Deadpool & Wolverine Review: Driven by Cameos

Deadpool & Wolverine is so jam-packed with cameos that it feels driven entirely by future MCU entries, but the acting, choreographies, and nostalgia still make it worth the watch.

So heavily, in fact, that it wants to make you nostalgic for characters that aren’t even in the film.

On paper, Deadpool & Wolverine should absolutely work. It brings back two characters we love – Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool, whom we last saw in Deadpool 2 four years ago, and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, whom we thought we’d never see again after his death in Logan – and builds a story around them that sees them teaming up to do what they do best: saving the world. Neither of them can die, thanks to their healing powers, which means that, in terms of both storytelling and stunts, the possibilities are endless.

Yet, something feels missing from this latest Deadpool chapter, directed by Shawn Levy (Free Guy) and written by Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, and Paul Wernick. While the storytelling in both Tim Miller’s Deadpool (2016) and David Leitch’s Deadpool 2 (2018) is certainly not revolutionary, both films have so much personality that it’s easy to root for their flawed but well-meaning protagonist. Past Deadpool movies were made by different filmmakers, but they both felt part of a whole, with a strong emotional core and the specific brand of humor we’ve come to expect in Deadpool films, starting with their hilariously self-aware opening credits.

Sadly, Deadpool & Wolverine feels like the opposite of what came before it, with a narrative that would appear to be driven entirely by the 20th Century Fox characters Marvel might want to make movies about in the future. It’s a film that favors cameos over narrative, giving you plenty of clever references, unexpected appearances, and gorgeous sequences of our heroes in action that are bound to please fans of the graphic novels. Yet, underneath all that nostalgia, we’re left with characters that are definitely more one-dimensional than they used to be, which leads to a pretty forgettable story overall.

So how does one bring back characters who are either dead or have never been associated with the MCU in the past? By doing what plenty of superhero movies – including both the pre-Disney acquisition X-Men universe and the the MCU itself – have done before: enlisting the help of the multiverse. When Deadpool & Wolverine begins, Wade Wilson is a toupeed car salesman who left his Deadpool days behind and who isn’t exactly satisfied with his life, but who still has friends who care about him enough to throw him a Birthday party.

But our hero’s days as an ordinary man are over. Soon, the TVA – or Time Variance Authority, which you’ll be familiar with if you’ve seen Loki – comes knocking on his door. By now, you know the drill: Wade is taken to headquarters, where an agent named Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen, of Succession) reveals that his world is destined to come to an end. He explains that all universes have “anchors” which prevent them from collapsing, but that, when Wolverine died (in Logan), his sacrifice was so epic that it broke the timeline. As a consequence, both Wade and his friends will soon cease to exist – sooner rather than later, if Paradox has it his way. But if the TVA agent has a plan, Wade has one of his own too: he’s going to find a Logan from another universe and make him his own timeline’s new “anchor”. To quote Tony Stark, “Not a great plan.”

To Wade’s credit, he does eventually find a Wolverine to bring back to the TVA, but he happens to be – in the best Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness tradition – the one Logan who disappointed his entire universe. “Welcome to the MCU,” Wade tells him, “You’re joining at a low point.” And that’s where our heroes’ journey begins.

It’s best to leave it at that to avoid spoilers, though if you’ve seen the trailer, you might have an idea of what comes next. Deadpool and Wolverine find themselves in an unfamiliar place with a bunch of characters you’ll recognize if you remember all the previous MCU, X-Men, and Fox movies they were in; some are trying to kill them and others might turn out to be allies. And then there are new characters that only comic book fans will be familiar with. But what you’ll remember the most are all the self-aware jokes about the film’s budget for cameos, Disney acquiring Fox, and the status of the MCU. These jokes are pretty much told over and over again on a loop, to the point where they replace the movie having any plot at all.

“Fox killed him, Disney brought him back; they’re gonna make him do this till he’s ninety,” says Wade halfway through the film, talking about Wolverine, and that’s precisely the point. The MCU embracing the multiverse means that no one is ever really dead, as each of our favorite characters could come back anytime as a variant, if the franchise decides to make another movie about them. Logan did a great job of bidding farewell to Wolverine, but Deadpool & Wolverine undermines it, at least in part, by giving him a new beginning that certainly isn’t as heroic as the movie thinks it is. The same can be said of the many, many cameos of characters who are bound to reappear in future MCU entries.

Deadpool & Wolverine is not not enjoyable. The music and choreographies are fantastic, and there’s a wonderfully morbid scene you’ll want to rewatch on repeat, even though it comes at the expense of the opening credits Deadpool is known for, and the dancing part of it feels tailor-made for fan videos on TikTok. At least three sequences will have you in fits, and one cameo in particular will surprise you in the best possible way. All performances are great, but Hugh Jackman is the standout: there’s a scene at the end where he delivers the most emotional scene of the movie with facial expressions alone, and you’re immediately reminded of just how good of an actor he is.

Even if his character is mainly used for exposition, Matthew Macfadyen still brings some comic relief, and Rob Delaney and Karan Soni, who return as Peter and Dopinder, are excellent despite their limited screen time. It’s best if you don’t know too much about who Emma Corrin plays, but they absolutely own the character, even if those who are unfamiliar with the graphic novels might struggle to get invested in this part of the story. And then there’s Dogpool, who is quite simply, to quote another character in the X-Men universe, “perfection.”

Whether or not you’ll enjoy Deadpool & Wolverine depends entirely of your knowledge of the MCU, previous X-Men movies, other Fox films, and graphic novels that are all referenced here. If you’re familiar with all of them, the film is bound to make you nostalgic and have you excited for the future of the franchise. If, like me, you prefer characterization and storytelling over cameos, you sadly won’t find much here.

Deadpool & Wolverine will be released globally in theaters on July 24-26, 2024.