Deadpool and Wolverine - Film review
Deadpool & Wolverine is the 3rd movie in the Deadpool franchise. Deadpool's peaceful life soon begins to come crashing down as the TVA recruit him to restore the sacred timeline, in doing so he reunites with his old friend Wolverine and tries to save the world. I'm going to be honest right off of the bat I had to search up the synopsis of the film as it made little sense to me when watching it. I honestly truly disliked the movie!
I have been a MARVEL fan for years, I've watched every movie and all of the projects which introduced and added to the multiverse story and I love them! I think that the multiverse is a very interesting part of MARVEL as it adds so many more opportunities and potential storylines, however this may be the MCUs worst project connected to the multiverse. I understood the basis of the movie but I felt as if they quickly skipped past the reason why the TVA wanted Deadpool (as if they hadn't done the exact thing with Loki) and the title that they gave Wolverine. If this film was an instalment in the main MCU franchise then it would make more sense as too why you would have to watch so many previous projects, however since this is part of the Deadpool trilogy the audience should only have to have watched Deadpool 1 & 2 to understand. To understand and get all of the references in Deadpool 3 you had to have watched Deadpool 1 and 2 (which is obvious and reasonable!), Loki season 1, Fantastic Four, Wolverine, X-men, Mad Max(??), Blade, Daredevil and so many more! I watched Deadpool 3 with my friend who's only watched the previous Deadpool's and bless her she did not understand anything! I feel as though this whole movies purpose was to try and include as many references as possible. As a MARVEL fan I did enjoy some of the references such as Chris Evans as the Human Torch, however I just think that the mass amount of references made them feel cheap and forced.
Personally, the main reference which was wasted was the character of X-23. This character who was so close and personal to Wolverine had the introduction of an insignificant character. I appreicate the fact that it was a different Wolverine variant, however I feel as though there should have been more screentime with the two characters apart from just a small segment of their talk near the fire. I think that it would have been really interesting for the two of them to talk even deeper and for X-23 to almost have closure after the death of her Wolverine variant. X-23 is such a key character for the character of Wolverine but Deadpool 3 almost used her as a minor shock reveal and once again a cheap reference!
The overall idea for the film was decent, it had good parts. However, i felt that they didn't execute it as well as they could have. When Kevin Feige's name appeared I was excited as the MARVEL films he has produced have been great. But Deadpool 3 was genuinely a difficult watch. The plots of the Deadpool films are never ground breaking but they are entertaining and have witty comedy to back it up. However, Deadpool 3 had neither. There were some occasional jokes which I did laugh at yet most of them felt forced or just not funny. The story just felt incredibly rushed, it had so much potential with all of the different variants and new characters. But all of the other characters were used for a reason to show cheap violence and fights with no actual consequences, which make the scenes feel even more worthless. As I mentioned earlier, the plot felt rushed and the relationship between Deadpool and Wolverine was no where as good as it could have been. All of the other Deadpool movies have been funny and done well when referencing Wolverine nevertheless it seems that when they have to fill 2 hours of it they seemingly fail. The main villian, Cassandra Nova, felt like a wasted character if im being honest. She had so much potential and power yet the film focused more on tacky jokes then deceloping her character even the slightest. I mean they revealed that she was Charles Xaviers sister and never really explained anymore! Im desperately hoping that they do explore her character more and add depth to her.
Overall, I was pretty dissapointed with the film. I had heard so many good reviews from friends and even professional critics, however I think that it was more for the shareholders than the actual viewers! The constant over use of references (niche and obvious) only servee the main purpose of making the audience feel satisfied when they get the reference. In the end i gave the film 2/5 stars and to be honest the 2 stars were for dogpool (the saving grace of the film) and the soundtrack which was great.