'You know what, I actually DO prefer yellow spandex.' — Photos: Walt Disney Pictures Malaysia
First things first. Don’t read this review. In fact, don’t read ANY reviews at all, and stay off the Internet until you’ve watched this movie, because the number of shocks, surprises, and twists that the movie has packed into its two hour 10 minute runtime is best enjoyed when they explode in your face on the big screen, causing you to whoop, cheer, and maybe even make you tear up a little.
Still here? Ok, fine. I won’t be revealing any spoilers anyway, but be warned, this might still somewhat diminish your experience at the cinema.
(Oh, and maybe leave the little ones at home – this is the first ever R-rated movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and boy, have Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy let loose with the gore, violence, and swearing here.)
'I still can't believe Disney let us say that in an MCU movie!' — Photos: Walt Disney Pictures Malaysia
Anyway, the movie starts off with Wade Wilson (Reynolds) failing to get into the Avengers team, and deciding to give up being a superhero to become a used car salesman. But of course, it doesn’t stay that way for long (otherwise we might as well start calling him Carpool).
Along comes the Time Variance Authority (TVA), the timeline-guarding organisation that was introduced in the Loki TV series. There, one of the TVA’s officers, Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), tells Wade that his timeline is going to be destroyed, because it has lost its ‘anchor being’ – Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), who was killed in the Logan film back in 2017.
Eager to save the people he loves, Wade decides to go timeline hopping to find a replacement Wolverine, and eventually teams up with one with a whole lot of rage and emotional baggage. However, the TVA catches up with them and throw them into The Void (a.k.a the TVA’s landfill of discarded timeline variants), which is ruled by the evil and immensely powerful Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin).
'Charles? Who's Charles?'
Well, that’s enough story for now. For the rest, you’ll need to go experience it yourself, and trust me when I say that the less you know about it, the more fun it will be.
Marvel Comics once had a limited comic book series titled Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe, in which the Merc With A Mouth hops around the multiverse killing all the major Marvel superheroes. This movie reminded me of that, but the other way round.
Heck, they might as well have called it Deadpool Saves The Marvel Universe, because he has not only brought the MCU back from the dead, he even manages to drag the X-Men kicking and screaming along with him as well. (Oh, and the number of major cameos here will have you kicking and screaming as well).
'You know what? I don't want to play 'Whack the Pool' anymore.'
Speaking of the X-Men, this is also a love letter to the Marvel movies made by Fox. Deadpool and Wolverine both made their live-action debuts in that universe, and so it is fitting that they would be the ones who spearhead those characters’ charge into the MCU. And it is because of the actors who play the two roles that they have managed to pull it of so masterfully.
This movie would not have been possible without Reynolds and Jackman. Best buddies in real life, they look like they are having the time of their lives on screen.
Their chemistry is scintillating, even when they’re trying to out-gore each other with their assortments of claws, guns, and katanas. Oh, and their action sequences together are some of the most fun and gory ones ever in an MCU movie.
Sure, I don't mind doing this until I'm 90.
Boy, did the MCU need this. Ever since the Infinity Saga ended with Avengers Endgame in 2019, effectively retiring the old Avengers roster, the MCU has spent the last five years floundering in the Void of mediocrity, churning out movie after movie and TV show after show which, while entertaining, were growing increasingly formulaic and nowhere near the quality of the ones that had come before.
Deadpool And Wolverine, however, could well herald a new age of the MCU, one where anything goes, and where formula goes out the window, and writers rule.
It's a rip-roaring, utterly nonsensical, intensely violent film that not only throws the old Marvel formula book out the window, it riddles it with bullet holes, stabs it silly with a baby knife, burns it with a flamethrower, and even gets Dogpool to drool on its burning embers for good measure. To paraphrase the movie's now iconic tagline: Just. Freaking. GO.
Summary:
Just freaking go.
