Review – Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) directed by Shawn Levy.

Watched on August 4th, 2024
Rating: 2/5 Stars

Before I get started I just wanna say: this movie is definitely not made for me. There are gonna be lots of people who absolutely love this movie for everything that it has, all of the cameos and nostalgic throwbacks, and the sheer ability to see characters together in a shared space. For Marvel fans through and through who get excited about seeing dream scenarios play out on the screen that they only imagined could happen, or seeing actors play roles again, or anything of that sort. And in a sense, that’s totally fine. But I’m not the target audience anymore. This movie was made for me…me from 5 years ago.

I don’t wanna be too much of a Marvel hater with this; Max from 4-5 years ago would’ve probably loved this movie. Hell, I even got a gut twinge of positive nostalgia seeing the Marvel Studios logo and hearing the fanfare in a movie theater again, something I hadn’t experienced in a while since becoming way less of a Marvel fan post-Thor 4. Yes, I’d be lying to say that this movie didn’t have fun moments, some great action set pieces, and a few funny jokes (but also a lot of pretty unfunny jokes that totally didn’t stick the landing). It wasn’t a bad experience during it, and I had a good bit of fun a lot of the time. But when I sat with myself a bit, this movie just felt off. It didn’t feel like a Deadpool & Wolverine movie. It didn’t even feel like a movie. 

I think my main issue with this movie is that it is entirely reliant on the sheer existence of Deadpool and Wolverine sharing the screen together, and all of the “exciting” cameos and throwbacks to actors who have played (or could have played) superheroes on the screen. There are gonna be tons of YouTube videos of reactions to these moments (there already are a ton), and people go nuts over this. But it felt frustrating to watch this movie and realize that cameos and actor mashups alone cannot carry a movie. This movie just does not hold up on its own; without the audience knowledge/expectation that audiences are gonna go nuts over a particular cameo, this movie is basically nothing. Yet, Marvel keeps getting away with this because they know that their main audience loves this. They eat up the cameos, the nods, the teases. And on the surface, there’s nothing wrong with that. Perhaps I’m being too cynical: why not give people what they want?

I’ve felt a similar issue with Marvel for a while. After Endgame, their movies have felt pretty aimless. Let me be clear: not every movie has to contribute towards “the universe.“ Honestly, the best post-Endgame films have been the most contained stories in my opinion (Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3, and hot take but Eternals). However, so many of the ones that do, haven’t amounted to anything. I don’t feel a sense of purpose within these films, they’re just throwing things at us without it feeling purposeful. Recent events make this feel even more evident. Just two years ago, Avengers 5 was titled “Kang Dynasty” and while the MCU still felt convoluted with so many projects, a good chunk of them were teasing a Kang the Conquerer arc. Yet less than a week ago at Comic Con, a title change was announced as it would be called “Doomsday,” with Dr. Doom as the villain instead. Obviously this was a response to the Jonathan Majors situation, and there are valid reasons for them needing to pivot. However, it just makes me feel even more that nothing contributes to anything. Yet, they still manage to keep their audience engaged despite lackluster projects that don’t go anywhere. And I feel like the main way they do this is by always building hype and always teasing their audience with the future. Everything with Marvel is now “oh look at this cameo, you’ll see them soon in a future movie” or “here’s this exciting movie coming out” or “here’s this big actor playing a character you love coming soon.” And that’s fine, but consistently these teases don’t pay off, and ultimately don’t live up to the hype they’ve garnered; yet they continue to tease more in these films, continually keeping their audience excited for the future and to see this tease. Do I think this is literally Marvel’s business strategy? I doubt it, but it certainly feels that way as someone who has been incredibly hyped and incredibly let down quite a few times post-Endgame.

Back to Deadpool & Wolverine, I feel that this issue is its main problem. It relies on these cameos and these characters being together to carry the entire film, distracting you from its honestly incoherent plot and lacking story. It’s just “here’s these characters interacting!” and “here’s this crazy cameo!” It feels like they’re waving the treat in front of a dog, or waving a shiny objects at an animal. All while delivering what is honestly an incredibly underwhelming story. And the worst part is: none of these cameos or characters contribute meaning to the story. They’re just there to garner excitement. You could replace them with any other character and it wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t have a problem with cool cameos or throwbacks, my gut feeling is genuinely excitement and thrill for the most part. But when that washes away and I think about it, I’m left feeling like it’s just a cheap thrill. I’ve come a long way on how I feel about Martin Scorsese’s opinions on the MCU and those kinds of franchise films. In high school, I wrote an article for my school’s student-published magazine about how I disagreed. In sophomore year of college, I gave speeches in a public speaking class about the same topic and how “Marvel is cinema.” I was a staunch defender of those films. Yet, after much time has passed, now more than ever, I feel that there is so much truth in his words (and in his general assessment of the film industry and franchises). These cheap thrills feel much like an amusement park ride, one that when you get off the coaster, you realize it wasn’t quite what you thought you bargained for. 

On a separate note, I think I just didn’t find this movie as fresh as I did with Deadpool in 2016. The 4th wall breaks have some fun moments, but I think it has lost so much of its novelty, partially because (hot take) I feel like Ryan Reynolds tends to play the same character in every movie. Pointing out tropes to the 4th wall and then proceeding to fulfill them doesn’t feel inventive or subversive in my opinion. And I also think a lot of the jokes don’t land, especially some fairly dicey attempts at humor for Marvel who seemed to be fairly progressive in a lot of their films.

There’s an entire different side to this movie about what it does with IPs and corporate commodities. I’m sure that for the actors, this is a thrilling and a labor of love, and that’s honestly super exciting and wholesome. No issues with that or them, I think it’s fun to hop back in the saddle or get the chance to do cinematic things that you thought would never happen. But it’s definitely a bit surreal to see this flexing of IP as such a high scale. With Endgame, it felt fulfilling, rewarding, and purposeful. Here, it just doesn’t feel the same. It’s fan service, but it feels like it’s a distraction from just how much these characters feel more like products/IP than they do creative ideas and lived-in people. The fourth wall breaks and nods to this definitely doesn’t help, even if it’s an attempt to be funny and in character. A few of those jokes land, but a lot definitely didn’t sit right with me. These kinds of movies aren’t always bad, but when they are, it definitely doesn’t feel good.

If Who Framed Roger Rabbit is cinematic corporate synergy at its best and most creative and wholesome, then Deadpool & Wolverine is the same at its worst and most soulless.

I know that it’s not very original to hate on Marvel as a “film” person. I wish I didn’t; I miss being a head-over-heels Marvel fan. It was fun to feel the excitement, feed into the hype, and then have incredible theater experiences with a crowd that went just as wild as you did. Some of my best theater memories are from Marvel movies. And I know that it doesn’t do much to hate on it. But I can’t help but feel let down and frustrated at what it has become. Maybe there’s a future where their future films excite me, or live up to something more than previous ones have. I actually see a future where Captain America 4 could be a really complex political thriller that deals with political and social issues in ways that superhero movies don’t seem to, yet I feel that I can’t trust Marvel with anything having been let down so much (and that movie in particular has had so many reshoots that I worry for the coherence of its plot as well). I know it’s not super neat or novel to hate on Marvel, but as a former fan, its frustrating to feel this.

I think Matthew Macfadyen, Emma Corrin, and Hugh Jackman are the highlights here despite my grander issues. Really loved a lot of what they did, and the end credits montage was really special to see. Perhaps the best parts of this film for me.

This movie is gonna please so many people; in fact I think it’s gotten pretty good reviews already. And that’s totally fine. I don’t want to make anyone feel like they can’t enjoy this movie. But I can’t help but feel like this movie (along with many other MCU multiverse projects) feel like such wasted potential and such let downs. They know they can get people excited with cameos and characters sharing the screen, but it seems at the cost of a good movie with a good story. And it feels like people are fine with this for the most part because they’re getting the fan service that they want. Maybe there’s not as big of a problem as I feel there is. But it’s frustrating that it feels like Marvel can make movies without a good story or elements, and people will eat it up because of the hype and because of the cameos and because of the characters that share the screen. I think Marvel needs to focus more on their storytelling than their cameos and teases, because movies should still hold on their own even if people seem to consume it just the same if it doesn’t. Multi-hundred-million dollar movies should aspire to be more.  

And I think people deserve better too.

Check out the original review posted on Letterboxd here.