I'm not really sure how to review "Deadpool & Wolverine," because this movie is doing a lot, and is going to be different things to different audiences. This definitely needs to be split into non-spoiler and spoiler posts, and this one will be the non-spoiler review. Let's set the stage first.
Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is taking a break from being the superhero Deadpool, after he was rejected by the Avengers and broke up with his girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). Attempts to live a normal life, however, are unfulfilling. One day he's arrested by the Time Variance Authority, in charge of multiversal matters, where a guy named Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) tells Wade his whole timeline is going to be destroyed because the "anchor being" for his timeline has died - one Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Wade is spurred to go universe hopping to find another Wolverine - any Wolverine - to save his timeline and everyone in it from doom.
It is equally important to know that Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019, gaining control over all the Marvel characters that Fox had the rights to, including "The X-men" and "Fantastic Four." Disney plans to make their own versions in the future. A few characters like the fourth wall breaking Deadpool will carry over, but for the most part Disney has consigned the Fox-created Marvel movies to obscurity, and "Deadpool & Wolverine" turns out to be a weirdly earnest exploration into what that might look like for the unwanted characters involved, using all the MCU multiversal nonsense set up over the past few years by the "Loki" series and the last "Doctor Strange" movie. Viewers can expect cameos galore, pulling from a bunch of late 90s and 2000s era Fox superhero films, Deadpool's anarchic commentary offering very little help for the uninformed, and obscure in-jokes every few seconds.
So,"Deadpool & Wolverine" is pretty good as a curtain call for the Fox superhero movies (with a nostalgic elder Millennial soundtrack to boot), but that's not going to be enough to satisfy general audiences. It's been far too long since most of those movies came out, and most viewers simply will not care. Fortunately, "Deadpool & Wolverine" is also trying to be several others movies, and we may as well just review all of them separately:
Does this movie work as a buddy film? Reasonably well, when the film decides it wants to be a buddy film, which is not often enough. Hugh Jackman is a better straight man than Josh Brolin, and Jackman and Ryan Reynolds have pretty good chemistry. You absolutely buy that these two would work well together after being at each other's throats for a while, and that hanging around with Deadpool would get Wolverine to finally lose it and bring some real satisfying R-rated comic book violence to the screen.
Does this movie work as a comedy? Sometimes. The problem is that some of the callbacks are so obscure, a high percentage of them just aren't going to hit. Still, Ryan Reynolds' motormouth routine is as filthy and vulgar and oddly charming as always, and by now audiences know whether the Deadpool schtick is for them or not. I do appreciate that there's room for other characters in the film to be funny, and that there's some good, old-fashioned slapstick, very stupid puns, and decent character humor amidst all the references, so at least there's variety.
Does this movie work as an MCU movie? Well, it certainly operates by the formula for one. The Marvel money is put to good use, making the action sequences look cool and paying for stuff the other "Deadpool" movies couldn't afford. I like that the requisite British villains, including one performed by a creepy Emma Corrin, are all played straight. They help us to take at least a little of the plot more seriously, even though the attempts to inject some emotional stakes all feel pretty awkward. There's really not much of a story here, except some leftovers from "Loki" and a second act stolen from "Furiosa," but I'm not watching MCU movies for the plot.
Does this movie work as a Wolverine movie? I'd say that "Deadpool & Wolverine" actually works very well as a Wolverine movie. They avoid stepping on the toes of "Logan," lean into the fan wish-fulfillment, and it really is good to see Hugh Jackman back onscreen playing any version of Wolverine again. I'm not saying I want this to be a regular occurrence, but there aren't many characters as iconic as Wolverine where nobody's really played around with their screen image very much. Boy do the filmmakers make up for that here.
Finally, does this movie work as a "Deadpool" movie? Yes. It feels a little wrong that a "Deadpool" movie is this expensive, but the fourth wall breaking has never been more extreme, Deadpool has never felt more zany and comics-accurate, and getting some closure on the Fox superhero universe feels like Deadpool's meta powers being used for good for once.
I'll get into many more of the spoilery details next time.
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