Deadpool & Wolverine Accomplishes Its Mission (Review)
Vulgar, trashy but never incorrect, the “Marvel Jesus” is exactly what we expected of him.
Only one film in 2024, but what a film! The Marvel Cinematic Universe had found its savior: Deadpool, the loudmouth mercenary, finally integrated into the great Disney five-year plan, associated with Wolverine/Hugh Jackman, never recast since the first X-Men a quarter of a century ago… The idea is brilliant, basically, and the very effective promo sold this association as the parable of the fusion between the trashy style of Deadpool and the top quality Marvel blockbuster, that of heroes and exploits, of grandeur and green backgrounds. The result is up to par, without a doubt. Deadpool & Wolverine accomplishes its goal perfectly. He sets it himself, anyway: Deadpool is literally tasked with saving “the sacred timeline”, namely the universe itself, by the TVA, the temporal bureau that regulates the paradoxes and infractions of the multiverse. As Deadpool constantly reminds us, he is the “Marvel Jesus”, both the repository of the fanbase’s grievances, and the forger of a new alliance through jokes and violence – as the original said: I came not to bring peace, but a sword. Over the course of the adventures, he will have to ally himself with one of the Wolverines of the multiverse (Hugh Jackman, always immense), and we will stop there so as not to enter spoiler territory.
It will be time to make a list of the crazy surprises and crazy cameos that the film offers. This is also the essence of the film: imagine an extreme version of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Otherwise, like Russian roulette, the flow of Deadpool’s hyper-crude jokes hits the mark one time out of six, depending on your sensitivity. They are very vulgar, but absolutely not incorrect: the most daring claim that, all the same, this whole multiverse thing has hurt the MCU and made Fox say “cheh” for having done anything with Marvel. These are jokes, and cameos, calibrated for the “Hall H” of ComicCon, to quote one of the best passages of The Fall Guy. Jokes that you would swear were written with the validation of a law firm – not a single line about Jonathan Majors, ex-future super big bad guy of the next Avengersor TJ Miller, who played Deadpool’s sidekick in the previous two films, to name just two rather obvious examples? And then what else? Mention Bryan Singer’s name? Bring up the continuity issues of the Eternals ? Not the right universe, it seems.
Deadpool & Wolverine is not considered at any time as a reflexive act towards the MCU (we are very far fromIron Man 3 at this level). What is certain is that through scattering – the multiverse, symbol of the volatile and inconsequential Disney+ series – the MCU has lost a lot of its cinematic force: we think back to the very beautiful Captain America: First Avengerwhere the hero was both caricature and model, propaganda and myth. Deadpool & Wolverine never pretends to question the MCU on this subject, from near or far; the cinematic horizon of the film is rather to mount big action scenes in slow motion against a backdrop of pop music (GreaseMadonna) which have little narrative stake. The gently punk delirium (calm down, we said: kindly) of the first two Deadpools has given way to flawless professionalism. By moving under the Disney banner, Deadpool has not become the king’s jester but a joyful member of the official team. Someone should remind him more often, as the film does, of Wolverine’s last words to X-23 in Logan : “don’t become what they made you”. Message received, seen and doesn’t care.
