Deadpool & Wolverine & Bad Writing

*Spoiler Warning*

I spent about two hours taking notes and discussing what did and didn’t work about this film, but I need to go about this review differently to truly get my point across. The MCU should have ended after Avengers: Endgame, nothing has reached the heights originally set out by the concept nearly perfected with the first three phases of this cinematic universe. The financial success of the series set in stone that giving these characters a proper ending would never happen.

What originally drew millions to this universe were the characters. It was cool to see these characters have arcs that lasted not only in one film, but that spanned across several movies. Now, the only arc that is consistent across these films is sadness and disappointment from audiences. But I digress.

Deadpool & Wolverine has some really funny jokes and the performances are fine, it blesses us by only being around two hours long instead of nearly three like most modern blockbusters. The runtime is a good thing because the story is very simple and heavily relies on plot conveniences to drive the movie foreword. More than once things just happen in because if they didn’t our heroes would be directionless and standing around.

Bringing back Hugh Jackman as Wolverine was not needed. His performance was okay, this story wasn’t different or impactful enough to bring the character back. He’s depressed that the X-Men died, blaming himself for it, and Deadpool helps him cope with that by the end of the movie. It’s not only character development we’ve seen before, but we’ve seen it done better.

Speaking of bringing back actors, the film is full of comeos from characters across the Marvel movies. There is one in particular that adds nothing to the story which is Laura from Logan. I have no idea why she’s in this movie. It’s not made clear if she’s the one from Logan or from a different timeline, she doesn’t help with Wolverine’s character development, and she ends up back in Deadpool’s world with the group at the end of the movie even though it implies she died in the Void. I am going to assume that she was added last minute because there is no point in her being in the movie whatsoever and (arguably) the conversation she shares with Wolverine derails from the plot.

This leads me to complain about the use of Logan as a movie in this film. I love Logan, it’s my favorite superhero movie ever. I don’t have a problem with bringing back Wolverine as a character, but the way they go about it in this film was boring honestly. The movie starts with Deadpool literally digging up his grave. There are multiple times when the characters talk about the events in Logan and it feels like a slap in the face.

I don’t mean to be that guy, they even make a joke about how fans will be upset that this tarnishes the legacy of Logan. That joke is the root of my main issue with Deadpool & Wolverine. Everyone is loving this film because of the cameos and the meta jokes it makes about the MCU. So, let me get this right, the MCU is in such a state of “terrible” that the only way to appeal to its fans is by throwing cameos into their movies for jokes, or by having Deadpool be a mouth for the studio to complain about the bad movies that THEY made??? Rather than make a good movie they decided to make a film where Deadpool says, in a movie that takes place within the multiverse saga of the MCU, “Can we just stop with the multiverse stuff?”

Watching Deadpool & Wolverine to laugh or be entertained, is a completely different experience than watching it as a fan of the MCU. To watch it as a fan of the MCU feels like being gaslit into thinking it is okay that the MCU started to try and shove diverse and political opinions down our throats, because “Look guys, Deadpool made a joke about the woke mobs, so it’s all good. Please come back and watch our movies.” It’s so sad to see what not five years ago was the king of blockbuster storytelling, be brought down to making jokes at itself as the only way to make money.

This meta-comedy brings a big problem to the script, which is that it constantly makes jokes about how dumb it is that things are interconnected and then relies on your knowledge of past MCU projects to fully grasp what is happening. At certain points, it goes “look this random character from this obscure past project!” and then in the next scene, there will be a character that if you haven’t seen a different obscure past project (or projects that never existed) you have no idea who anyone is or why they matter.

Some of the action is really fun, and the Deadpool legacy lives on as R-rated as ever, even under its new master, Disney. But when the movie was over, I couldn’t even remember the most of the jokes I had laughed at nor did it feel like anything in the film had consequences. Along with that, as an audience member, I left feeling pretty much nothing. If I could go to another timeline where Deadpool & Wolverine was never made, I’m not sure it would necessarily make my life better, but it certainly wouldn’t make it any worse.