Deadpool & Wolverine – Film Review

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Aaron Stanford, Matthew Macfadyen

Director: Shawn Levy

Synopsis: After retiring as the Merc with a Mouth, Wade Wilson is recruited by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) for an important mission with everything Wade holds dear at stake…

Review: Cast your mind back to Spring 2019, the opening night of Avengers: Endgame. Audiences around the world gasped, applauded and cheered as the culmination of more than ten years of cinematic universe-building came to one almighty and epic finale. It seemed an absolute certainty, at that moment in time, that the popularity of the comic book genre was infinite and would last for generations.

Fast forward five years later, and you can’t move for talk of superhero fatigue, particularly in recent years. While there have been some undoubted misfires (and some other issues offscreen) along the way in its post-Endgame era, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a far cry from the crisis point many would have had you believe. But now, following on from the merger between Fox and Disney, a portal of opportunity has been opened for the X-Men to enter the MCU. Enter the self-anointed “Marvel Jesus” AKA Wade Wilson.

Six years since his time travel shenanigans at the end of Deadpool 2, Wade Wilson has hung up the katanas and retired as the Merc with a Mouth. This is until the Time Variance Authority come knocking and informs Wade that the fate of his universe hangs in the balance and to save it, he must search for a particular individual who could hold the key to saving his world and everything he holds dear, who just so happens to be a certain claw-wielding mutant, albeit from a different timeline.

When it comes to X-Men characters to integrate into the MCU, the extremely hard R-rated, profanity-laden, fourth-wall-breaking Deadpool would seem on paper the most difficult as it sees the studio venturing into uncharted waters. Would the Disney/Fox merger silence Deadpool as he was in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine? Not a fucking chance. Reynolds is once again brilliant in a role he has emphatically made his own and it is hard to imagine seeing anyone else don the red spandex in the future. Talking of characters that actors have made their own, Hugh Jackman did this and more across a 17-year stint and got the perfect send-off with 2017’s Logan. So naturally, fears may have risen that Jackman’s emotional swansong in the role would be undone with his decision to don the claws once more. Fear not, because this multiverse phase of the MCU allows Jackman to return in a way which enables these two to go on an adventure together, without rendering his emotional sacrifice irrelevant. An adventure, the details of which shall not be divulged here, but suffice to say, with Deadpool’s wisecrack penchant for wisecracks and pop culture references, combined with Wolverine’s gruffness and zero tolerance for bullshit, it makes for a perfect comedy duo, though only one of them is having any sort of fun.

As great as it is to see these two share a screen together, the overall plot is a bit threadbare and the multiversal shenanigans in which they get involved get a bit messy. With five credited writers (Reynolds, Levy, Zeb Wells and returning writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese), it is a case of too many screenwriters convolute the page as multiversal shenanigans are nothing new, and this film does little to differentiate itself from that. A trend in recent MCU history has been to delve into the past to provide easter eggs in the form of cameos. Sometimes they can drive the plot forward, but on other occasions, they can be little more than nostalgia/ fan service. More the latter rather than the former in this case frustratingly as it means Cassandra Nova (Corrin), the sister to a certain Charles Xavier and the antagonist at the centre of this adventure, lacks the sufficient screentime to show what a menacing threat she could be. Corrin does their best with the material they are given, but ultimately Cassandra becomes the latest victim of the MCU villain curse.

With this being the third film he has worked on with Reynolds since 2021’s Free Guy and 2022’s The Adam Project, Levy slots right in seamlessly to the director’s chair. The action scenes are bloody and glorious to watch, with many needle drops that are sure to give these songs a resurgence in popularity. Prior to its release, the 34th film in the MCU was seen as a film to rejuvenate the universe to which audiences had seemingly grown tired and disinterested. It might not necessarily be the ultimate slam dunk many would have wanted it to be, but when the cast is clearly having this much of a hoot with the multiversal mayhem, sometimes you simply have to just suit up and enjoy the ride. Let’s. Fucking. Go.

Despite some narrative bumps along the way, Deadpool & Wolverine relies on the charisma, passion and energy with which its two leads have poured into their characters over the years, along with some glorious bloody violence which will leave you more than entertained. Maximum effort.

**© Warner Bros, Universal and Amblin Entertainment**

Twisters – Film Review

Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane, Daryl McCormack, David Corenswet, Harry Hadden-Paton

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Synopsis: Years after a personal tragedy, a meteorologist is drawn back into the world of storm-chasing by an old friend…

Review: Mother Nature can be a very beautiful thing, but she also be extremely frightening and deadly if she wants to be. There is no shortage of natural disasters to unleash on anything and anyone who finds themselves in the path of these deadly occurrences. Yet despite the threat these events pose, there is something that is inescapably compelling, and in some cases, inspiring about watching them unfold on the big screen. 1996’s Twister, despite being plagued by a troubled production of adverse weather conditions, is to this day, one of the best examples of a disaster movie, and led to a rise in the number of students who looked to study meteorology. The forecast at the time would surely have predicted a high probability of a sequel. It has taken nearly 30 years to arrive, but it is here, to blow your socks off.

Kate Carter (Edgar-Jones) is a meteorologist living in New York City. Five years earlier, while chasing a tornado with a team to carry out research on how to reduce the storm’s intensity in Oklahoma, tragedy strikes which leaves most of her friends and fellow storm chasers dead, with the only survivor being Javi (Ramos). Such a traumatic experience has taken its toll on Kate, she initially rebuffs an offer from Javi to get back into the world of storm-chasing. However, upon seeing the damaging impact the storms are having and the potential to save countless lives, Kate joins up with Javi and a new team in Oklahoma. When they arrive, they encounter Tyler “Tornado Wrangler” Owens (Powell) a fellow meteorologist, who also happens to vlog his storm-chasing adventures with his eclectic team.

It will not come as news to anyone that tornados can be immensely dangerous, with the most extreme storms capable of reaching wind speeds of more than 300 miles per hour and can stay on the ground for more than 100 kilometres. These perils are devastatingly realised in an extremely tense opening scene in which director Lee Isaac Chung really makes the audience feel the intensity of these storms and how one wrong move can be catastrophic. The script by Mark L. Smith, which serves as a stand-alone sequel to Jan De Bont’s classic, shares no mutual characters and no connective gusts of wind. However, in a world with the threat of extreme weather events becoming more and more common, the screenplay makes the wise choice to not tinker with what made the 1996 film so successful. It merely brings it into the 21st century, with all the technological advancements that have happened, to enable those who would be brave/crazy enough to venture into the heart of a storm all in the name of scientific research, or for just the sheer thrill of it because: “if you feel it, chase it!”.

As the meteorologist in the eye of these storms, Daisy Edgar-Jones is terrific as Kate. Her talent for storm-chasing is immediately evident and she brings an abundance of enthusiasm for it. You get the sense that after stepping away from it for several years, she is eager to make up for the lost time. In what has been a remarkable rise for him over the last few years, Powell is also on terrific form as Tyler. He very much exudes that charisma and bravado that was on display in Top Gun: Maverick, who is at first solely in the business of storm-chasing for internet fame and daredevil. Though initially on rival storm-chasing teams, the duo begin to work together when the very real threat of these storms stands to cause catastrophic damage across the region. Such is their palpable chemistry, that it blows the rest of the supporting cast to the sidelines, aside from Anthony Ramos’s Javi who finds himself torn between the friendship he has for Kate, and the investor of his company, who may or may not be involved with some rather shady business practices.

After directing the heart-warming and soulful Minari, Twisters is perhaps not the next film many would have forecast Chung to be as his follow-up feature. Combined with the immaculate direction of the storm-chasing sequences, as he showed with his tender debut feature about one immigrant family’s pursuit of the American Dream, Chung brings real humanity to the film as the relief efforts to help the people rebuild their lives, homes, and businesses are given the necessary attention. It’s all well and good chasing a tornado to get the blood pumping, but the film never loses sight of the devasting impact these storms have on the people whose livelihoods are in their path. Unless you are the daredevil sort, storm-chasing is an adventure you probably won’t want to be seeking out any time soon, but it will provide you with a blustery good time at the cinema and who knows, maybe inspire a whole new generation’s interest in meteorology? Lightning could most certainly strike twice.