DAN WEBSTER:
During a recent vacation with my in-laws, one topic of conversation involved the question of violence in movies. It mirrored, in fact, conversations my wife, Mary Pat Treuthart, and I have had with other movie fans.
The dispute is this: We won’t, the in-laws and some friends insist, watch violent movies. They offer no specific reasons. It’s as if the point is obvious in and of itself. Violence makes them feel bad, and so they avoid it.
It might also be, of course, that they are forced to endure enough references to violence through the many ways that the news is presented these days. Why, then, add to the rampant negativity that seems to permeate modern life?
Why indeed? Unless, of course, you review movies for a vocation and would have difficulty being able to discuss anything if you didn’t, at least once in a while, take in exercises in cinematic violence.
Which is exactly what anyone who buys tickets to see the movie Deadpool & Wolverine will be forced to do. Because of all the things that the movie has to offer, the majority of which are entertaining in all the ways that summer movies should be, Deadpool & Wolverine may be one of the most graphically violent movies since the last time Quentin Tarantino stood behind a camera.
Directed, co-written and co-produced by Shawn Levy, starring Ryan Reynolds (who also holds co-screenwriting and co-producing credits) and Hugh Jackman, Deadpool & Wolverine is a movie where plot—convoluted or no—is really of little importance, if at all.
What director Levy and company are going for is tone, the same kind of tone that marked the other two Deadpool movies—the first in 2016 followed by the 2018 sequel. And that tone involves the kind of humor that Reynolds specializes in, whether in movies as different as 2002’s Van Wilder, 2011’s Green Lantern and 2021’s Free Guy—or in the television commercials that he does for the wireless provider Mint Mobile.
And by that I mean the kind of humor where snarky quips, most paired with the many variations to which the F-word can be employed, accompany comments about superhero movies, corporate control of the movie business (hello Disney), sarcastic remarks about what passes for popular taste, and a continual breaking of the fourth wall to remind us that the production team knows exactly what kind of game it is playing with the superhero genre.
The plot, such as there is, involves Deadpool, the mutant alter ego of Canadian everyman Wade Wilson (played by Reynolds). Locked in battle with forces that want control of the so-called “Sacred Timeline,” Deadpool himself has toyed with time in an effort to join The Avengers—but been turned down.
That stunt attracted the attention of what’s called the "Time Variance Authority," particularly of the agent Paradox (played by Matthew Macfadyen), who tries to enlist Deadpool to... well, the short summary is that through Paradox, Deadpool ends up seeking out Wolverine—the alter ego of one James “Logan” Howlett (played by Jackman)—in a range of alternate timelines. And to salvage all of existence, they together end up battling the forces of the telekinetically powerful mutant Cassandra Nova (played by Emma Corwin).
Anyone wanting to learn the larger back story can do a simple online search. But much of it is outlined in light-speed exposition by Deadpool, either in voiceover or directly to us. Anyway, it doesn’t make much of a difference.
What does make a difference are Reynold’s astute comic stylings, Jackman’s ability to contrast things with his X-Men gravitas, how well the film balances irreverent humor with knowing cultural commentary. And, of course, the CGI.
Other performers play small but effective roles, from Jennifer Garner to Wesley Snipes, Channing Tatum to Chris Evans, not to mention Dafne Keen, who played opposite Jackman in James Mangold’s excellent 2017 film Logan.
In the end, how you react to Deadpool & Wolverine is likely to depend on how you respond to the many graphically violent sequences. For the record, the Dolby screening we attended was marked throughout by audience laughter that extended even beyond the end credits. Also, for the record, I doubt my in-laws would have joined in.
For Spokane Public Radio, I’m Dan Webster.
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Movies 101 host Dan Webster is the senior film critic for Spokane Public Radio and a blogger for Spokesman.com.
