Movies…with a little bit of obscure culture and sports mixed in
Since Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) is happening and there is no stopping, we must take a look at this new movie through its own lens, with as-objective-a-lens as possible. The trailer is out, so fuck it, let’s dive in.
“Wolverine is recovering from his injuries when he crosses paths with the loudmouth, Deadpool. They team up to defeat a common enemy.”
Director: Shawn Levy
Writer: Shawn Levy, Rhett Reese, Ryan Reynolds, Zeb Wells, Paul Wernick, Rob Liefeld, Fabian Nicieza
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Karan Soni, Leslie Uggams, Matthew Macfadyen
Release Date: July 26, 2024
IMDB
Let’s get this out of the way. Deadpool is good. Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool is great. Wolverine is cool as fuck, and Hugh Jackman truly impersonates the bub with all the necessary gravitas. Jackman also had the perfect sendoff as the complicated hero with Logan (2017), and bringing him back in a new adventure will tarnish that film’s legacy in some sort of way. A sendoff that is not truly a sendoff leaves less of an emotional boot print.
Reynolds and Jackman did their best to explain this in a viral video a year ago.
Supposedly Logan and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) have nothing to do with one another. One can hope this is true because Logan stands alone as one of the best comic book based movies ever, and while Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018) are both very entertaining themselves, neither matches what James Mangold, Patrick Stewart, Jackman and company did.
Since Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) is happening and there is no stopping, we must take a look at this new movie through its own lens, with as-objective-a-lens as possible. The trailer is out, so fuck it, let’s dive in.
Deadpool & Wolverine is Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds third team-up. Free Guy (2021) was a commercial success in 2021, and The Adam Project (2022) was a very popular Netflix original. Did Stanko’s Stance love either of the movies? No, not so much.
Is the third time the charm?
The trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine gives the audience exactly what they want. Hugh Jackman is back as the three-clawed mutant legend. Deadpool is making sexual jokes and poking fun at all the sensitive areas. And of course, the two professional killers are eviscerating faceless enemies in bloody and creative ways with the world (or at least one of them) in the balance.
The trailer starts off in a classic way. Wolverine in a bar, drinking away his sorrows, unhappy about life and not wanting to talk to anyone. We have seen this before. Remember back to X-Men: First Class (2011)?
The most resounding bit from the opening 30 seconds is when Wolverine leans his forehead into Deadpool’s inscribed pistol. This shows the mental state that we are getting the adamantium brawler in. Safe to say, he is not in a good mental headspace.
The second part of the trailer picks up where the ending to the teaser trailer left off. The shadow everyone was teased is now fulfilled with the classic yellow-suit wearing, old cartoon inspired, extreme hairdo Wolverine.
Now comes the plot exposition. Wade’s world is in jeopardy. Whatever version of the universe he inhabits is threatened to a point where its existence seems all but impossible. With his scarred back up against the wall, Deadpool turns to Wolverine because he has had experience dealing with a crumbled world. Is his experience successful? Well, based on the cutaway shows, no. It’s made explicitly clear when a random man stating “This Wolverine let down his entire world.”
This is how Deadpool & Wolverine is separating itself from Logan, and it’s also how the movie is losing my interest.
The multiverse has been run through the sawmill, grinded up into oblivion, and spit back up as unusable sawdust confetti. The fact we are stepping back into an adventure that may involve multiple timelines, multiple iterations of the same characters and multiple unimpactful endings has me pouring cold water on what’s meant to be an exciting romp.
Sorry if that brings the mood down, but seeing the Doctor Strange portal near the end of this trailer really sent me into a tizzy. It was like PTSD flashbacks to adventures I’ve grown tired of. Now perhaps Deadpool & Wolverine will truly be onto itself, make fun of the overwrought shit, and do something original with the idea. Speaking strictly for myself, it’s a matter of seeing is believing.
After an egregious crotch shot and an artful magazine of bullets to the gut, the trailer progresses to its second half. Wolverine, now with a very dirty uniform, leads a slow-mo walk into a bullet-filled town square while also voicing the fact that he is indeed no hero. Deadpool is hyping him up, calling him THE X-MAN before finally exclaiming that he is indeed aroused to the upteenth degree.
Violence, upon violence, upon violence. We see Deadpool and Wolverine fighting each other as well as some needless bad guys. Interspersed with the back-breaking blood teases are shots of a bald woman named Cassandra Nova and played by Emma Corrin. Her looks reminds me of The Adjudicator from John WickL Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019). This is not the only cinematic homage tossed about in the trailer. Levy and company are bringing something of a George Miller Mad Max vibe with outrageous cars and a guitarman-esq-figure riding high in the night.
Back to Cassandra Nova. This woman seems like a cocky piece of shit, and count me as one of the surprised trailer watchers when she starts manipulating Wolverine with Magneto-esq powers. One could say it’s tradition to have Logan contorted physically by a metal weidling baddie, but the fact that Magneto isn’t actually in this movie had me raising an eyebrow with the few clips we were shown.
Can I pose a theory? One that is totally off the rails with no factual or theoretical backing whatsoever. Is Cassandra Nova related to Magneto? We have opened up the idea of different universes, so why not surprise family relations? Or perhaps Nova is a long lost second cousin of Professor X. They are both bald, so why not?
The funniest part of the whole trailer comes in the very end. It’s Reynolds cooking on a part of the script that he definitely had a hand in writing.
Whether or not you think Deadpool & Wolverine is going to be good, it’s safe to say that the marketing for the movie is going to be the biggest push since Barbie (2023) and Oppenheimer (2023). Marvel association in itself means something. This Disney machine needs a win and knows this movie is going to bring in the bucks. Plus Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jacksman are two of the most charismatic guys in Hollywood. Reynolds has a vice grip on Deadpool the character and knows how to swing him for massive populous approval.
Deadpool & Wolverine releases into theaters on July 26, 2024.
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