Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe started with a whimper thanks to the critical and box office disappointments of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels. So in comes the Merc with a Mouth to save the MCU—the first film since 2012’s The Avengers to be the studio’s only release of the year. Luckily for Marvel, Deadpool & Wolverine—the third entry in the Deadpool franchise that started under 20th Century Fox—is exactly the crowd-pleasing blockbuster the company was looking for, already grossing over $1 billion in less than a month. Unfortunately for us, the threequel is a reminder of why the post-Endgame MCU films have been so underwhelming, and a bad omen of what’s to come.

Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) officially enters the MCU by way of the multiverse, which is a surprise to absolutely no one, as the storytelling gimmick has been beaten to death by Marvel in the post-Endgame era. (Ironically, Avengers: Endgame might be the MCU’s best multiverse film, without even emphasizing the multiverse.) After some convoluted plotting involving the Time Variance Authority, aka TVA (as seen on Loki), it’s revealed that Deadpool’s universe is ending because of the death of Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), as seen in James Mangold’s Logan, which, for the canon sticklers, makes no sense because the Deadpool films are set in the X-Men prequel quadrilogy, which is separate from the original X-Men trilogy’s timeline, which itself is separate from Logan’s timeline. Thinking it’ll save his world, Deadpool explores the multiverse and kidnaps a Logan variant, and the unlikely duo’s misadventures land them into the Void, a plane of existence at the end of time, ruled by Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin, The Crown), the sadistic twin sister of Professor Charles Xavier, who shares her brother’s telekinetic and telepathic powers.

The majority of the film is set in the Void, a barren wasteland which, unintentionally, serves as the film’s central thesis—Deadpool & Wolverine is a creatively bankrupt endeavor, one built on nostalgia, cameos, and the backs of earlier, better films from rival studios. Deadpool & Wolverine repeats many of the same tropes we’ve seen in earlier MCU multiversal films: the return of beloved, and hated-before-nostalgia-made-them-somehow-beloved, characters from before the Disney-MCU era; and the introduction of “new” characters fan-casted and/or from development hell. Seriously, why are audiences so excited to see the return of characters from movies they never liked in the first place?

And don’t go accusing me of “hating fun,” because I’ll just point to my review for Spider-Man: No Way Home, a film I enjoyed, but that also shares some of the same issues as Deadpool & Wolverine. Context matters—No Way Home arrived at the earliest stages of the MCU’s multiversal era, and the gimmick was a bit more fresh then; the latter comes on the heels of four years of the multiversal storytelling device in both MCU films and TV, and in better unrelated films like Sony’s Spider-Verse films and The Daniels’s Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Even Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, an MCU multiverse film I didn’t really like, at least benefited from being directed by a visionary filmmaker (Sam Raimi). Deadpool & Wolverine has… Shawn Levy, the guy behind Night at the Museum, Cheaper by the Dozen, and other Ryan Reynolds flicks like Free Guy and The Adam Project. (I do give Levy a pass, though, for directing The Internship.) Whereas Deadpool 2—the franchise’s highpoint—was from David Leitch, who has a history in the action genre as both a stuntman and director of films like John Wick and Bullet Train, whose skills were apparent in the film’s fun and well-executed action sequences, Deadpool & Wolverine’s action scenes are (with the exception of the opening scene) ugly, poorly-shot, frenetic, and, to its detriment, reference better action films like Mad Max: Fury Road and Oldboy.

Deadpool’s whole schtick has always been breaking the fourth wall and referential humor, which would make sense for a multiverse story reliant on callbacks. But Deadpool & Wolverine’s flaws are not entirely the fault of the multiverse. While I appreciate the Deadpool franchise for bringing raunchy humor and bloody action into the superhero film genre, it’s never been able to successfully marry its irreverent humor with real stakes. Take the beginning of Deadpool 2, for example: Deadpool’s fiance Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) is killed, and the next scene is a title sequence parodying James Bond, with punny credits. A major character just died, and now you want us to laugh? It just doesn’t work. All of the films have this problem.

Deadpool & Wolverine tries to tell us there are stakes—“I’m about to lose everything that I’ve ever cared about… My entire world is right here in this picture,” Deadpool says to Wolverine, holding up a group photo of the supporting cast from the first two Deadpool films that the threequel pushes aside in favor of its multiverse story—but writer/director Shawn Levy and his four co-writers (Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Zeb Wells) forget that showing is better than telling. The Wolverine co-leading this film is allegedly the “worst Wolverine” in the multiverse, something we’re told is true, but we never experience ourselves. (And when the big reveal is made explaining why he’s the worst Wolverine, you can’t help but think, that’s it?)

The worst thing Marvel did to the Deadpool franchise was prevent it from feeling like a real trilogy, a problem that has plagued Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy, the Doctor Strange duology, and the Ant-Man trilogy. Deadpool 2 felt like a natural progression from the first film, and the titular character relied on an eclectic group around him, but Deadpool & Wolverine treats the franchise’s original supporting cast as an afterthought (and doesn’t even care to mention two of its best characters, Josh Brolin’s Cable and Zazie Beetz’s Domino). The threequel repeats some of the same plot as the previous films, including: the forming of a ragtag team of heroes; pairing Deadpool up with a uber-serious, deadpan character; and said serious character’s tragic backstory that traumatizes him. Deadpool’s love of his life, Vanessa, was the heart of the first two films. And this time, not only is Vanessa barely in it, they’re also… broken up for some reason? 

The inclusion of the foul-mouthed, R-rated Deadpool into the MCU should feel like a positive development, but, instead, it feels like yet another example of a once-ambitious studio succumbing to its worst impulses. With the recent announcements that Marvel is bringing back the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War & Endgame) to direct the next two Avengers films, and bringing back Robert Downey Jr. to the franchise (this time, playing Doctor Doom), it shows they’re dedicated to playing it safe. But if Marvel is going to continue dominating the cinematic landscape, they should be giving us something unpredictable—in the end it’s right. That way, we can actually have the time of our lives.

Two out of four Kents.

‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ is currently playing in theatres.

Like what you’re reading? Consider supporting me on Ko-fi by donating just $3!