‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Movie Review - The Joke is on the Audience

The creators of Deadpool & Wolverine know what many people while walking into the movie theater, would be thinking. After bidding a tearful farewell to his fans in Logan, why is Hugh Jackman returning as Wolverine? Kevin Feige reportedly warned Jackman not to wear the claws and suit again for this outing. Many critics and audience members consider Logan a Holy Grail that shouldn't be messed with. But I can understand why actors would agree to appear in superhero films like these. It's easy money. All you have to do is pose in the frame and wear a costume, while just the mention of your character's name fills the fans with ecstasy. This is why all those actors whose names I cannot spoil reprise their roles in Deadpool & Wolverine. Given their thin role and thinner motivation behind their appearance on the screen, they look like glorified extras in a crowd suddenly placed under the spotlight. One of them talks about getting "an ending," but Deadpool & Wolverine serves as a reintroduction platform for these characters, who will probably make more and more appearances in future Marvel films. And anyway, if you want "an ending," then you should stop looking for it in a franchise that has become all about resurrecting old, familiar faces for cheap fan service. One of the cameos, though, is certainly surprising due to the role the actor ends up portraying.

It's funny how, while reviewing a Marvel movie, you have to remain vague about the cameos because that's all these films can provide to the audience in the name of surprise and bliss. That's the problem with such high-budget, low-creativity mediocrities (add the recent Kalki 2898 AD to the list). The only surprise they offer to us turns out to be nothing but the faces of celebrities (we are not informed about their presence before the movie's release). Such cameos manage to generate screams, and the people at my screening (all of them boys) screamed in disbelief when they recognized a name or a character from all those other Marvel flicks. Those rapturous applause and shrieks point towards something dreadfully ugly: The audience is content with shallow tricks. Drop the names of the superheroes they admire, put the characters they adore on the screen, and they will reward you with whoops of delight. Why exert yourself to come up with a story? Let cameos replace creativity. Deadpool & Wolverine has arrived with an R rating, making it the first MCU film to have this rating. What's the point? Director Shawn Levy goes as far as lame f-word usage, butt slaps, and repetitive physical beatings. Deadpool hits Wolverine with bullets and a baby knife. Wolverine digs his claws into the flesh of the wisecracking mercenary. When these two "love birds" are not busy mutilating each other, they fight with other powerful entities. The action sequences, however, are devoid of a violent charge or an imaginative choreography. Levy doesn't have an action director's gusto - his images move mechanically. He overly relies on Jackman's muscles and Ryan Reynolds' charisma and comic timing to do the heavy lifting. These two actors perform energetically. They want to earn their paycheck instead of merely sleepwalking (given what Deadpool & Wolverine asks them to do, they could have easily done their jobs while being half-asleep).

Jackman and Reynolds' sincere efforts make the movie's failures all the more disheartening. The problem with Deadpool & Wolverine is that Levy doesn't seem as committed as the two lead actors, who give everything they have got to this film. On top of this, Jackman and Reynolds' talents are undermined by the generic writing. I am not sure how much Reynolds, the Writer, contributed to the script, but the self-referential elements and the world-ending stakes have become uninspiring. Deadpool & Wolverine is an R-rated film with a PG or G-rated sentimentality. The message of forming familial relationships seems to be stolen from an animated Disney film for kids. Deadpool/Wade Wilson (Reynolds) talks about his love for the nine people in his life, but those people look as flat as the group photograph they are in. Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), Deadpool's love interest, is converted into a source of mawkish feelings as she makes Deadpool all emotional and teary-eyed, like a teenager experiencing heartbreak for the first time. Reynolds gives depth to these "teenage feelings," thus effectively selling himself as someone who can work with dramatic beats. Nevertheless, the whole story suffers from a severe case of insipidity. The cheeky, never-be-too-serious tone is used to solve obstacles in the laziest way possible - the laziness, of course, is supposed to be taken as a "joke." Notice how Peter helps Deadpool and Wolverine or how the two superheroes come out of a tough situation through a third-rate emotional speech that melts the heart of Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin). Cassandra gives rise to perhaps the most memorable image in the whole film, involving her fingers sticking out of the countenance of her victims. It's more violent and entertaining than all the action scenes.

Deadpool & Wolverine opens with an assurance that it has no interest in respecting Logan's legacy. This is the sole thing the movie not only promises but also delivers to the audience. Other such remarks, however, come across as mere lip service. At one point in the film, Deadpool says that everybody has gotten tired of multiverses, yet the movie itself does nothing to eradicate this mess. I thought Multiverse would be wielded in the climax to revive two characters, but they come out alive and well after sacrificing themselves. How? It has something to do with teamwork, strength in numbers, or "having a companion makes everything a doddle" nonsense. It doesn't matter. Deadpool & Wolverine's superpower is that it creates humor out of creative bankruptcy. It goes through the same old motions by telling us it is going through the same old motions, and the fans respond joyfully. They become the equivalent of heart or laughing face emojis emerging profusely from the right side of the screen.

Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times