4.5/5 stars
“Welcome to the MCU … you’re joining at a bit of a low point.” So says Ryan Reynolds’ mouthy, R-rated, fourth-wall-breaking superhero in Deadpool & Wolverine, a riotously entertaining superhero team-up that is the most fun the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had in years.
Never one to hold back, Reynolds’ Deadpool tells it like it is, frequently pointing out how the multiverse extravaganzas that have dominated the MCU of late have been “miss after miss after miss”.
Deadpool’s alter ego Wade Wilson is a car salesman desperate to be an Avenger. He gets his wish, sort of, when he encounters Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Paradox, a member of the Time Variance Authority (primarily seen in Disney + show Loki).
With Earth-10005 set for implosion after the Wolverine’s self-sacrifice, Deadpool sets out to find an alternate Logan to untangle the timelines – and settles on a booze-addled one who is propping up a bar.
Together, they go bouncing around the multiverse, ending up in The Void – a Mad Max-esque Wasteland run by Cassandra (Emma Corrin), the embittered twin sister of the X-Men’s Professor Charles Xavier.
At this point you’ll glimpse Pyro, Toad, Sabretooth and others from Marvel’s fringes – plus a whole host of “gratuitous cameos” too delicious to spoil.
Feeling like they’ve always belonged together, Reynolds’ “merc with a mouth” plays nicely opposite Jackman’s taciturn, claw-handed killer, as they pummel each other and myriad assailants in the most violent manner possible.
The script also doesn’t hold back, with jokes about “pegging”, cocaine and Jackman’s divorce zinging around.
The final act is overreliant on carnage, and it’s not quite as thrilling as what comes before it. There are also attempts to find humour in Dogpool, a canine found in The Void played by Peggy (officially Britain’s ugliest dog) that fall slightly flat.
But with more meta-references (even the Reynolds/Sandra Bullock romcom The Proposal gets a nod) than you can shake an adamantine katana at, this has a galaxy of genuine laugh-out-loud moments.
Brilliantly foul-mouthed throughout, the “nerds”, as Deadpool says, will be getting their “special sock” out for this one.