DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE is visually dull but hilarious

“That’s Wolverine.”

“You’re damn straight it is. Disney brought him back, they’re gonna make him do this ‘til he’s 90.”

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE exists as an anomaly of corporate engineering. It lives as a horrific reminder that Disney owns and operates nearly everything, as a eulogy to a bygone studio with 20th Century Fox, and as a laugh-out-loud comedy that will entertain you thoroughly for 2 hours if you don’t spend too much time thinking about any of the plot, lest it disintegrate in your hands.

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE sees the irreverent Wade Wilson aka Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) who is informed that his universe is set to be terminated by the Time Variance Authority (TVA), an interdimensional organization that monitors the universe, multiverse, and all realities across all of space and time.

His world is ending because of the death of his universe’s “anchor being”, an individual that seemingly represents the tangible reality of a known world. In this case it is Logan aka The Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), the clawed member of the X-Men who perished in 2017’s film LOGAN.

Deadpool, desperate to save his reality, finds a new Wolverine- an alcoholic and despondent variant who was responsible for the death of his universe’s X-Men.

Desperate not to let Deadpool win, the TVA send him and his newly found Wolverine into “The Void” a sort of purgatory where all other universe’s are disposed of into a massive garbage heap controlled by Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) the sister of Charles Xavier.

Deadpool and Wolverine must put aside their difference and join forces with a rag-tag group of survivors (Wesley Snipe’s Blade, Jennifer Garner’s Elektra, Channing Tatum’s Gambit, and Dafne Keen’s X-23) to save their timeline from extinction.

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE is Disney’s first R-rated film and has more f-bombs and violence than you can shake a stick at. It’s gory and hilarious, but also impressively features Hugh Jackman’s best performance as Wolverine which is a feat in and of itself after his turn in 2017’s LOGAN which was supposed to act as a “send-off” to the character.

The film is helmed by Shawn Levy, for better or for worse. While Levy’s eye for filmmaking is basically non-existent, he at least seems to be a real “Actor’s director” in the sense that you can tell everyone on set seemed to be having a damn good time which translates well to the audience.

Levy’s bland direction is especially egregious given 2018’s DEADPOOL 2 was helmed by David Leitch. Levy, however, can make the action very fun to watch, I just wish it was prettier.

At the end of the day though, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE is the shot in the arm the Marvel Cinematic Universe needed, especially in the run of flops that has plagued the brand since SPIDER-MAN NO WAY HOME which was a similar hollow crowd-pleasing good time, which I also had a great time with despite its flaws.

There’s not much to DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE other than that it sets out to do exactly what it said it would: offer a fun buddy-cop romp with gratuitous cameos and a surprising amount of heart.

Also, be warned, because “Like a Prayer” by Madonna will be stuck in your head for the rest of the summer.