DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE

The MCU has finally done it. 34 films in, with Deadpool & Wolverine, it has given us it’s first R-Rated (15 in the UK) movie. 

And what a blast it was.

I’m not even going to bother outlining the plot for this one because, while there is one, it is clearly not the point. Instead, Deadpool & Wolverine sets out to bring the fun back to the franchise with a plethora of non-stop jokes, over the top action and irresistible chemistry between its leads.

And it really hits the ground running. Its first moments are a brilliant fight scene and some really funny dialogue. Dialogue that Ryan Reynolds does better than pretty much everyone else.

And it carries this on for the entire two hour run time. It is relentless, barely stopping for breath before the next joke. And maybe not all of them land, but the vast majority of them do. Deadpool & Wolverine is the most I have laughed in the cinema all year.

It has some brilliant musical cues to accompany the fight scenes takes aim at the very premise of the Multiverse saga.

It is self referential, fourth wall breaking, and far more critical of its paymasters than anyone else would have the guts to be, and this all works to its credit. It gives us something that we have never had in the previous 33 films and it is something that the franchise badly needed.

Deadpool & Wolverine dives headfirst into the premise and gives the audience exactly what they were promised.

Where previously films like Multiverse of Madness have felt reticent to go all in, Deadpool & Wolverine shows no such restraint and in doing so sends a clear message to Marvel and Disney. 

Take some risks.

We had had 33 films of what the MCU is, and now we need to look forward at what the MCU should be in the future. And Deadpool & Wolverine should be its first steps into that. Into a place where is sheds the shackles of what it used to be and becomes, once again, event cinema. 

It can only do that by taking some risks and becoming something new. The old is still there. It’s available for anyone to watch whenever they want to. But if the MCU wants to survive it must evolve.

That being said, its no secret that there are cameos here. I won’t give any of them away, but they are really well done. They never feel forced, as if they’ve been put in because the writers don’t know what else to do. They are well thought out, some of them fun easter eggs, and most of them serving a purpose to the plot.

Each surprise appearance was genuinely welcome and, if you can, I’d recommend going in blind as to who will show up.

There are problems, of course. As mentioned, the plot is largely superfluous. There purely because there needed to be some semblance of one. And it is, as ever, about 15 minutes too long.

But none of that particularly bothered me. Because I was just having so much fun with it.

Is Deadpool & Wolverine going to save the MCU? No. It is a singular event that, while a whole heap of fun, won’t work every time.

But it does show the MCU what it needs to do if it wants to survive. It has to take risks. It has to move out of it’s comfort zone and do something different.

Marvel Jesus isn’t going to resurrect the franchise all on his own, but he is beckoning it towards the light. If Kevin Feige and Disney are willing to follow though… That remains to be seen.

(And stay for the post credits scene. It’s their best in a long time)