If the word bombastic took steroids it might come close to describing the R-rated "Deadpool & Wolverine."
Vulgar, gory, with a "whiff of necrophilia" and irreverence to burn, it's a showcase for the bromance stylings of its stars, who pull out all the stops to lovingly put a cap on Fox's Marvel movies.
"Disney bought Fox," Deadpool explains, "[so there's] that whole boring rights issue."
Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson, left, and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan in a scene from 'Deadpool & Wolverine.' (20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios)
At the film's start, it takes some doing to explain Wolverine/Logan's return from the dead — "Nothing will bring you back to life faster than a big bag of Marvel cash," Deadpool says to Wolverine's remains.
But once that convoluted (but action-packed) setup is out of the way, the film barrels through the plot with both fists flailing.
Before, during and after the big, bloody action sequences, the movie cheekily blurs the line between on-screen and off-screen life. Deadpool obnoxiously calls Logan "Hugh," and even takes a jab at Jackman's recent divorce. Later he leeringly mentions "Gossip Girl," the show that made Reynolds's wife, Blake Lively, famous.
That fourth-wall-breaking riffing suits Reynolds's trademark delivery, and sets the self-aware "Deadpool" movies apart from other superhero films.
"Fox killed him," Deadpool says of Wolverine. "Disney brought him back. They're gonna make him do this till he's 90!"
Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan in a scene from 'Deadpool & Wolverine.' (20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios)
Humour has a place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), in Tony Stark's one-liners, in Taika Waititi era "Thor" movies and "Guardians of the Galaxy" to name a handful of examples, but none of those subversively poke fun at superhero movies and themselves in the way "Deadpool & Wolverine" does. What other MCU movie would self-deprecatingly admit that the characters are entering the multiverse "at a bit of a low point?"
Jackman mostly plays it straight, acting as a soundboard for "the Merc with the Mouth's" one-liners. Filled with regret over past events, the self-loathing Wolverine is a hard-drinking mutant, in full comic book costume, who reluctantly embraces heroism.
Wolverine provides the story's heart as a counterpoint to Deadpool's constant quipping.
Both characters may be physically indestructible, but their psyches aren't. Both are tortured, and when the movie isn't gushing blood or cracking wise, it's about lost souls and their search for redemption. That story chord is a grace note that often gets lost amid the film's cacophonic action, but is a welcome relief from the constant clatter.
A love letter to the now bygone Fox era of superhero films, "Deadpool & Wolverine" ushers in a new epoch overstuffed with overkill, cameos, Easter eggs, juvenile humour and a villain who reads minds by thrusting their fingers into their victim's heads. It's fun fan service, and a good time at the movies, even if the experience of watching it sometimes feels like being on the inside of a blender set to puree.
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