Deadpool & Wolverine verges on being a buddy comedy classic. Perhaps for those who’ve never grown up without superhero saturated cinema it very well will be. However, the sliver of the population unable to grasp every in-joke won’t be disappointed. They just might not get what’s so special here and there, impairing the likelihood of repeated viewings. Yet, rest assured true believers, Deadpool & Wolverine is an oddly ideal comedy pairing.
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Wade Winston Wilson, once again portrayed by Ryan Reynolds, is not exactly on top of the world. The notorious merc with a mouth is out of the superhero game, out of love, and it seems out of time. Wade’s branch of the multiverse is about to evaporate out of existence and the nefarious Mr. Paradox, played by Matthew Macfadyen (Succession), has decided to expedite its demise rather than save it. To prevent that calamity, “Dag-nasty” Deadpool seeks out the one person who might help him, a variation of Logan a.k.a. The Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). However, this version of the ol’ Canucklehead is neither willing, nor does it seem the best one for the job. 

That sets up the main theme of Deadpool & Wolverine. This is a film largely about second chances as well as the opportunity to finally shine—losers save the day. Other ideas are sprinkled throughout, but the film focuses on what it’s like to be a person nobody expects anything from at last having the chance to do something grand.

This is one of the few films in the current MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) which manages to tie in the multiverse concept satisfactorily. Its exploration of variations on established characters does indulge comic book fans with unique versions alongside familiar takes on beloved characters, but their inclusion isn’t simply ticket bait. For example, while it’s certainly fun to watch the montage of alternative Wolverines as Deadpool seeks out a suitable one, these different versions serve a purpose within the story. Sure, they work as easter eggs, but they also highlight character traits alongside expectations. And that minor spoiler raises part of the problem reviewing this movie.
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Deadpool & Wolverine does teeter on the brink of being fan service. Explaining how exactly risks ruining some of its surprises. Suffice it to say, there are cameos and jokes which require knowing the cinematic history of comic book films for decades. These are unlikely to land with audience members who haven’t watched every live-action Marvel adaptation or are unaware of films that bombed out of theaters. A lot of Deadpool & Wolverine is aimed at a target audience composed of devotees of the MCU and while the dominance of such movies the past several decades might make it seem like this knowledge is common, it ain’t. 

Fortunately, the film knows that. So, while some viewers may get bewildered by particular laughs or cheers, there’s enough comedy otherwise to keep all involved amused. Plus, the overarching themes roping different characters together are often made painfully plain through dull exposition spiced up by Reynolds’s sarcastic quips. In other words, those who feel lost will get the gist spelled out for them.

Unlike 2018’s Deadpool 2, this installment does a much better job of incorporating the rest of the cast. This isn’t Ryan Reynolds presents Ryan Reynolds as a Ryan Reynolds’s interpretation of Deadpool courtesy of Ryan Reynolds. Hugh Jackman actually gets moments to act as do a few others. Furthermore, the broader comedy tends to be the two very different personalities playing off one another—bitter alcoholic rage monster versus ADHD pop culture stream of consciousness.
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Again, talking about the full cast risks serious spoilers. Though not for lack of maximum effort, the internet has yet to unearth some amazing appearances. Even when online babble inevitably ruins several glorious reveals, I’m sure they’ll remain enticing to those who understand their significance. That’s especially true because, similar to what I said before, these aren’t ticket bait, they’re characters who serve a real purpose in the story. 

The cast that can be mentioned is impressive even though the titular stars get most of the screen time. Emma Corrin plays the villainous Cassandra Nova, a mutant with godlike abilities and megalomania to match. An award-winning performer with multiple wins for their role as Diana in The Crown and the film My Policeman (2022), they gracefully present someone bitter, reveling in the calamity they cause. Matthew Macfadyen is fine as the bureaucrat turned supervillain Mr. Paradox. However, his character seems more like a plot device than a proper role, something to trigger events rather than be a part of them. Peggy, Britain’s ugliest dog (who isn’t all that ugly), almost has a meatier role as Dogpool.

Meanwhile, Hugh Jackman effortlessly steps back into the part that he is now synonymous with. Ryan Reynolds continues to deliver the smooth stream of metafiction and sarcasm that has made Deadpool an audience favorite. Although, at this point in his career, the performance is almost as much a brand as it is acting. Whatever pathos the script serves is primarily heaped on Hugh’s shoulders since the filmmakers never seem to want Reynolds to stray too far from the stock smartass he now frequently plays. It’s unfortunate since such moments retread emotions better explored in 2017’s Logan.
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If there is a flaw in Deadpool & Wolverine, it’s that the film doesn’t offer up much that’s new. Neither of the main characters are all that different from versions we’ve seen before. That said, the fun is watching them bounce off one another. Not to mention the violence. 

Deadpool & Wolverine features an outlandish degree of bloody action. These reach darkly comic levels of intensity. Thrilling fight scenes rev up the pace whenever the movie starts to sputter. And at 128-minutes, it almost starts overstaying its welcome. In any case, masterful use of pop music classics adds an oddly amusing slant. Whether it’s Deadpool slicing up bad guys to N’Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye” or Wolverine unleashing a berserker barrage with Madonna in the background--it’s the al bacio.

Comedically Deadpool & Wolverine hits a solid pace. It allows jokes to land often giving the audience a chance to enjoy the humor before delivering another punchline. Occasionally, like during fight scenes, that’s a literal truth. More than once, I laughed out loud or groaned audibly at how a particular person got hit, impaled, shot, or horrifically killed. The movie is amusing from start to finish with laughs in all sizes. Because it doesn’t try to fill every second with a gag, nothing ever feels forced.

Deadpool & Wolverine gives the losers a chance to win. It's one of the few MCU films to successfully use the multiverse to tell a meaningful story. Hugh Jackman reprises his most famous role as if he never stopped playing the part. This provides a fabulous gruff foil for the brand of meta comedy audiences expect from Ryan Reynolds who delivers it solidly. The soundtrack features phenomenally ludicrous juxtapositions of tunes, especially in relation to what’s happening on screen. The cast is marvelous, and full of surprise appearances, some of which play on audience expectations to deliver quality laughs. While some bits lean too heavily into comic book lore as well as their cinematic adaptations, the movie is unlikely to alienate audiences unfamiliar. The crowd this film is aimed at will likely embrace it as a snarky buddy comedy for years to come, but any folks willing to take the irreverent ride will delight in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Twisters is like finding a pin in a candy bar. This CGI spectacle is dumb fun from a certain perspective, the one that can’t wait to turn it into a drinking game. However, tilt your head slightly, and you’ll see some unsettling subtext. If that term caused any eyes to roll, make no mistake Twisters is a thrill ride disaster flick, ideally seen on the big screen. Yet, it’s hard to shake what this movie is saying.

​The film opens with Kate played by Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing). She’s a storm chaser who thinks she can dissipate tornadoes. Her experiment fails, and a twister kills most of her closest friends. Five years later, the only other survivor of her failure recruits her to use military technology to better analyze the data from tornadoes. Reluctantly, Kate agrees, yet her haunting past imperils success. It’s not until she embraces the folksy wisdom of internet sensation Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) that she conquers fear and the pesky menace of cyclones --- fuck you nature!

If that were all that Twisters amounted to it would be a delight. The visuals effects are top notch. The sound is gloriously encompassing. The soundtrack is ludicrously on the nose to the point of being comical. It’s hard not to enjoy the spectacle. 

However, certain elements of the film are built around thematic notions which are hard to chew. Swallowed whole, Twisters doesn’t seem like anything other than junk food but there’re unpleasant chemicals in the mix. For instance, there is a rampant anti-intellectualism throughout the film.

Twisters regularly implies scientists are grifters who only care about money. Although the premise is predicated on the real life rise in tornado outbreaks and ferocity, the film never mentions global warming or climate change as the cause. It’s simply treated as something that happens, perhaps seasonally --- get used to it. Harry Hadden-Paton (Downtown Abbey) plays Ben, a British journalist who is constantly whimpering in terror or vomiting in fright. But y’all know how gutless those phony European journalists in the fake news media are, right? Meanwhile, country music clichés are a sign of honest individuals; more than once I imagined hearing Bob Seger singing “Like a Rock” as someone strutted to or from a pickup. And finally, Twisters passionately embraces the very hubris that causes every Jurassic Park disaster, portraying nature as something humanity can conquer… as we should, Genesis 1:28.

​I mentioned an inevitable drinking game produced by this film --- take a drink whenever someone mentions meteorological jargon. One aspect of that game will undoubtedly require taking a shot every time an American flag appears on screen. Main character Kate actually has a character shift after donning an American flag shirt while camerawork emphasizes her wearing it --- the audience is meant to notice the Star-Spangled banner. That’s because there’s an absurd degree of pandering to redneck patriotism in Twisters which isn’t as bad as the implication that internet influencers are good people looking out for the best interests of the world. 

That latter one is especially odd since Glen Powell (Hitman) plays a character who is completely unlikeable, a cocky cowboy who deserves a caning. It’s a testament to his performance that he comes across at all charming. His band of merry misfits pride themselves on having no book learnin’, and he downplays his higher education around them, often acting embarrassed to have one, preferring his meteorological deductions to seem mystical rather than shamefully scientific.

​He and his crew then barrel into situations towing a group of lookie-loos into gawking at dangerous cyclones for pics --- #TikTokTornado. While they recklessly treat twisters like amusement rides, the film insists that’s okay because they use any money earned for charity. The filmmakers even go so far as to depict the influencer and their fans like some ideal community, singing songs around parking lot campfires waiting for the next storm to chase; drinking beers in celebration of shooting fireworks up a tornado as if that accomplished anything other than look cool. Furthermore, Tyler’s respect for nature is not because it’s an uncontrollable danger that has zero regard for them, but because tornadoes are proof of the divine. (At one point, a character outright says the tornadoes seem to be acting consciously.)

Don’t get me wrong. There is some positive messaging here. Kate is a great example of representation sure to piss off disingenuous critics. They’ll complain about her preternatural ability to predict tornado movements even though Glen Powell’s got the same skill. What’s more, it’s adequately explained by the film. What Twisters gets right is showing a multifaceted person who developed skills over a lifetime that can fail and come back from failure to finally reach their goal. The fact she’s a woman makes it a plus for representation, but the idea is universally appealing.

Perhaps another oddly positive note is this disaster flick’s attempt to show devastation. The consequences of tornados destroying homes, leaving people with nothing but ruin is put on display. It’s meant to add weight to the destruction, while never once slowing down the CGI carnage. That makes it like visiting shark attack victims in the hospital right before cutting to more scenes of people getting savagely bit.

Unfortunately, Twisters never embraces the absurdity of its plot. There’s nothing tongue-in-cheek about this movie. The cast also plays it straight, only leaning towards comedy when characters get snarky with one another. Director Lee Isaac Chung captures some excellent moments while the script by Mark L. Smith establishes a solid premise alongside quality action set pieces. Yet, the film is predictable from its opening calamity to obvious end. Thankfully, a solid cast keeps what little momentum the movie has going when not being fueled by computer generated catastrophes.

​Daisy Edgar-Jones seems honestly broken, someone struggling to overcome an honest mistake that scarred her life. Yet, she shows strength in the right moments, exposing her vulnerability only when it can’t be contained. Glen Powell is delightfully cocky as a YouTube Pecos Bill. However, his crew, composed of Sasha Lane (How to Blow Up a Pipeline), Brandon Perea (Nope), Tunde Adebimpe (Marriage Story), and Katy O’Brian (Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania), though all perform well their characters have little substance. They’re a flock of misfits colorfully juxtaposed against the bland team Kate becomes a part of. That group has even less personality, save for her friend Javi, played by Anthony Ramos (In the Heights) who ably portrays a conflicted person with survivor’s guilt trying to use weather science to benefit crooked real estate dealers.

Twisters is nowhere near the worst movie I’ve seen this year. That honor still belongs to Argylle which physically hurt to watch. There is an entertaining quality to this movie.

A lot of the praise for this picture will undoubtedly settle on Twisters being glorious eye candy, perfect for the big screen. To that I present zero disagreement. Twisters is a deafening spectacle. Yet, all movies have a message. The fact that this film never really leans into its absurdity like other action extravaganzas implies it wants to be taken somewhat seriously, and as such, its messages need to be acknowledged.

On one hand, Twisters is a wild ride through a storm of spectacular visuals. The absurd plot somehow stays serious thanks to a stellar cast, though the narrative suffers from painful predictability. On the other, Twisters implies a yeehaw notion of the United States where scientists are grifters, climate change doesn’t exist even as a concept, and even if it did humanity can wrangle nature into submission thanks to country music clichés come to life. Either which way, if you can turn off your brain, delight in this junk food side show, but be ready if something doesn’t sit right in your stomach.