Dead(pool) and Company: A review of 'Deadpool & Wolverine'

In fact, when it comes to Deadpool, he takes a sledgehammer to the fourth wall, the fifth wall, the ceiling, the floor, the backdrop, the movie screen, your eyewear, your cornea and ultimately, your frontal cortex.

The constant one-way dialogue with the audience is one of the calling cards of this entertainingly unhinged comic book hero and in “Deadpool & Wolverine” he has never done it so rapidly and rigorously. This latest entry is his long-awaited maiden appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In this third installment (the first two were from the now-shuttered 20th Century Fox Studios), Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is struggling through an existential crisis and failing to find meaning in his life. Cue the arrival of a universe-saving quest. Ennui over! To aid him in his objective, he recruits his longtime crush from afar, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman).

These bosom buddies team up and embark on a figurative road trip, like Thelma and Louise except everyone’s on Ritalin, whiskey and that lemonade from Panera. Hilarity and hard core violence ensue.

It’s quite impossible to decide which is better: the inspired bickering and the verbal teardowns they volley at each other, or the earth shattering, hyperkinetic fights between them. For the uninitiated, part of the humor of their specific combat relationship is that they are both virtually unkillable. Thanks to their powers, every time they are stabbed, shot, sliced, burned or thrown through inanimate objects, they heal up immediately.

The plot is paint-by-the-numbers superhero stuff, so it’s mostly flimsy and an excuse to hook the two up. But let’s face it, we plop down our $20 bill not for the structure, but rather for the individual performances of the leads. There truly has never been a pair of casting decisions in the same movie as perfect as Reynolds and Jackman in these roles.

Their strong performances should also be credited to the director Shawn Levy (“Free Guy”) who has worked with both actors in the past. The script, while boringly comic book conventional, is a gold mine full of writing nuggets. It is credited to a team that includes Levy, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (who both worked on the previous Deadpool movies), Zeb Wells (“Robot Chicken”) and of course, Reynolds, who has championed the arrival of Deadpool to the big screen. And lest we forget, Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza created the character.

This being a Marvel product, our titular main character keeps the company of many heroes and villains from a toy box full of characters. Depending on your point of view, one of the best (and lately, worst) parts of these types of movies is the teasing and rolling out of cameos. Some recent films and shows from Marvel seem to be built on a foundation of what obscure persons would make a brief appearance. This delights the social media commenters parasiting off the content, creating buzz, but it's a hollow follow-up to the heights of the “Endgame” peaks. If you’re into this sort of thing, you will revel in many of the movie’s surprise appearances.

The supporting cast that I am allowed to mention spoiler-free, is excellent. Two exceptional British actors, Matthew Macfadyen (“Succession”) and Emma Corrin (“The Crown”) play the baddies.

Along with the company Deadpool keeps, this film is also about his relationship with the Company that “keeps him” under intellectual property ownership. Disney purchased 20th Century Fox Studios a few years back, and included in the haul were the rights to some very popular characters including our two leads, plus the X-Men, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four and more. The MCU now has virtually all of your main childhood comic memories under its lock and key, except for your favorite neighborhood arachnid guy, who is still owned by Sony Pictures.

A lot of opinions have been voiced about how the family sensibilities of Disney would merge with the R-rated vibe of these characters and stories. There is some level of worry that the earnings report types at the House of Mouse would soften or reduce the profane nature of these characters, that they might file down the sharpness and censor the dirty stuff. After all, can a stable containing Bambi, Olaf and Nemo handle decapitations, F-bombs and shameless prose from an Adam and Eve catalog?

Well fanboys and fangirls, that concern is for naught.

There is absolutely no filter and nothing seems missing from the original Deadpool aesthetic — over-the-top violence, rampant sexual innuendo, acerbic takedowns of their corporate overlords, skewering of political correctness. It’s all still there and the transition (transaction?) from one owner to another is seamless. If anything, the MCU has improved the franchise. Breaking news — corporate buyout does good. Man bites dog.

Furthermore, the losing streak that Marvel’s film productions have had lately is Thanos-snapped. This movie’s gross receipts will eventually surpass the GDP of Florida, greatly affirming Disney’s decision to buy its Fox rival.

To Spider-Man’s Sony owners, best be getting that poison pill ready to resist the hostile takeover. Or, for the benefit of the fans, maybe don’t. After all, you’ll be in good company. And Company.