START as you mean to go on and never look back.
Filthy-minded Marvel Comics anti-hero Deadpool does just that with gusto in a third big screen hurrah that wholeheartedly delivers on the promise of a superhero tag team smackdown across the multiverse.
“How are we gonna do this without dishonouring Logan’s memory?” deadpans a snugly-suited Ryan Reynolds. “We’re not.”
Behold a gratuitously violent and uproarious opening fight sequence, breathlessly choreographed to NSYNC’s 2000 hit Bye Bye Bye, which gleefully establishes a double-digit body count before Justin Timberlake’s sweet falsetto is but a fond memory.
Soundtrack cues in director Shawn Levy’s rambunctious romp are a delight.
Two quick excerpts from Hugh Jackman’s swooning musical The Greatest Showman herald a barnstormer from Grease, then Madonna’s Like A Prayer soars as a hymn to cartoonish mass slaughter.
Green Day’s anthemic Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) is a fitting accompaniment for a traipse down memory lane during the end credits.
Deadpool & Wolverine is the first outing for genetically-altered mutant Wade Wilson since The Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox and its cinematic back catalogue including Deadpool, X-Men and various iterations of The Fantastic Four.
Five screenwriters have a blast poking fun at a recent downturn in fortunes for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the personal lives of the two leading men and nationalistic stereotypes.
A baton-wielding henchman from the Time Variation Authority (TVA), who dares to desecrate Reynolds’s beloved Canadian homeland, is severely punished on screen.
Narrative seams strain with surprise cameos and in-jokes. The belly laughs play kiss-chase with outlandish special effects-embellished action set pieces befitting a muscular summer blockbuster.
There is a surprising amount of heart-on-sleeve emotion too. Morally flexible men do cry.
In the Earth-10005 timeline reserved for the X-Men, Wade Wilson (Reynolds) is no longer romantically entangled with sweetheart Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and has been advised to abandon all hope of joining the Avengers.
An undemanding job as a car salesman at Drive Max alongside caring co-worker Pete (Rob Delaney) is rudely interrupted by TVA bureaucrat Mr Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), who reveals that Wade’s existence is about to be permanently erased.
Unwilling to accept a grim fate for his loved ones, Wade joins forces with the worst iteration of all possible Logans (Jackman) and ventures into a ‘Mad Max-y’ metaphysical junkyard called The Void to face telekinetically-gifted outcast Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin).
Deadpool & Wolverine snorts, snarls and sniggers through each outrageous diversion, upholding the franchise’s fierce reputation as the most graphically violent entry in the Marvel canon.
Reynolds repeatedly breaks the fourth wall to unabashedly promote himself as a pop culture messiah. Jackman wears his character’s yellow and blue suit for the first time with chest-beating swagger while Corrin is a deliciously icy antagonist.
“In my world, you’re well regarded,” Deadpool informs Wolverine during a cockle-warming heart-to-heart that punctuates the bloodshed.
The same will be said, across various timelines, of Levy’s crowd-pleasing and irreverent picture.
– Damon Smith, PA Film Critic
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