in the MCU before there even was an MCU. Look at the dude’s Wikipedia page and remember he’s the reason Wolverine says “bub” in the first X-Men movie.
I’m going to close this and say you should watch this movie and stick around past the end credits. Yeah, it obviously has an end credits scene, but I would advise that you sit and watch the credits too. I challenge you not to get a little joked up as the credits roll, especially if you’ve been watching Marvel movies since the 90’s.
With apologies to Mr. Liefeld
Mark needed to throw in one spoiler when editing this post (what a jerk!). Here’s a picture that has feet.
Or at least one foot…
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