Deadpool & Wolverine

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman's Marvel epic is packed with punches—and punchlines

FANTASY

This new Marvel blockbuster drags Hugh Jackman's snarling X-Men hero Wolverine into the cynical, blithely foulmouthed world of Ryan Reynolds's Deadpool. Logan, as Wolverine is also known, turns out to be a surprisingly obliging guest, politely if unsmilingly observant of his host's house rules. In other words, the film is a vehicle for Deadpool and for Reynolds. If there isn''t much going on beneath Dé&W's tussily textured surface of meta-humor, well, that's the point. What you get is a winkingly self-aware stream of jokes about comic-book franchises and Disney corporate might—a superheroes' volley of inside industry references. It's a game of pickleball played by giants.