A resurrection, an odd pairing, and an official entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
So Deadpool finds a way to resurrect Wolverine, who died in the most recent standalone X-Men movie, 2017’s Logan. And then there’s the movie itself, which is a potent shot in the arm for the superhero genre that seems to be on the verge of dying both commercially and creatively. Recent years have just brought a string of box office and artistic misfires and underperformers like The Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and The Marvels.
Let’s talk numbers first. Deadpool & Wolverine is projected to make at least US$170 million and as much as $200 million at the US box office alone on opening weekend. That would make it the biggest opening weekend in history for an R-rated film. It will also easily land as the best debut of 2024, overtaking another Disney movie, Pixar’s sequel Inside Out 2, with $155 million.
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ is the bloodiest, goriest entry in the Marvel franchise yet. It’s also fun and funny.
It’s clear that the public’s record-breaking excitement was fueled by the unexpected and odd but inspired pairing of the two title characters (perhaps the most perfect combo of hot and cold, fire and ice, yin and yang we’ll ever get from the X-Men franchise), and, for more hardcore fans, their official entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This is one excellent way to move forward and make moviegoers glued to superhero movies again. Mixing and matching gives more bang for the movie buck, especially if it comes loaded with a host of other major surprises the way it does in Deadpool & Wolverine.” Without going into spoilery details, comic book fans in particular will probably geek out, perhaps in delirious glee, with all the stuff the movie throws in.
It’s the biggest reason, this delirious glee, why the movie works so well. Not that it hasn’t been the hallmark of Deadpool flicks; it’s just that it finds new expressions in the latest film—the aforementioned Marvel crossover and the throwbacks to once-beloved characters or box office favorites.
Even the self-lacerating humor feels fresh in the context of the corporate shakeup behind the scenes—this is the first film about the uninhibited, obscenity-spewing, very adult-oriented Merc with a Mouth to be released by the wholesome, family-friendly House of the Mouse. In fact, the sellout, in 2019, of 20th Century Fox to Disney did not escape Deadpool and he makes for a few comic barbs in the movie.
This intense glee does not come only in the film’s brand of freewheeling, self-referential, and fourth-wall-breaking fun and funny but also extends to its kind of cartoon violence, making D&W the bloodiest, goriest entry in the franchise yet. And, as the movie’s trailer suggests, a lot of it happens between the headlining superheroes. And it’s nothing short of bloody glorious. Gratuitous, yes, but glorious. And super satisfying.
The movie is so satisfying and feels quite fresh that you might not notice how templated it actually is, hewing closely to the usual flow of most Marvel movies, especially the ones in the last half decade; it starts in the “real” world and then the leads get thrown to some multiverse they spend all their time and effort trying to escape from before getting back to the main pursuit.
This kind of temporary derailment can sometimes come across as a cop out, even a form of cheating by filmmakers. Not in D&W. This middle section, in which the film practically becomes a road movie, is actually the strongest.
It’s where the fraught relationship between the dueling duo of Deadpool and Wolverine plays out, where the big cameos come in, and where the film lays out most of the exciting possibilities for the bright future of the X-Men and Avengers movie franchises.
That’s not just clever. It’s how this Deadpool movie stakes its claim of being Marvel Messiah. Long may he live.