2024-07-27 17:30:32
It’s here again. We didn’t even know we needed it. Deadpool is one of the most annoying heroes of the Marvel comics company. He has too much of a wicked sense of humor to be a neighborhood darling like Spider-Man. At the same time, he is not a real tough guy, rather a somewhat amoral individual who can hardly function in a team.
But when Deadpool collides with a similarly ferocious and idiosyncratic individual, Wolverine, it becomes a film that wants to make amends for many of the studio’s recent efforts.
The new movie called Deadpool & Wolverine, which has been shown in Czech cinemas since Thursday, is not off to a good start. In the introduction, Deadpool disparages the legacy of one of the first Marvel films for adults, the western-themed drama Logan, where an aging Wolverine faced not only villains, but mainly himself.
At that time, they were still shooting Marvel comics both at Disney and at the Fox studio. But then Disney bought Fox, and now the creators have combined the heroes from both branches, among other things, to put an end to the previous superhero creations of both companies due to previous missteps.
In the beginning, Deadpool comes to Logan’s, or Wolverine’s, grave to try to revive his colleague. It turns out that the more appearing opponents are eliminated by Wolverine’s indestructible – and unrevivable – so-called adamantium skeleton. He does not hesitate to use the remains of one of the most revered fighters of the Marvel world as nunchucks, or to stab them into the most delicate parts of the male body.
Still, there are reasons to take this self-centered hero to heart this time around. Once Deadpool goes to different worlds, where he gets “boobed” by a whole series of Wolverines, he finds the most impoverished in a secluded bar. The one who didn’t save the world, rather stabbed it. But he can still drink a bottle of brandy on an ex. And then fall on your back in style.
There are reasons to take pity on Ryan Reynolds’ self-absorbed Deadpool. | Photo: 20th Century Studios
Director Shawn Levy benefits from the fact that the novelty is more of a buddy comedy that digs into the foundations of the Marvel universe. It doesn’t always work out, but sometimes the sparking of both protagonists using words, katanas and claws brings a lot of fun.
After the last title of the Avengers series and the departure of some of the main heroes, Marvel’s films were increasingly struggling to get a fresh start. The concept of the so-called multiverse appeared, which worked great in the animated works about Spider-Man, but in most films the idea of an infinity of worlds and an infinity of versions of each of the protagonists led rather to helplessness. Deadpool knows this and isn’t afraid to constantly self-reflexively remind it.
The Deadpool series has always stood for the so-called breaking of the fourth wall, that is, about stepping out of the fictional world and winking at the audience. In the previous films from 2016 and 2018, it was alternately successful and not successful, some of the jokes were aimed more at adolescent boys, which did not go well with the fact that both films were – unusually for the superhero and therefore rather family genre – rated in the United States R. Which means the possibility of blood, profanity or nudity, as well as the fact that only adult viewers can see them in the cinema. And the younger ones only accompanied by them.
This time again, many of the jokes seem awfully intentional. However, the central idea that this eternal loser and self-proclaimed messiah is supposed to be the hero who will save the world from destruction is sufficient. And when we talk about saving the world, we’re not only talking about what’s inside the plot, but also about the Marvel Universe itself, which actually sends viewers an apology for their own mistakes with this film.
However, Deadpool & Wolverine also stands on a plethora of allusions. Not only those who are squeamish about the works of the Fox or Disney studio and complain that the Hollywood bosses did not allow them cocaine or some other forbidden “joys” even within the framework of the R rating. But also an allusion to the previous careers of actors Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in the roles of Deadpool and Wolverine. The latter, in particular, is constantly getting loaded for slaving away at Marvel until he’s ninety.
Movie buffs will certainly be happy with the pasture of references, it’s also nice that Marvel makes fun of its own failures. Unfortunately, the design often lacks greater elegance.
The entire central passage is a variation on the images from the Mad Max series, but director Shawn Levy is just a solid craftsman, and his vision of a desert world full of strange wheeled vehicles feels awkward.
It’s supposed to be a bit of a parody, but even so it’s a visually unimaginative, even repulsive counterpoint to the handmade, edited and camera-polished environment from the workshop of George Miller, the author of Mad Max. Fortunately, the verbal shelling of the contours of this post-apocalyptic desert world works a little better.
Deadpool & Wolverine is an imaginative buddy action comedy at times, but it still falls somewhere in the middle. It’s hard to find understanding for a protagonist who purposefully dials people up and at the same time wants to go through some self-reflection, unless you’re 17 years old. And it is similarly difficult to decide whether this effort by Marvel is a smart self-reflection of its own mistakes, or rather a calculated begging for attention.
Film
Deadpool & Wolverine
Directed by: Shawn Levy
Falcon, Czech premiere on July 25.