It pays to see all the Marvel movies in the same theater on the same staff’s shift for damn near 10 years. I got treated to a private screening of the first 30-35 minutes of Deadpool & Wolverine. Now I’m not going to spoil anything and I can’t because I’m sure a heavily armed group of cartoon characters will beat me to death if I do but here’s what I can say: Deadpool & Wolverine might have just “save” the MCU.
Does the MCU need saving? Some say it does. With the focus pivoted to lesser known characters and our original line up of heroes walking off into the sunset some say something has been missing since the Infinity Saga wrapped and the Multiverse Saga began. I personally enjoy all these movies regardless because this is my medium. I know an awful lot about all the characters from mainstays to the more obscure and changes to characters don’t irritate me as much, if at all, as, let’s say, some Joe Shmo on Twitter. But I have seen the audience numbers die down at showing for Marvel movies over the last few years. Genre films are keeping the engine of the MCU running but if you don’t like that genre, that director, or if the lead cast is entirely comprised of female characters well you’ve been SOL this Saga. So what makes Deadpool & Wolverine so different and “refreshing?”
It’s very much a 20th Century Fox superhero movie (the good ones!) we’re used to with MCU hints here and there. I don’t think Marvel wanted to mess with the winning formula Fox has with Deadpool and Deadpool 2. They don’t water down or try to restrict who or what Deadpool is. The same signature violence and wit are just as prevalent as ever. There are loads of references in just 30 minutes to the state of the MCU and the 20th Century Fox X-Men universe that started in 2000. We also now know what Earth Deadpool actually comes from. The references are great and fuel a lot of the humor as dead and dying timelines are discussed and explored. Deadpool has his first interactions with MCU characters proper and all the people Deadpool interacts with in the MCU are all the right people. It’s high stakes for Deadpool but low for the universe so as the time hopping seen at the end of Deadpool 2 comes back into play very little impacts the Sacred Timeline of Earth-616. Deadpool and Wolverine have fantastic chemistry and there are some hilarious interactions between the Merc With a Mouth and I’ll just say “Wolverines.” There are a plethora of X-Men cameos of some fan favorite and some obscure characters from the past. Overall this isn’t going to be a film I would recommend skipping or waiting for streaming to pick up. An extremely fun movie is on the way and I hope the pace of the footage I saw keeps rolling.