I have been feeling Marvel fatigue for some time and I’ve been relatively blasé around all the buzz surrounding Deadpool & Wolverine potentially shaking up the Marvel franchise. I haven’t read the comics, neither the Deadpool nor the X-Men ones, though I still distinctly remember my excitement when the first X-Men movie came out in 2000.

Fast-forward 24 years later, which marks the 10th time Jackman plays the role of Logan aka Wolverine, we finally get to see the fan-favorite character teaming up with Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool. It also marks the first time, Wolverine wears the comics-appropriate yellow spandex. I have to say that I initially had mixed feelings about Wolverine coming back after his glorious end in Logan, but I was also curious how the writers would handle his resurrection in this movie. Well, thanks to the Multiverse saga, death is never exactly final (just like in Star Wars when Luke Skywalker said ‘No one is ever really gone’).

So here we are, two of Hollywood’s most famous BFFs, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman team up in the first R-rated Disney superhero movie. Director Shawn Levy opens the movie in the most spectacularly impertinent fashion with the Merc with a Mouth hurling insults and biting the hand that feeds him, a.k.a. Disney, in his signature, irreverent and profane humor. It seems that Levy and Reynolds were given carte blanche to pretty much do whatever they wanted here, including staging some of the bloodiest, most violent action sequences that would make even John Wick wince.

There isn’t much about the plot to discuss here, and this isn’t the kind of movie that you watch for the plot anyway. What I will say is that I’m glad I have seen at least one season of the Loki series, because the TVA (Time Variance Authority), the bureaucratic organization tasked with preserving the Sacred Timeline is a crucial element in this movie. Matthew Macfadyen plays a TVA agent named Mr. Paradox who recruits Deadpool to [ho-hum] save the world. Macfadyen’s casting is one of the reasons I was excited for this movie and he’s fun to watch here where he gets to be a bit unhinged at times, which would please Succession fans.

The timeline might be sacred, but nothing else is. Deadpool makes fun of everything and everyone with his insanely meta humor while breaking the fourth wall. Not even Jackman’s own recent divorce is off-limits. To be fair, the writers should have included the fact that Reynolds’s ex-wife (Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow) is an Avenger, an elite group of superheroes Deadpool has always dreamed of being a part of. Speaking of writers, Reynolds co-wrote the script with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the original writers of the previous Deadpool movies. I imagine the scriptwriting sessions must have consisted of them coming up with the craziest and filthiest one-liners, more so than coming up with a coherent plot.

The movie is pretty much fueled by cheeky, deranged, and downright vulgar humor, boosted by stupefying cameos that got some of the biggest reactions in the theater. I’m glad I managed to avoid spoilers on social media about these special appearances, two in particular had me cheering the second each of them appeared. That’s all I’m going to say about the cameos as it’s best to enjoy this movie when you know as little as possible. What I can say is the movie is both a cheeky farewell and an homage to the 20th Century Fox era of the superhero franchise. There are plenty of references to previous MCU movies and non-Marvel movies, i.e. George Miller’s Mad Max franchise. The set piece for the villain’s headquarter seems to be modeled after the apocalyptic saga and Deadpool even makes a direct reference to the female heroine at one point.

Reynolds and Jackman play their title characters with aplomb, energized by their camaraderie and decades-long bromance. During their promo tour, Jackman revealed that it’s he who came up with the idea of Wolverine teaming up with Deadpool. The result is a mismatched buddy-cop mixed with road-trip comedy a la Planes, Trains and Automobiles where Logan is the crabby Steve Martin’s Neal and Wade is the clownish John Candy’s Del who pushes all his partner’s buttons.

Reynolds doesn’t stretch his acting muscles much but Jackman proves he’s a serious actor with a superhero-esque body. The quieter moments involving him and a person from his past are a poignant and welcome respite from the never-ending hysteria and loud fight sequences. I pretty much tune out during the graphic action scenes which get repetitive and banal after a while. The fight scenes feel like fillers to me, they don’t make much impact as the two characters have regenerative healing powers.

The returning cast members, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Karan Soni, and Leslie Uggams weren’t given much to do, though Uggams got the most laughs out of them as Deadpool’s equally irreverent Blind Al. One quip earlier in the film referencing Kevin Feige had me in stitches!! It’s no surprise that Feige is on board with this movie idea from the start, given he served as associate producer of the first X-Men movie two decades ago, and was even present during the Aussie actor’s audition. So this is a full-circle moment for him and Jackman, who at 55 still effortlessly rocks that yellow uniform.

Emma Corrin is an intriguing choice as the villain Cassandra Nova, Charles Xavier’s evil twin sister who’s never been featured in the X-Men movies. She’s basically the anti-Charles as she’s hellbent on revenge, but shares his bald head, as well as telepathy and telekinesis superpowers, able to skin her enemies alive with just a thought. Even with such terrifying genocidal tendencies, Corrin doesn’t exactly look all that menacing. In fact, the way she speaks here reminds me of her role as Princess Diana in The Crown, it’s especially amusing as her character also has issues with a family member named Charles.

So in the end, Deadpool & Wolverine won me over once again and it’s a blast to watch on IMAX. While I don’t think it’s the best MCU movie ever, it certainly is the most fun I’ve had watching a Marvel movie in a long while. Not every movie has to be a profound moviegoing experience but a Summer movie has to be entertaining and this one delivers on that front. I cackled and LMAO-ed quite often at the insane one-liners and insolent insults, mostly from Deadpool towards Wolverine ‘You’re joining [the MCU] at a low point’ Ouch! The scenes with Dogpool, aka the ugliest dog in the MCU and IRL, are pretty cute as well.

I’m getting tired of movies using contemporary songs in an anachronistic way, but I enjoy the seemingly random song choices here, from *NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye, to Chris de Burgh’s The Lady In Red, to Madonna’s Like a Prayer. Even Jackman’s own song from The Greatest Showman made it into the movie!

Amidst the bombastic action, silly breaking-fourth-wall sequences, and bonkers violence, the main theme here is friendship, so there is a heart in there somewhere beneath the mangled rubble. Perhaps there is something about Wade’s incessant quip about being ‘Marvel Jesus.’ Judging from the reaction on social media, starting with the record-shattering views of its trailer and likely its box office receipts this weekend, this movie surely is on track to send a jolt of excitement to MCU fans.

Have you seen Deadpool & Wolverine? Let me know what you think!

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