*This article contains spoilers. Like, tons of them.*
I get why reviews of Deadpool & Wolverine are divided. Half the critics mostly found the countless cameos and fourth wall breaking quips a tad excessive. The other half essentially reveled in these very mainstays.
Both are right. If you found Deadpool movies seasoned with inside jokes, it's safe to say that the third instalment practically triples it to the point where characters barely stop to catch a breath between them. Yet if anything, that's Deadpool DNA; manifesting in yellow speech bubbles per panel long before they were spoken gags in cinemas.
Whilst everyone is busy googling Full Cast/Every Easter Egg/All Marvel References the minute they leave theatres (What? Rob McElhenney? Matthew McConaughey??), the film itself felt very much like a full circle moment.
Apart from Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman being obvious BFFs IRL, the pairing's significance runs deeper than what it seems. The longstanding history between the two Marvel favourites goes from as rudimentary as Wade Wilson's origin story AKA Wolvie genes, to how they've been cinematically intertwined over the years. Deadpool 2 literally opens with "F— Wolverine".
Wolverine's very first spinoff movie was also where the merc with the mouth was first introduced to live-action audiences ...albeit in the worst possible way. (A wrong which its actor has since been on an unending mission to right, leading us to where we are today. Now look what you made him do.)
If this be the true swan song of Hugh Jackman's adamantium mutant, it's only apt that it culminates in a Deadpool threequel. It also gives double meaning to the movie posters. Would it be too far-fetched to speculate that not only is it a visual nod to X-Men ties, but the roman numeral marking as the 10th time the Australian heavyweight appears as Wolverine on screen?
Damn near choked up seconds before their big heroic move when Deadpool tells Wolverine he waited a long time for this team up.
Atop being the studio's only theatrical release of 2024, the movie is the franchise's MCU debut (as it never fails to repeatedly point out). This provided a much bigger pool of references to draw from, and boy did they. Still, the most meaningful were the many Wolverine variants. Anatomically accurate short king, Patch, James Howlett...
...this iconic cover.
Even the blink-and-you'll-miss-it feature of Bruce Banner's alter ego is a callback to Wolverine's launch—in an issue of The Incredible Hulk.
And of course, the moment he put the cowl on. C'mon.
Grown men were pretty much sobbing on set at the sight of the actor in classic costume during camera test, according to Executive Producer Wendy Jacobsen in a HeyUGuys article. The audible awe in theatres echoed the same sentiment.
Honestly, initial reactions to Wolverine's return in the early trailers included a mental prep for potential disappointment due to the cash grab (or in Reynold's words: big, fat Marvel paycheck) nature of it. But witnessing the 55-year-old once again pour his emotions into the beloved tortured soul came as a stark reminder of his irreplaceability.
To crouch and growl animalistically without being overtly cringey is one thing; to carry the same magnetism in his vulnerability as in his action sequences is not something we're 100 percent sure the Cavillrine can pull off, aesthetically fitting as the fancast was.
It's admittedly heavy on the nostalgia. Especially amidst the bevy of forgotten characters (a Pyro VS Human Torch standoff? God bless us all). Plus that post-credit montage. Even the shirtless scene—brilliantly set up with the divorce jab—akin to X-Men: The Last Stand's everything-goes-except-the-pants finale.
Sidenote: Is it really accidental that what he dons after is a TVA jacket?
If you think about how long these actors have played these characters (nearly quarter of a century for Mr Jackman), and in tandem, how long viewers have watched them since, it's understandable for the movie to have the same effect as chancing upon a song you heard in your youth.
And if you've ever watched one of those behind-the-scenes documentaries about how much goes into making a movie, you'd know the superhero suit probably took multiple rounds in costume department finding the right hue (had to physically restrain myself from a pun there) of yellow that correctly matches the comics while simultaneously not translate as tacky on screen.
Not to mention studio complications and immense pressure on writers and all relevant teams. Surely these efforts count for some credit. As Kevin Feige acknowledges about character resurrection: It can be done—if great care is taken.
In the context of a bigger picture that is cultural zeitgeist, we'd argue that what Deadpool & Wolverine did was not pandering, but a love letter to the entities and universes that hold a special place in our hearts (yeah felt just as geeky writing it, but let this corner of the internet have it).
So no, this is not a movie review. It's an appreciation post of an appreciation post.
Deadpool & Wolverine is out in theatres
