Ryan Reynolds set up a screening of the first Deadpool film for Hugh Jackman in 2016. It opens with an epic and equally witty fight sequence with Wade Wilson dropping into a moving vehicle from a highway bridge. Ten minutes into a movie of Reynolds shooting, burning and decapitating unnamed henchmen – along with a Wolverine reference right out of the gate – Jackman knew he wanted to be on screen with Deadpool.

Three days earlier Hugh Jackman had announced his retirement from the role of Wolverine.

It took Reynolds, Jackman and director Shawn Levy eight years after Deadpool’s release and finally, in July 2024 Deadpool & Wolverine hit theatres, totally worth the wait.

The third instalment in the franchise follows Wade Wilson searching for a normal life after hanging up the Deadpool suit (which probably needed some intense dry cleaning considering everything he did in it). But he is quickly kidnapped by the all-powerful organisation, the TVA (Time Variance Authority which was a key part of the Loki TV show). Deadpool returns (in a much cleaner suit) but is told his world is going to end at the hands of the TVA and is forced to recruit a Wolverine from another world to help. ENTER HUGH JACKMAN (in a comic-accurate yellow costume, might I add).

The MCU has not been in the greatest place over the last few years (that is an understatement but let me be in denial) so a lot was riding on this release. To my great pleasure, the film is well on its way to making $ 1 billion at the global box office. Deadpool & Wolverine feels like a love letter to superhero fans as it favours fan service and genuine enjoyment over anything else.

The combination of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in a huge blockbuster superhero movie filled with slow-motion action shots, constant laugh-out-laugh moments and the ugliest dog I’ve ever seen in my life is something I never knew I needed.

The two iconic characters, with their lack of a moral code, violently killing anyone in their vicinity, hating each other most of the time – but secretly grateful to not be alone – fit together perfectly in this buddy-cop. Both actors bring out all the stops individually but together they are a tour-de-force.

With Reynolds’ classic humour laying out a baseline for the entire franchise, Jackman comes in as a grittier springboard of comedy, challenging Deadpool’s sarcasm and incessant yapping.

Nevertheless, Jackman has always brought a certain depth and sorrow to Wolverine, but the actor was not always able to explore it until Logan – his last project before leaving Marvel. Shawn Levy allows Jackman to take centre stage in his return by slowing down the intense film with moments of melancholy rage that Jackman performs beautifully.

It was only on my second watch of the film with my dad (the reason for my horrific Marvel obsession) that I felt something. A difference. A shift. Like a little ember reigniting itself inside my body. It was just a small flame, but it was there. Deadpool & Wolverine managed to relight the fire, heating up ‘That Marvel Feeling’ from deep within.

Do not get me wrong, the fire is not raging – Marvel still has a little way to go before a complete acceptance of their return to greatness. More casual Marvel fans felt that the film was a little overwhelming as certain references passed them by.

Deadpool & Wolverine had given itself an enormous task in filling in the gaps of the concept of the multiverse, the TVA along with numerous other Marvel projects for this two-hour film to make sense.

Verdict

The film was not perfect, and neither is the MCU at the minute. Even Deadpool himself can admit this in what is revving up to be the biggest film of the summer: ‘It’s just been miss after miss after miss’. But within that cinema, in those moments where there was nothing else but the guttural laughter of an audience, heaving gasps as we witnessed cameo after cameo after cameo and the collective agreement of sitting in a theatre for what feels like 25 minutes to see an extra 30-second clip that we could have googled quicker – within that cinema, the fire burned brighter and larger than it had in a long time.

8/10

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