Still, there is a genuinely crowd-pleasing comedy here, and it comes whenever all the TVA talking heads and villainous exposition prattle is dropped for long stretches, and Reynolds and Jackman just get to bicker like an immortal The Odd Couple. Only Felix and Oscar now have claws and a bloodlust that never breaks.
The setup that makes that possible is again due to the TVA (or Time Variance Authority). They’re the inter-dimensional bureaucrats from the Disney+ series Loki. One especially efficient pencil-pusher there, Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfayden), has apparently dubbed the timeline where all the Fox X-Men movies exist as ripe for demolition. Why should this world carry on now that its beloved Wolverine is dead? So Paradox has gone rogue and plans to destroy it in a plot-friendly 72 hours. That gives him just enough time to offer Reynolds’ loquacious Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, a one-way ticket out and into the “sacred timeline” where the rest of the MCU heroes reside.
Instead Wade is justifiably outraged that some empty suits are going to say everyone he knows—including his beloved Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), cab driver Dopinder (Karan Soni), and sweet, sweet sugar bear Peter (Rob Delaney), all back for about five minutes of screen time—do not deserve to exist. There is something even faintly delicious about the film criticizing media executives deciding on a whim which universe or storyline “counts.” The movie brushes past that though to get to its real goal: Wade going rogue and stealing TVA technology to find a new Wolverine for his timeline, ultimately settling on a yellow-clad loser Logan (Jackman) who might have gotten his whole X-Men team killed in his own timeline (it’s vague). But when attempting to bring this especially broody mutie into the Fox-Verse, Deadpool and Wolverine find themselves inadvertently condemned to the Void: a desert wasteland between time and space filled with nerd-friendly cameos and one tyrannical warlord, Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin).
Deadpool & Wolverine is neither coy or oblivious about where its greatest strengths remain. They’re right there in the title. While the film is far from the strongest entry in either the Deadpool or Wolverine franchises, it’s also far from the worst. Director Shawn Levy has built his career on making serviceable star vehicle comedies, including for Reynolds (Free Guy) and Jackman (Real Steel). He dutifully sets them up to look good in Deadpool & Wolverine too, even as especially in Jackman’s case it’s almost a victory lap.
The concept of an Old Man Logan filled with regret and waiting to die alone was more or less where we found him in the last two Wolverine movies, and it’s where we find him here. But there’s a looseness to Jackman this go-round, and not just because he’s finally wearing the yellow spandex he eschewed in the original X-Men films. This is a Wolverine played by an actor with nothing left to prove, and he’s only too happy to be the grumpy straight man opposite Reynolds, who three films deep has never looked more comfortably flippant.
Seemingly born with a preternatural gift for the ironic one-liner, Reynolds knows how to sell the arched eyebrow, even when it’s hidden by a mask. Whether it’s turning to the camera to make a crack about Jackman in The Music Man or the actor breaking character to acknowledge Disney will have them doing these roles until they’re 90, Deadpool remains the eerily perfect vehicle for Reynolds’ specific brand of humor.
