*This article contains spoilers. Like, tons of them.*
I get why reviews of Deadpool and 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 and 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 and Wolverine is out in theatres
For a film with a questionable lead, it's kinda enjoyable?
Using the Speed Force, the Flash (played by Ezra Miller) goes back in time to prevent his mother from dying. But that one act of kindness has consequences that are rippled across the timelines.
Just when you think that superhero fatigue has set in, films like The Flash prove otherwise. It's a fun romp that is action-packed and still delivers the pathos. Ezra Miller, whom you've seen in previous films like the Fantastic Beasts series, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and that seven-second clip where Miller grabs a woman by the throat and throws her to the ground, is likeable as a superhero with inadequacy issues.
Despite the controversy around Miller's personal life, their character on screen is charismatic and winsome. When Miller's character interact with his younger self, there's a great distinction between the two Millers' personality that you almost forget that they are played by the same person. Miller is charming so much so that for two hours you're so caught up in the visual effects and story, you forgot that they were arrested and charged in Hawaii with disorderly conduct and harassment for a physical confrontation with patrons at a karaoke bar.
Drawing from the Flashpoint story arc from the Flash comic book, our protagonist discovers that he's able to use the Speed Force and travel back in time. He reasons that if he can do that, he'll be able to stop his mother's murder and exonerate his father who is wrongfully imprisoned for her murder. The movie dives into what happens when we change the past. And as with all time travel films you've seen, the answer is a resounding 'not great'. It is often with the best of intentions that the road to hell is paved.
Stopping his mother's murder has not only affected all that happens from the point of alteration, it has also affected events prior to it as well. Welcome to the multiverse as the Flash's actions splinters from the original timeline into many others thus giving birth to a future escape plan into retconning the DC universe.
In this current timeline, there's a new Batman and Superman never landed in Kansas as a baby. Instead—and this isn't a spoiler as the trailers have already given away—we get Michael Keaton as Batman and Sasha Calle as Supergirl. Keaton's Batman has a special place in my heart on being able to break the campy tone that Adam West had set up. He still has that slight impish twinkle in his eye as he gets to issue beat-downs in his batsuit (hey look, now Keaton can move his head in the Bat-cowl!). Calle looks great as Supergirl and can give Batman a run for his money in the brooding department. She doesn't say much but she commands the scene with equal parts physicality and vulnerability.
There's the pomp and circumstance that you expect with superhero films. The Flash is no different except that in the later half of the film, you get a little fatigued. Action sequences suddenly become flashy (my God, really?) and have no other reason than being a visual spectacle.
And speaking of 'visual spectacle', what is up with the CGI? They look off, like there wasn't enough time for animators to polish it up. According to director Andy Muschietti, the look was intentional because as we are seeing things from the Flash's perspective, light and textures operate differently when the Flash taps into the Speed Force or is time travelling in the Chrono Bowl.
This seems too... convenient. A crew member who worked on the movie had a different take on the CGI and given that The Flash was in development hell, it seems more likely to be a case of a poor "collaboration process between the effects companies and entertainment studios".
Another thing that got our goat is the ending. The big takeaway is that you cannot change the past because that screws up the timeline. The Flash undoes the damage but he still altered the past to exonerate his dad in the present. Of course, the timeline gets affected (again) and I can't help but think that everything the film does was unravelled just to set up that one jokey cameo.
There's something telling about a hero that doesn't learn from their mistake. That even after repeated misdemeanours, they still get to live out their life without any repercussions? What is this? The real world? I watch the movies to escape reality, damn it!
There are cameos galore. Watch out for easter eggs like an Elseworld of the aborted Nicholas Cage's Superman Lives and a realised version of the aborted Back to the Future version with Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly. There's also the staple superfluous end-credit scene and, if you wait long after that, we might see whether Ezra Miller is able to continue their career unscathed.
The Flash is now out in theatres.
