REVIEW: Deadpool & Wolverine is the most hilarious film you'll see this year

One of the most anticipated films of the year – and in recent years, since the purchase of 20th Century Fox by the Walt Disney Company in March 2019 -, Deadpool & Wolverine arrives in cinemas this week with great symbolism. So much Ryan Reynolds as Hugh Jackman, two great actors who join the select pantheon of brilliantly cast and unique artists to play their characters, have not worn their respective costumes for 7 years.

This time in a film whose plot is established within the mold of the known – and imitated – Marvel Cinematic Universe, Deadpool & Wolverine generated great expectations about the performance that the film would yield with the current creative and logistical crisis of Marvel Studios, the vein linked to the mutant universe and mainly about the insertion of characters and actors into the UCM plot – even targeting the not so late “Avengers: Secret Wars”.

O showmetech saw the film in advance at the invitation of Disney and brings the review without spoilers of Deadpool and Wolverine below.

Brief history of the film (and no spoilers)

The history of Deadpool & Wolverine explores the story of Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) suffering the punishment for what he caused during his second film, released in 2018. With Cable's (Josh Brolin) time jump device coordinated by Negasonik (Brianna Hildebrand) and Yukio (Shiori Kutsuna), Deadpool commits successive trips through time, rewriting the fate of these lines.

With that, the AVT (Time Variance Authority, seen in Loki) goes to Wade's timeline to arrest him for his crimes. Deadpool's own timeline becomes the target of AVT's pruning, as a form of humor, after Disney's acquisition of Fox, since the stories produced by Fox are not interconnected with that of Marvel Studios itself.

To save the people he loves from extinction, Deadpool will try to prevent his timeline from being pruned by the AVT. To do this, he has a lot of help from a variant of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). In this mission that appears to be quite complicated, the duo faces, in addition to several AVT agents and characters sent to the Temporal Void, a great villain called Cassandra Nova. She is the twin sister of Charles Xavier, with psychic abilities that are just as strong, capable of manipulating and reading minds, accessing memories and controlling objects with the power of thought.

In addition to being the firstborn of the X-Men, Cassandra is a leader of an existing rebellion in the Void, which hunts freshly pruned trees to feed Alioth, the great cloud that protects the Citadel of the End of Time, also seen in the Loki series.

Simple script with a lot of fan-service (familiar?)

Now contextualized on what you can expect narratively from the plot of Deadpool 3, the narrative skeleton of Deadpool & Wolverine, in general and analytical terms, is pretty simple, which not only supports, but engages through the fan service. And let's be clear: this is not the biggest problem. Hollywood as a whole is facing this creative gap and has been focusing on adaptations, reinterpretations and remasters of various artistic works.

When such an approach is used, there is a fear of losing its charm for the uninitiated. As it is the first film of a character from the old to the new Fox – now called Century Studios – we can establish Deadpool & Wolverine as a “Endgame” from these decades of Marvel films that came with a Fox subscription, including the Fantastic Four duology in the 2000s, and even films from different studios as old as that. I.e, all the magic behind the film is “8 or 80”, depending on how old or a fan (or both) you are.

The construction of the film is reminiscent, from start to finish, of “Spider-Man: No Way Home”: a film that presents an uncomplicated story, related to the multiverse and full of fan-services that yielded memorable moments. The entire successful formula seen in Jon Watts' film is replicated here, with Shawn Levy, with surprise moments and notable appearances evenly occupying all of the film's acts.

What could be dangerous in terms of infodemic, Deadpool's third feature film knew how to balance the tones of the scenes very well, not only between comical and serious scenes, but also even between the “interlocutors” – be it the typical jokes of Mercenary Chatterela and his way of convincing Wolverine to help him or the grumpy scenes of Wolverine and his weight of conscience related to your world. Supporting characters are great allies in comedy, not being just mere quick participations. Your screen times are perfect, I was even more enchanted by this factor.

Lastly, I must point out that Deadpool & Wolverine é another Deadpool movie. As obvious as it is and as much as Kevin Feige and company ensured that our good old anti-hero wouldn't go through a fine-toothed comb with the integration, there were still those fears hanging in the air, especially about the story, the dialogues, etc. So, Deadpool fans, rest assured: The third film is the best of the trilogy and the funniest, by far. Its ending honors Ryan and Hugh's legacy to the role and manages to finish what it built throughout, without loose ends or lazy explanations.

Unique performances from actors born for these roles

As was pointed out in the previous topic about the balance of scenes and tones, this mix of scenes was very beneficial due to the vivid, pulsating and spectacular performances from Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds as Wolverine and Deadpool, respectively. It will be an arduous task, in a future where we will see other actors occupying these spaces (which I hope will be very distant). The two manage to switch between a joke and suffering in seconds, not to mention the absurd and extraordinary chemistry that the two have with each other. How good it is to work with a friend, right?

One biggest highlights of the entire film is the performance of emma corrin as Cassandra Nova. Due to the high proposal and level of demand that Deadpool & Wolverine had, the villain had less screen time than usual for a major antagonist in these types of films. Even more so due to the different changes of motivations that the villain goes through throughout the film, it would be difficult for an actress with less expression or less stage presence to perform in this role and still generate grandeur. Therefore, Emma's choice was crucial for the character; you can feel his villainy and his power.

Generally, all the actors and actresses present do an excellent job. Some with more tasks to complete in the middle of the scene, which works perfectly well.

Action scenes and special effects

Since the latest special effects fiascos seen in “Thor: Love and Thunder”, “She-Hulk” and “Miss Marvel”, Marvel Studios has once again taken a cautious look at the department, which previously had no problems. When we analyze the importance that Deadpool & Wolverine carries, it's clear that the studio wouldn't dare deviate even by an iota of curve. The special effects are very good, like every other film in Marvel's Infinity Saga, no major complaints or protagonisms.

As fight choreography, however, were very well designed. The clash between the heroes with the greatest healing factors in Marvel is satisfying, going beyond the creativity largely due to the mutants' ability to regenerate. Each one has their own way of fighting, preserving the characters' own characteristics and not getting carried away by the context.

Chronology with the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Deadpool 3 is predominantly set in the Deadpool universe itself, the same one in which the first two films took place, in addition to the film itself Temporal Void and AVT headquarters, explained and already seen in the Loki series. Therefore, Deadpool & Wolverine participates in the Marvel Studios timeline, but does not reach impact nothing in the general organizational chart.

It is a proposal that is being made more and more by Marvel in its films, such as “What If…?” and “Fantastic Four”, already confirmed by President Kevin Feige as a period film that takes place in another reality – let's face it, it works better on the multiversal part played by Marvel since then and enriches it, at the same time, for the future power do something symbolic and meaningful.

Since the purchase of Fox, the other X-Men and Fantastic Four films produced so far have entered the Marvel Multiversal Universe, associated with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, considered the “main” in this medium. As well as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man films.

It seems confusing, but it's a way of putting everything in black and white. For those new to this passion for superhero films, there is possibility of continuing loyalty to the core Marvel Studios line; for the most passionate, there is a valuable recognition to the other films that helped establish the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it.

Is there a post-credits scene?

Yes, Deadpool & Wolverine there is only a post-credit scene and a “special moment” – that’s all I can say, without spoilers – during the credits.

Need to see something first?

When it comes to Marvel Studios, for now, there is still the rule of having seen other productions to better understand what is going on. For Deadpool & Wolverine, it helps a lot if you have seen the two seasons of “Loki” e "Logan". As optional, in the sense that you can capture references expressed both in dialogue and in appearances in the film, it is worth having seen the other films from Marvel's “prehistoric” era, including the saga X-Men, Fantastic Four, demolisher, Blade etc.

After all, as we saw in the trailer, there are appearances by characters who were part of the core X-Men films in the film, such as Tyler Mane (Sabretooth), Aaron Stanford (Pyro), Kelly Hu (Lady Lethal) and Azazel (Jason Flemyng) – and, if it’s any consolation, there’s a lot more to come.

Much more than mining old Fox productions, a big leap forward in Deadpool & Wolverine it's in the knowledge about the relationship between Marvel and cinema. There are several jokes involving actors and productions from a long time ago, even from films that were not even finished.

Therefore, to improve your experience, here is a list of suggested films that you should see first:

• Loki (2020-) – both seasons | Disney+
• X-Men (2000) | Disney+
• X-Men 2 (2003) | Disney+
• X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) | Disney+
• X-Men: First Class (2011) | Disney+
• Logan (2019) | Disney+

Conclusion

Deadpool & Wolverine is a film that meets expectations. It's the movie most hilarious of the year, with great well-thought-out scenes, with Deadpool in his most comic-book faithful state and the way we love. Wolverine also gets an extra plus, with all interactions between mutants working very well, whether in extreme beating, in pins, in reconciliations or in moments of high dramatic charge. With one very simple story e entirely based on fan-service it is us events narrated in the first season of Loki, the third Mercenário Tagarela film is a film that either you will understand and go crazy, or that you will just understand – nothing new, right?

The film is directed by a person so passionate about comics as we saw with James Gunn in the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, which totally affects the quality of the production. Your script is one of the strongest comedically that I have ever seen, with genius jokes and ideas and which maintains the same signature Deadpool, intact even with the merger of Disney and Fox. The collaboration of Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds, once again, delivers a top-notch film. Both the action scenes, special effects and individual performances are very good, and add to the quality in a complementary way.

Lastly, Deadpool & Wolverine is an great ending to the golden and dark periods of Fox and especially to Deadpool and Wolverine by Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, who will be greatly missed.

When does Deadpool & Wolverine premiere?

Deadpool & Wolverine premieres from July 25th in Brazilian cinemas. An estimated date for the film's inclusion in the Disney+ catalog has not been confirmed, which should happen sometime between October and November.

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Source: Disney

Text proofread by: Pedro Bomfim