Everyone at the critics screening for this loved it. My wife loved it. And while I didn’t love it, I had a pleasant enough time. I laughed enough that it felt like a serviceable picture. I guess the problem is that I loved the first two Deadpool movies so much, I was expecting a bit more.
For those of us with superhero fatigue, you’ll be happy to know this is the only MCU movie being released this year. For the fan boys that didn’t get enough at Comic Con, you’ll love it.
The movie was written by many people (including Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy, who did a good job with Reynolds in “Free Guy”). That’s usually a bad sign for films, but there were enough jokes and fun moments. I just don’t think it’s as good as the filmmakers thought it was. It was basically a vehicle for one-liners, inside jokes, cameos, and fan service.
The intro, with Deadpool killing people and dancing to “Bye Bye Bye” (NSync) was okay. So was how he jokes when he digs up the body of Wolverine.
We get the first of many great cameos (which I won’t spoil), as Deadpool tries to join the Avengers.We then jump to Wade Wilson (Reynolds) being retired from the superhero game and stapling a toupe on his head trying to sell used cars. But the Time Variance Authority shows up (run by Matthew MacFadyen of “Succession”). He’s going to eliminate various timelines (another one of these multiverse stories, oy). So Deadpool needs Wolverine to help him save his world.
When things go south, they’re thrown into an area called “the void”, run by a villain named Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin of “Succession” and “The Crown”). She tortures them, but they escape and find some other superheroes (again, no spoilers, because it’s fun to see them gather; and a few of them have throw-away jokes about their real life exes).
About half way through, I got a bit bored with all the smirking at the camera and repetitive nature of the inside jokes about the goofy things the movie is giving to us – whether that’s them talking about long run times movies have, or whatever. Perhaps I’m just a bit tired of the Deadpool character. After seeing Reynolds in “Free Guy” and a few other movies, I told people he should try to do something different than the same snarky characters. Surprisingly, I didn’t get tired of all the cameos in this. When one of them ends up dying, it was hysterical to hear Deadpool say the film budget couldn’t keep him around any longer. There’s a lovely tribute cameo to Stan Lee, so be on the lookout for that (and stay until the end of the credits for a funny bit).
The cameos aren’t the only fun things that jump onto the screen. The dog that’s won the “ugliest dog in the world” contest shows up and is a bit of fun (I need to know if it was CGI, or if Reynolds really let that ugly thing with the long tongue keep licking the inside of his mouth).
I didn’t care for the various needle drops. The big one everyone is talking about is by Madonna. They had to meet with her to get permission for the song to be used. Yawn.
Playing a song from “Grease” during a fight scene was just dumb. And why did I hear two Huey Lewis tunes? And while AC/DC is always welcome during fight scenes, they’re now overplayed in these films. In fact, the fight scenes in this movie got a bit boring in the second half.
Everyone that loves the Deadpool movies will love this, so go see it. I was just a tad underwhelmed.
3 stars out of 5.