Blood, Swearing and Call Backs

Depending on who you ask, Deadpool and Wolverine is either a glorious, long-awaited team up of two pop culture icons dripping in the best kind of fan service and stuffed with funny gags and uproariously OTT fight sequences or it's a vapid husk of a movie, trading solely on things that have come before mixed with dick jokes that's looking to make a quick buck by pleasing people who care more about the colour of costumes than substance. It's fairly easy to make an argument either way.

There is no doubt the film is absolutely stuffed with references to, and appearances from, all things superhero. Well, Fox superhero anyway. Deadpool and Wolverine is much more love letter to the now defunct Fox iterations of X-men (and many others that would be a crime to spoil) movies than it is attempt to slot Deadpool into the MCU proper. The cameos, or rather appearances (director Shawn Levy says they are too integral to be called cameos) do seem to be there in the spirit of genuine fun rather than lazy internet bait. They are often funny and work on multiple levels, giving something to everyone from the casual popcorn movie goer to those up on all the behind the scenes studio machinations. The hit rate of the jokes is also pretty high, sure plenty of the humour is lowest common denominator but funny is funny. The fights are pleasingly visceral too, taking advantage of the fact the regenerating heroes are essentially unkillable to mete out cartoon levels of slapstick violence. This is particularly amusing when juxtaposed against things we know from the much more child friendly MCU. Like when, barely a few minutes into the film, a bunch of TVA agents (the guys for Disney+ show Loki) are dismembered by a Logan's corpse wielding Deadpool.

Entertaining call backs and laughs are a check then but be aware, that is pretty much all that there is here. The story of Deadpool trying to recruit a new Wolverine for his universe exists solely to move the heroes from one encounter with side characters to another. There are two sort of antagonists in the form of Mr Paradox (Mathew Macfadyen) and Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), both are entertaining enough when they get screen time but neither will live long in the memory. A slight plot isn't necessarily a problem for a movie like this but while it's all wink, wink nudge, nudge don't take the story too seriously everyone involved seems to want the audience to take the titular characters REALLY seriously. Ryan Reynolds is great at being a glib douche who we know cares deep down and Hugh Jackman is fantastic at playing a huge, jacked man saddled with world weary angst but the characters don't have anywhere to go. We know Deadpool cares about his inner circle and we know Wolverine will hero up when the time comes so sections where the pace slows to give us "emotional" moments fall flat and the character arcs that are meant to prop up the flimsy story aren't really there. The roster (and probably budget) is stuffed to breaking point but it would have been nice if they could have found some room for Cable and Domino from Deadpool 2 to return.

All in all, Deadpool and Wolverine's scattershot approach to storytelling makes it probably the least of the Deadpool films (although it is significantly better than a lot of the X-men output) and characters from the previous film are missed. Still more than worth a watch for comic book movie fans though as it does the meta call back\ crossover routine better than most. Not exactly genre defining but will scratch the itch of easter egg hunters.

6 things Kevin Feige said we couldn't do out of 10.

Comments

Won't Somebody Think of the Children

Weapons is the sophomore effort from writer/director Zach Craggier and while his first film, "Barbarian", was well received, this feels like a clear step up. The film's fantastically eerie marketing campaign revolved around the movies central mystery, at 2.17 AM an entire classrooms worth of sixth graders get up out of bed and disappear into the night. It's a great hook but the story proper actually picks up a couple of months after the event and unfolds over a couple of days as the townspeople continue to deal with the fallout. The point of view shifts between a bunch of characters and time and space is given to fleshing out the small town details. This approach, combined with the sombre and eventually horrific goings on, gives the story a very Stephen King feel. It also works as a tension release, wiping the slate somewhat clean every time we switch perspective. The slight downside to the condensed mini series approach is that it lengthens the film with some segm...

Toxic Shock

The Toxic Avenger ambles his way into theatres some two years after the film was first shown at festivals. Strange that the movie had so much trouble finding a distributor given the presence of major names, relatively mainstream sensibilities (compared to the 80s original anyway) and the fact it's actually quite a bit of fun. Events take place in a fictional city inside a cartoonish, ultra-capitalist, crime-ridden caricature of 80s America, with locations called things like "Depressing Outskirts" and "Ye Olde Shithead District". Peter Dinklage is down on his luck janitor Winston Gooze, a widower with a step son who attempts to break into the headquarters of the mega-pharmaceutical company he works for when he discovers his gold level insurance doesn't cover treatment for his brain condition. Things go south and he is transformed into The Toxic Avenger, a mutated super human who sets about righting some wrongs in his crime ridden city. The film attempts t...

Dressed for Fun

The Naked Gun is a legacy sequel to the mad cap comedy franchise of the late 80's/ early 90's, with Liam Neeson playing Frank Drebin Jr, son of the legendary Leslie Neilson's detective from the original movies. Is big Liam quite as good at deadpan hilarity as Neilson was? Possibly not. Does this film ever completely match the highs of its predecessors? Probably not. Is it still very funny? Absolutely. The film arrives amid a cinematic landscape devoid of out of and out comedies, with laughs mostly relegated to one liners in action films or the silly sidekick in a romcom. Fortunately, from the moment a Girl Scout peels off her face to reveal a gurning Neilson, right through to a joke filled credits roll, The Naked Gun is interested solely in making you chuckle. Sure, there is a plot, involving a mcguffin literally named PLOT device and an evil tech mogul, played with deliciously deadpan malice by Danny Huston, but it's all about the gags. The comedy runs the gamut from ...

We are Living in a Material World

Materialists is, on the surface, a romantic drama-comedy about a New York matchmaker who faces a choice in her own love life. It has something more on its mind though, presenting a forensic examination of modern adult relationships and the incompatibility of expectation and genuine feeling. Dakota Johnson is Lucy, a specialist in matching together "elite" couples. For elite, read some of the worst people on Earth. Men who demand their partners have knockout bodies, adhere to strict weight limits and the younger the better. Women who will only consider the tall, rich and in one case, white. In Lucy's world marriage is a business deal and the ultimate match is the one who checks the most boxes. As a "voluntary celibate", she carries this philosophy into here every day life and has no interest in dating until she can find the rich man who will make husband material. The love cynic is a classic trope for the lead in a movie with this set up but there is much more...

Best Foot 4Ward

The Fantastic Four : First Steps marks the third cinematic imagining of the first family of superheroes (not counting the unreleased Roger Corman movie of the 90's) and their introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Well, sort of. It's sort of because the story takes place in a separate dimension from the rest of the films. This is Earth-828, where the Fantastic Four are seemingly the only super heroes. More than heroes, in fact, they are the de facto most important people on the planet and via science and diplomacy they have ushered in an era of worldwide peace and unity. The world itself is a fantastically realised retro-futuristic version of the 1960's, something like Fallout crossed with the Jetsons or, closer to home, a live action Incredibles. The Four consists of; Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), brilliant scientist with stretchy powers, his wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), who can go invisible and create force fields with her mind, her brother Johnny (Joseph Qui...

I Got Bombs But I'm Not a Bomber

Oppenheimer posed a tricky question for perennial hit maker Christopher Nolan. How do you make a three hour biopic of a scientist compelling enough to bring in big money? Turns out the answer is to not make a biopic at all. While J. Robert Oppenheimer is indeed the focus of the film it eschews any traditional biopic format, instead serving up what is essentially a heist or even sports movie wrapped up in a courtroom drama. This allows the director to indulge his favourite hobby of playing with time, as the story jumps between two different panel hearings while also covering Oppenheimer's early career and of course the work of the Manhattan Project. This approach works incredibly well with the three hour runtime flying by. In fact, if you go to see this in the cinema you might want to skip the large cola as there really isn't any time when little enough is happening to sneak in a toilet brake. Technically the film is outstanding. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, follo...

The Menu Serves up a Macabre Treat

The menu is a squid ink black culinary satire that skewers the sycophants and disrespectful tourists that steal the joy from being a high end chef (or any form of artist) while also being a three Michelin star dark comedy and acting as a power fantasy of sorts for those in the service industry. The film centres around Anya Taylor-Joy's Margot as she accompanies potential boyfriend Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) to an island to eat at the most exclusive of restraunts. The restraunt, and indeed whole island, are presided over by Chef Slowik who is idolised by his diners and inspires complete devotion from his cult-like staff. The customers comprise the worst, but all too familiar, "enjoyers" of fine dining. There's a hilariously self-indulgent critic, some wall street bro's there for the bragging rights, a washed up, name dropping celebrity and an ultra rich couple with no appreciation for the privilege they enjoy. Perhaps most ridiculous of all is Tyler himself, a gate ke...

Summer of Discontent

Unlike say, Final Destination, I Know What You Did Last Summer is not an idea ripe for remakes and sequels. Once you've told the story of a group of people leaving someone for dead, only to be hunted down a year later in grizzly revenge, there isn't really anywhere else to go while sticking close enough to the formulae to warrant being a successor. Its not a major surprise then that this sequel to the 1997 movie of the same name does little more than tread most of the same water as its precursor while trying to reference and acknowledge the original at every opportunity. This time round, the central cast are a little older than the high school graduates of 97 but still act like teenagers. Some of the clunkiest exposition dialogue of recent memory attempts to fill out their back stories but you're left with a group of characters you can't wait to watch die. This would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that, for most of the runtime, the inept hook wielding killer ...

Sinnerma

The later trailers for Sinners give away a major plot point that will be discussed in this review. It isn't a spoiler as such, since its integral to the nature of the film and its hard to see how the movie could have been advertised without showing it, but if you haven't seen the marketing, simply go and watch this astonishing work of film making and come back later. If you've already seen it, or know what kind of film it is, read on. To date, director Ryan Coogler's big screen credits are; true story "Fruitvale Station", Rocky franchise sequel "Creed" and two MCU movies ("Black Panther" and its sequel). If you've marvelled at how he has managed to infuse those franchise movies with both deeply personal meaning and wide cultural themes, and wondered what he could achieve with a project that is purely his own, then Sinners is your answer and it is glorious. In a rare studio win, Warner Brothers deserve credit for funding a wholly origi...

The Game is Rigged

The Blackening begins like a cross between Scream and Saw, with a couple getting offed after being made to "play a game". Said game being an offensively racist board game that gives the movie it's title. After this set up we are introduced to the various characters of the film who are getting together to mark the anniversary of finishing college. The relationships between the group are more complicated than you usually encounter in a slasher film and their dynamics helps flesh out the story. Said story consists of the group playing the game and fighting off slashers. This, it turns out, is a lot easier when you make logical decisions rather than indulge in the clueless floundering you usually see in movies with this set up. The protagonists actually being pro active is one of the many meta black culture jokes running through the film. Other examples include the group being asked to name a horror film where the black character survives and told to decide which of them ...

Dan Says its Alright

Search This Blog