What would the plot of “Deadpool and Wolverine” be anyway? They aren’t rivals. Their stars — Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman — are friends with a huge social media following. Plus Wolverine died in the movie, “Logan.”
So “D&W” is a MAD magazine send up of Marvel. It’s hilariously funny but it’s also more a souvenir, a victory lap rather than actual movie.
Here’s the headline: there is no Lady Deadpool. That was a canard made up for clickbait. Neither Blake Lively nor Taylor Swift is in the movie. But everybody else in the world is, it seems!
Here’s the deal: Wade Wilson aka Deadpool can’t get a job. He wants to join The Avengers, so he gets a meeting with Jon Favreau, aka Happy Hogan, who works for Tony Stark (even though Tony is dead). Hogan turns him down but not before there’s a lot of tongue in cheek banter about what Stark’s aide de camp actually does for the Avengers. There’s a lot banter in this movie.
Eventually, the movie’s idea reveals itself. Deadpool is recruited by the Timeline Department of Marvel. This is a joke because with all the multiverses, characters have now existed in many iterations, alive, dead, who knows what. Deadpool must go and find the right iteration of Wolverine to help him earn his stripes and rescue the world from the latest enemy. That happens to be Emma Corrin, former Princess Diana from “The Crown,” who is now the long lost sister of Charles Xavier from “X Men.”
What happens next, in lieu of an actual movie, is a hoot. Just as MAD Magazine might do, Deadpool and Wolverine run into a gang of 2nd tier Marvel superheroes who never got second movies, or franchises, or any respect. They are the miscellaneous Marvelites. They bring with them a ton of inside wink wink jokes about their characters, the actors who play them, the movies they were in, and so on. They break the fourth wall and maybe the fifth, delivering enough Easter eggs to fill several baskets.
Not that “D&W” is all talk, although Deadpool is still a motor mouth. Wolverine is an action hero, and there is plenty of it to counterpoint the chitchat. As they battle each other, and others, the special effects are outrageously good. It’s rated R, but the violence is cartoonish enough that Reynolds and Lively’s four young daughters were in the audience at the premiere.
But this so MAD magazine. A lot of the fun centers around Disney — home of Marvel — having bought and killed off 20th Century Fox, which had the X Men movies. Because the companies merged in real life, Deadpool and Wolverine can finally be in a buddy movie.
This point is driven home quite often. When the guys happen into a set that looks like “Mad Max” meets “Planet of the Apes,” the 20th Century Fox logo is sinking into the sand, just a ruin of its former glory. (Wait for the penultimate credits, which feature an emotional farewell to the “X Men” movies.)
Reynolds and Jackman are like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby on The Road to Marvel. They never miss a beat. Their comic timing is flawless. For Reynolds especially, the quipping never ends. At one point, Deadpool suggests Wolverine perform the second act of “The Music Man” — in which Jackman starred on Broadway. I wish the big screen had had closed captions. But you will hear jokes about Jackman’s real life divorce, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner’s, and so on. There were a couple of gasps in the movie theater when some it went too far. But the jokes stop short of anything hurtful. It’s all in fun.
The soundtrack is composed of 80s hits, a la “Guardians of the Galaxy.” The big set piece is Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.” Writer Patrick Leonard should be getting a huge check as that song could mount a chart Renaissance. There’s also Huey Lewis and the News, and lots more.
Mark my words. “D&W” will make $200 million in less than 10 days. Maybe more, sooner. Marvel Universe fans will go back ten times to see their world lampooned. But it doesn’t take three hours. Director Shawn Levy manages to keep this very concise. There’s no fat. (I’d love to see the outtakes.) It’s two hours, with half of it devoted to character exposition including the great Leslie Uggams now making their appearance as the raunchy Blind Al.
Will there be a sequel? I’ll tell you this: now that Wolverine has been resurrected in some form, the sky’s the limit.
By all means, as this duo often says, “Let’s f***ing go!” And definitely pick up the specially designed popcorn bucket.
PS This is the only Marvel movie this year, after many failures since the final Avengers film. Enjoy it like a big dessert.
