Deadpool & Wolverine: Movie Review

On By somegeektoldme@gmail.comIn Movies

Following last week’s fantastic preview of Deadpool & Wolverine, it’s time to discuss the movie review. I know, I know, my movie previews and reviews are amazing…at being terrible, but feeding UMC1 and UMC2, keeping my dog warm and happy, along with running New Zealand’s 5th least favourite website, means sleep is precious to me. Very preciousssss.

Like Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, I purchased the ticket at the cinema, days before the screening. Because you know, a geek’s got to do, what a geek’s got to do. At the cinema on Wednesday night, I jumped into line for food and drink, and the cinema liberated a small fortune from my bank account for said items.

And just like every other time at our cinema, I walked straight into the theatre and sat down, without anybody checking my ticket. This is the quintessential example of New Zealand culture: Trusting that the people sitting in a theatre have paid, so there’s no need to check their tickets.

Before I continue, they played the trailer for Captain America: Brave New World, which featured an image of the Red Hulk. I heard one person say, “I thought Hulk was green. Why’d they change his colour?!” Sitting in the back row, allowed me to have a wry smile without being seen. And yes, I am ashamed of myself.

Anyway, on with the review!

Credit: Marvel Studios

Let’s go over the rules of the review.

1.) Please be aware there will be spoilers concerning the movie, so proceed with extreme anxiety and caution.

2.) The aim of my reviews are not to rip apart the subject or trash it. If I liked the subject enough to watch or read it, then I’ll give my honest (possibly biased) opinion.

3.) I’m not a professional critic, so I’m not going to dive into deeper concepts and themes, or the art of filmmaking. I’m just a geek; always have been, and always will be.

And away we go!

So, did I like the movie? Yes, yes I did. I enjoyed it for different reasons, though I’ll try to cover them all. Firstly, the dialogue was sharp and more brutal than some fight scenes. The constant 4th wall insults, like the divorce reference and the Canada joke, had me laughing so hard that the woman sitting next to me kept glaring at me. Also, even though Gambit’s accent was comic-accurate, it was still funny to hear.

The movie was hilarious, showing even more than the previous two movies, that Wade Wilson is a lunatic who likes to stab and shoot, with or without the mask, but he’s a lunatic on the side of the angels.

The fight scenes were extremely graphic and violent, but you knew that was coming; it was expected. Still, using Wolverine’s skeleton as a weapon, strangely made a lot of sense in a twisted way. The scene where Deadpool had stabbed a TVA agent in the arse with Wolverine’s claws, is something I can’t unsee, no matter how hard I try.

The first fight between Deadpool and Wolverine in the Void was amazing, but it paled in comparison with the war they fought over in the Honda Odyssey, which was something I never knew I wanted to see. The entire sequence was phenomenal, simple, and entertaining, but horrific all at the same time.

The soundtrack was a surprise, with songs from *NSYNC and AC/DC, being somewhat appropriate choices for Deadpool’s dance routine against the TVA agents, along with the first fight between Deadpool and Wolverine.

Since we’re not talking about cameos, let’s discuss them. Some of the cameos included Deadpool variants, as well as Wolverine variants such as Patch, Age of Apocalypse Wolverine, Old Man Logan, the cover of Uncanny X-Men #251 Wolverine, comic-accurate height Wolverine, and the “Cavillrine,” were all extremely well done. When I saw the Uncanny X-Men cover with Wolverine being crucified on a giant X, I couldn’t help but quietly clap because it was obvious that they had done their homework.

With the other cameos, I suppose this movie was the official final chapter in the 20th Century Fox superheroes franchises, because it felt like it was becoming a tribute movie. I mentioned a few of the cameos last week, but I didn’t see Johnny Storm, Blade, or the appearance of Gambit coming.

Here’s a shout-out to the production crew including the Red Skull’s car and the Fantasticar. I appreciated seeing them again.

So, what about my preview questions?

  • I don’t have Disney+, so I haven’t seen Loki, only some videos from YouTube. This means my experience with the TVA is limited. Will the TVA be accessible to non-Disney+ viewers? Yes, they were accessible to a non-Disney+ viewer, but I still have a lot of questions about them, mainly who decides what goes in the Sacred Timeline? I’m sure when I get to watch Loki, many questions will be answered. Maybe.
  • I know Wolverine is alive in the film because it’s set before he died in Logan. But does this mean Logan is a fixed point in continuity? That was a sneaky one because Marvel Studios had explained that the film would be set before James died in Logan. They lied, because the whole point of the movie, was that Earth-10005’s version of Wolverine was dead. So yes, Logan was a fixed point in continuity.
  • Is Cassandra Nova’s Charles Xavier twin sister in the movie? Yes, she was, and Emma Corrin did a great job playing Cassandra Nova. My only question was why they cast a young actor for the role of Cassandra, when being Xavier’s twin, she would have to be decades older. She would be the same age as Xavier so she would be at least 60 years old; unless time works differently in the Void. I don’t know.
  • Will this movie somehow activate the X-gene in people in the MCU? If it did, I must have missed it, because I would have said no.
  • Will Liev Schreiber return? To the best of my knowledge, he didn’t.
  • Will 21st Century Fox’s X-Men’s continuity merge with Disney’s MCU, creating one continuity, or will it be something else? The ending of the movie surprised me, because I thought there would be some sort of timeline merging, but surprise, surprise, I was wrong. Deadpool remained in his Fox-era universe, and not in the MCU.
  • Will Wolverine lose his memories of the movie’s events by the end credits? I would say that’s a no, because he was at Wade’s party and holding Dogpool, by the end of the movie.
  • However the movie ends, will the X-Men be standing in the MCU? I’m going out on a limb and say, “Hell, no!”
  • How different will the MCU look after Deadpool & Wolverine? As far as I can see and understand, not a lot, if anything has changed in the MCU, because of the movie. Maybe if I understood the TVA better, I could give a better answer.
  • Will any Avengers turn up? The Hulk was fighting, I think a Wolverine variant wearing the classic 80’s brown and tan costume. There was also footage of Thor leaning over a dying Deadpool in the future.
  • Will Wolverine break the 4th wall? I believe Hugh Jackman broke the 4th wall in marketing adverts, but not in the movie. I hope I’m right about that!
  • Will the plot make sense with multiple timelines/worlds being involved? Remembering that Deadpool still had Cable’s time-travelling device from the previous film, and also armed with a TemPad, he could travel to other universes. Throw in the leftovers found in the Void, there were a lot of timelines involved. The plot wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t have to be, since Deadpool was involved.

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman were devastatingly good, but it does raise the question of what happens next, since Deadpool is living on Earth-10005, and not in the MCU; especially with a new Wolverine walking around. For the MCU, I think the next film will be Captain America: Brave New World in February 2025, which I promise to watch.

If you want 2 hours of entertainment, with a superhero movie that embraces the sheer ridiculousness of the genre, then you will love Deadpool & Wolverine. Adding in some graphic violence, insults, middle management villains, and one of the coolest dogs in cinema, this movie won’t win any Academy Awards, but it will win fans over. Maximum effort.

That’s it for another week and another terrible post. Thanks again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. My 200th blog post is coming up soon, so that’s exciting, at least to me. I mean, I thought I would have quit by now.

Remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, watch some of the Olympics, and I’ll see you next week for my annual recap of San Diego Comic-Con. Hell, yeah!