'Deadpool & Wolverine' Review: A Frenzied Meta-Mass-Up Just For Fans

The last time we saw Deadpool, the anti-superhero with a mouth, was a pandemic and an entire presidency ago. It’s been six years since the “mercenary with a mouth” graced the big screen in 2018’s “Deadpool 2,” and since then, there have been corporate mergers and acquisitions that left star Ryan Reynolds’ iconic character adrift with questions about his future. What was Disney, of all studios, going to do with this hyper-violent scoundrel who only works in blue?

Instead of washing his mouth out with soap, Marvel boss Kevin Feige has crowned the Crimson Madman the official Clown Prince of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — but only under strict supervision. That’s right, Deadpool has gotten himself a babysitter, another refugee from Disney’s takeover of 20th Century Fox: Wolverine himself (Hugh Jackman). The two have been paired up for “Deadpool & Wolverine,” a crossover event that’s also a Viking funeral of sorts and a salute to the Marvel era of 20th Century Fox.

Reynolds has brought back his “Free Guy” and “The Adam Project” director Shawn Levy for this film, while “Deadpool 2” director David Leitch has moved on to other projects. Reynolds and Levy have teamed up with franchise screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, as well as “Robot Chicken” veteran Zeb Wells, to write the script.

It’s a unique script, comprised almost entirely of quips, references, fourth-wall breaks, celebrity gossip, Hollywood insider information, swipes at other movie studios, ironically retro needle usage, and trash culled from mid-2000s movie discussion boards. Plot? Pointless. Characters? Sparse. Motivation? Eh. But check out these cameos. It feels like “The Internet: The Movie,” but an Internet populated solely by Gen Xers and older millennials who self-publish their books with power.

At the risk of giving away anything about the film’s theme, the story follows Deadpool as he recruits Wolverine to help him save his own corner of the multiverse — because Deadpool likes his friends. This rough-around-the-edges version of Wolverine, a.k.a. Logan, could benefit from a little personal redemption anyway, though most of the footage finds them bickering incessantly in what is essentially an enemies-to-lovers story.

The film’s tremendously powerful villain, Cassandra Nova, is played by a bald Emma Corrin, though the real villain is a corrupt corporate mobster (Matthew Macfadyen) obsessed with ruthless efficiency and streamlining. Her character, along with several other notable jabs at “the guys next door” (i.e., Warner Bros.), essentially turns “Deadpool & Wolverine” into a slightly cheeky Disney song aimed at another Burbank-based movie studio that makes superhero movies for a different comic book publisher. How’s that for regional humor?

With this movie, you're either already in the tank of Reynolds' snarky, self-referential material, or watching this sounds like absolute hell. I happen to be in the latter camp, but with so many jokes fired with the cadence of a semi-automatic weapon, at least some are going to hit home, and there are some laughs to be had (I'm not made of stone). A focus on superheroes of the past, and even the future, makes for a fascinating analysis of corporate media, and someone needs to seriously investigate Deadpool's queer sexual politics.

But “Deadpool & Wolverine” isn’t a movie that transports or excites or even entices beyond seeing which stars were willing to show up for a few days of work. Characters make meaningless speeches and engage in meaningless fights. Who wants to watch two superheroes with famously robust regenerative powers stab each other a lot?

Levy fails to stage the action in any interesting way. His visual style isn't particularly innovative, and when he's not mimicking the style of other projects for reference, almost everything is staged in Marvel style: wide shots and medium shots, with lots of overhead angles on the biggest fights to see everyone running around like ants. It all blurs together into a din that's more boring than anything else.

Deadpool’s provocations seem so silly and provincial this time, with all his protests about whether Disney will “allow” them to talk about cocaine onscreen. But Deadpool is and always has been a fake bad guy and a tryhard. While it will likely amuse its target audience of geeks and Internet geeks, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is a lot of hot air and little else.

Walsh is a film critic for the Tribune News Service.