REVIEW: Deadpool & Wolverine is a hilarious love letter to the Fox era

There’s been so much focus on how the family-friendly Marvel Cinematic Universe would integrate the crass, brash and snarky Deadpool, we forgot to consider what was lost when Disney bought 20th Century Fox.

The $US71 billion deal had wide ramifications but the one Marvel fans were most excited about was the merger of two studios that separately had screen rights to different characters from Marvel comics. Disney had Iron Man, Captain America and the Avengers, and Fox had the X-Men and Fantastic Four.

And, of course, Deadpool, the ‘merc with the mouth’ whose personality seems to be how much of a fourth-wall-breaking smart-arse he could be. That a Deadpool movie would be the first MCU outing centred on a former Fox character was going to be a test.

But rather than look forward to what the MCU could be with its new compatriots, Deadpool and Wolverine is a nostalgia trip, a love letter to the Fox era.

It’s over-the-top, overstuffed and light on emotional depth. But it’s also a hell of a fun time, especially if you appreciate Deadpool’s self-aware, meta humour. It’s often infantile but that doesn’t mean it’s not funny. You just have to go with it.

The jokes and references come so fast that even the most ardent fan deep in comic book movie lore, Ryan Reynolds’ career and Hugh Jackman’s life would still miss some gags.

A joke about there being 206 bones in the human body rips when Deadpool adds, “207 if I’m watching Gossip Girl”, or there’s the sly riff on Jackman’s recent divorce. You might catch the opening bars to The Greatest Showman theme or read a certain shrug as commentary on Ben Affleck’s split from Jennifer Garner.

If you spend your days mainlining pop culture and celebrity gossip, you’ll be well served. This movie is designed to make those devotees laugh. Chuckles aplenty and all-around!

The Deadpool movies have always been swathed in this idea that they’re edgy just because the character is liberal with sexual innuendo and the use of violence, but they’ve always had a gooey heart.

And sentimentalism is rife in Deadpool & Wolverine. The emotional underpinning for the film is Deadpool/Wade Wilson (Reynolds) wants to have purpose and significance, but he has to make the jump from wanting to matter so he won’t lose Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) to being a true hero.

The classic hero’s journey also applies to this version of Wolverine (Jackman), who is not the same character we’ve previously seen in the Fox X-Men movies. This Wolverine is down in the dumps after a catastrophic failure and he will need to rediscover a belief that he is still worth something.

There’s nothing new in the story or the characterisations because we have seen it all before, it’s just being presented with a Deadpool sheen. And Emma Corrin and Matthew MacFadyen as the film’s two villains are at least discernible and not bogged down in grandiosity – plus, they’re very enjoyable performances, maybe it’s the British accents but there’s something about their playfulness that hits correctly.

The film is going to make money because it is, above all, a crowdpleaser. And a large part of that is going to be the copious cameos it throws at the audience. We won’t spoil the specifics of them here but if you go into the film without knowing who’s going to show up, don’t be surprised if there are audible gasps.

The sheer volume of cameos could easily lead to accusations that Deadpool & Wolverine is over-reliant on stunts, but in the context of this movie, it works.

Some of them are deep cuts in the Fox universe, and one in particular is a clever psych-out. When you consider that this film is ultimately a capper on two decades of one studio’s Marvel output (18 movies, and some of them were great), it engenders a lot of goodwill.

So, you forgive the gratuitous cameos, and you forgive the sappiness, you forgive the sometimes clumsy CGI, and you just go along with the ride because it is an entertaining one.

Whether Deadpool & Wolverine is going to save the lagging superhero genre is not this moment. For sure it will make money, but it’s not contributing to any soul-searching that may have risen from the genre’s existential crisis. It has no answers as to how to move forward when it’s so intent on looking back.

Mostly, it’s just here to have a good time.

PS. Yes, there is a post-credits scene. It’s not crucial to the next MCU movie, but it’s very funny.

Rating: 3.5/5

Deadpool & Wolverine is in cinemas on July 25