Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

Let's get one thing straight before we go any further: this is not cinema. It's a two-hour victory lap wrapped in spandex, CGI, and enough meta jokes to make even Deadpool himself wince. And I say that as someone who came out of it with a stupid grin on his face.

Deadpool & Wolverine knows exactly what it is. It doesn't pretend otherwise for a single frame. It's pure, unapologetic fan service, a chaotic, self-aware mash-up of nostalgia, multiverse madness, and fourth-wall breaks so frequent they start to feel like performance art. The question isn't whether it earns its place alongside genuinely great superhero films. It doesn't, and it doesn't try to. The question is whether it's a good time. And mostly, yeah, it is.

Ryan Reynolds leans harder than ever into the shtick. The quips, the product placement, the relentless winks at the camera. But here's the thing: he's clearly having the time of his life, and that energy is infectious in a way that's hard to resist. You can feel the glee radiating off every scene, and it carries you through stretches that would otherwise drag. Hugh Jackman, back as Logan, matches him step for step. There's genuine physical presence to his performance, a gruff charm that reminds you why this character worked so well for so long. He's earned the right to revisit this role on his own terms, and it shows. Their odd-couple dynamic, one a foul-mouthed chaos agent, the other a reluctant, world-weary warrior who just wants everyone to leave him alone, works better than it has any right to. It's the film's real backbone, carrying the story through its thinnest moments.

The spectacle is undeniable. The multiverse framework lets Marvel throw everything at the screen in one go. Alternate versions of familiar characters, deep-cut references, cameos I genuinely didn't see coming, more mid-credits scenes than any sane person should have to process in one sitting. If you've spent the better part of fifteen years watching these films, you'll get a kick out of spotting the Easter eggs. It's a nostalgia buffet, and it's piled high.

But here's where I have to be honest with myself. For all the fun, it feels kind of pointless. The stakes are laughably low. Another collapsing multiverse, another shadowy organisation with a plan that amounts to "bad thing happens." The film gestures toward bigger ideas, questions about legacy, identity, what it means to close a chapter properly, but they only ever get lip service before another joke lands and the moment passes. With so many timelines and alternate versions and parallel everythings floating around, nothing feels real or lasting. It's noise before the next reboot, and everyone involved knows it.

There's a version of this film that could've sat alongside something like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in terms of blockbusters that actually swing for something meaningful beneath the chaos. Deadpool & Wolverine doesn't swing for that. It swings for your funny bone and your soft spot for characters you grew up with, and on those two fronts it lands often enough.

As a dumb, flashy, occasionally very funny send-up of the whole Marvel machine, it works. It moves fast, it doesn't pretend to be profound, and it's self-aware enough to pre-empt most of its own criticisms before you can make them. Nostalgia sells. Meta-humour sells. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman selling each other out on screen for two hours sells. Sometimes that's enough.

Three and a half stars. Don't go in expecting meaning. Go in expecting mayhem, and you'll leave happy enough.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 2024  | Watched: 2025-08-10

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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