‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ reviews: Critics say it’s a ‘rude and irreverent,’ ‘wry and entertaining’ ‘love letter to Marvel fans’
Two of the most popular characters in the Marvel canon come together in “Deadpool and Wolverine,” which opened on July 26. It marks the third cinematic outing for Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and the umpteenth for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine (he originated the role way back in 2000’s “X-Men”). Are they just as good together as they are apart? Perhaps even better? … Perhaps worse? Film critics have weighed in.
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As of this writing “Deadpool and Wolverine” has a MetaCritic score of 56 based on 50 reviews counted: 26 of those reviews are classified as positive, 19 are somewhat mixed and five are outright negative. That’s lower than the 65 score for 2016’s “Deadpool” and the 66 score for 2018’s “Deadpool 2.”
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Things look a lot different on Rotten Tomatoes, however. That aggregator, which classifies reviews simply as positive or negative, rates the film as 81% fresh based on 208 reviews. That’s also lower than “Deadpool” (85%) and “Deadpool 2” (84%), but the critical marks there are fairly consistent. The RT critics consensus on this latest adventure says, “Ryan Reynolds makes himself at home in the MCU with acerbic wit while Hugh Jackman provides an Adamantium backbone to proceedings in ‘Deadpool and Wolverine,’ an irreverent romp with a surprising soft spot for a bygone era of superhero movies.”
So why the disparity? Well, Rotten Tomatoes is a binary rating system: every review is either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. MetaCritic is more nuanced, assigning a score from zero to 100 to each review. So the contrasting numbers suggest that most critics like the new film, but many are ambivalent about it, and not many flat-out love it.
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A few critics are enthusiastic in their praise of the film. Dominic Baez (Seattle Times), for instance, calls the film “the ultimate love letter to Marvel fans.” Alan Ng (Film Threat) thinks it’s “an absolute blast.” And Johnny Oleksinski (New York Post) says it “gives the MCU new hope” and is the best in the sprawling cinematic universe since “Spider-Man: No Way Home” three years ago.
Others are somewhat on the fence, like Matt Zoller Seitz (RogerEbert.com), who argues, “I wish the movie were more coherent and consistent,” but “I kinda did care about the characters.” Caryn James (BBC) thinks the film is “occasionally wry and entertaining … But the action, which takes over much of the movie, is a slog.” And Alissa Wilkinson (New York Times) describes it as “rude and irreverent, funny and disgusting, weird and a little sweet.”
However, Donald Clarke (Irish Times) is not a fan of the film’s “infantile mugging.” And Dylan Roth (Observer) derides it as “a parade of crowd pleasing pops with practically no substance, guaranteeing a billion dollar return and a shelf life of about five minutes.” You can’t please everybody.
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