Marvel’s Cinematic Universe has been taken off ‘life support’ – due to a hilariously foul-mouthed movie tirade from messrs Deadpool and Wolverine.
After the climax to the last Avengers narrative with Endgame in 2019, the MCU has been treading water with poor-to-middling experimental fare, but it looks like the universe – and Disney’s family friendly tag – is going to change forever. Especially after its first ‘15’ certificate movie in the franchise.
Because Ryan Reynolds’ wisecracking Wade Wilson alter-ego is a ‘shoe-in’ for the next Avengers ensemble – sub-titled Doomsday – with former-Iron Man Robert Downey Jr returning to the MCU as the villainous Dr Doom.
And it’s not that this – from an inventive storyline aspect at least – is anything special. It’s just so very funny. In an expletive-ridden kind of way. Some of the gags are literally side-splittingly hilarious. And it’s extremely violently gory too. Just in a comedic way.
In fact, this movie seems more of a ‘massive advert’ for best friends Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as the title characters from Disney’s acquired X-Men franchise (from Fox) – as it just rolls from one humorous action sequence to the next.
For the linear plotline, it doesn’t really deserve many plaudits – but everything else around it is so effective it doesn’t really matter. The bloody action sequence where the duo battle multiple Deadpool ‘variants’ towards the end of the film is just one of many top-notch set-pieces.
After leading the quiet life, the Time Variance Authority (TVA) – a bureaucratic timeline-monitoring organisation that exists outside of ‘time and space’ – pulls Wilson into a new mission, with the universe facing an existential threat.
Said threat is the villain of the piece, the telekinetic and telepathic power-wielding mutant Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) – who is coincidentally the twin sister of a certain Charles ‘Professor X’ Xavier – which leads to Deadpool reluctantly teaming up with a variation of super-clawed and adamantium-infused, James ‘Wolverine’ Logan (Hugh Jackman), in classic comic-book attire.
Set along a different timeline – which ‘gets around’ Wolverine’s demise in 2017’s Logan – the quick-witted duo combine forces on an assignment in which they also integrate with superheroes of Marvel’s past.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock there are welcome returns for Wesley Snipes’ Blade, Jennifer Garner’s Elektra, Dafne Keen’s X-23 – and a great comedic set piece involving Chris Evans as his pre-Captain America iteration of Human Torch.
Throw in Channing Tatum as kinetic-energy-manipulating Gambit – who he was meant to star as but never did – and X-Men throwbacks in the form of Tyler Mane’s Sabretooth and Aaron Stanford’s Pyro, then there’s plenty for the fanboys here too.
But there’s no doubting the real ‘home run’ is the chemistry between Reynolds and Jackman, which provided a record breaking box-office weekend for an R-Rated film – and one of the biggest openings of all-time.
And in the process, they may have just saved the MCU after a very rough last few years.
All hail, Deadpool and Wolverine.
Rating: 4/5
Gavin Miller
Showcase Cinema De Lux Peterborough, Out Nowshow
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Matthew MacFadyen, Rob Delaney, Morena Baccarin, Aaron Stanford, Dafne Keen, Channing Tatum, Jennifer Garner, Chris Evans, Tyler Mane, Jon Favreau & Wesley Snipes
Running Time: 2 Hrs 8 Mins
Director: Shawn Levy
Go to www.showcasecinemas.co.uk for all the latest film information & showtimes at Peterborough’s Showcase Cinema De Lux
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