Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, is summoned by an organization known as the Time Variance Authority (TVA), represented by Mr. Paradox, to Earth-616, and join their team to speed up the destruction of Wade's parallel universe, which is in decline after the death of the "anchor being", Wolverine. Since Deadpool actually wants to save his world, including his nine friends, he goes to an alternate universe where Wolverine refused to be a superhero, and brings him to help him. Paradox sends them to the Void, a purgatory universe where rejects are sent. Deadpool and Wolverine team up with Electra, Blade and Gambit to defeat Cassandra, the twin sister of Charles Xavier, and use her telekinetic powers to be sent back to Earth-616. After fighting a hundred Deadpools from different parallel universes, Deadpool and Wolverine create a short circuit of the Time Ripper machine and thereby kill Cassandra who wanted to destroy all other parallel universes besides this one.
After Ryan Reynolds invoked Wolverine for two "Deadpool" movies, he finally got his wish and crossover film with him in part III, "Deadpool & Wolverine". Wolverine is Hugh Jackman's role of a lifetime, a one which he played for 10 movies, but it only truly earned its status of a lifetime role in his last two movies, "Logan" and this one. "Deadpool & Wolverine" is a mixed bag—on the one hand, having these two superheroes team up and interact is exciting and stimulative (though the stoic Wolverine is surprisingly the better half of the duo) because they are such different personalities; but on the other hand, one whishes they were in a better written story than the mess we got here, which is so overburdened by excessive 'breaking-the-fourth-wall' moments that it shoves anything in its way, and thus the viewers have trouble fully engaging. The overkill use of ultraviolence and cruelty as something "humorous" is also a negative point, since at times it really went too far in this category. However, if the viewers can accept that everything is only meant to be an (R-rated) comedy and just plain untrammelled fun, then they could enjoy the movie more.
Reynolds' antihero again has the best jokes and sizzling lines (upon hearing from Al that his rent is due, Wade says: "Relax, I have the money. I sold some old blood pressure medication I've found lying around", upon which she says: "I pray every day that fire finds your body and finishes the job God didn't have the nuts to do!"; After a monologue at the party, the man standing next to him raises his finger as if to say something, but Wade stops him: "No speaking lines. Bye"; "I am the Messiah. I am Marvel Jesus"). Even during one shocking and sudden moment, where the villainess Cassandra uses her telekinetic powers to take away the skin of Johnny Storm and graphically disband his body into hundred pieces in an elaborate (and obviously expensive) visual effect, this is used for a metafilm gag when Deadpool laments at Johnny: "Look what he's doing to the budget!" Deadpool even makes fun of Marvel's multiverse phase by setting the story in this premise, but it doesn't gel well with other elements. The "Void" segment, in which Deadpool and Wolverine are stuck in a dumping ground universe, takes way too much time, over half of the movie—it should have been cut by a half, especially since they crammed everything and anything in this (overlong) middle act. The only indisputable highlight in this segment are delicious cameos from "rejected" and "forgotten" Marvel films, which should not be missed. When one supporting characters starts a long, epic revenge rant against Cassandra, Wolverine just interrupts him: "Not everyone gets a speech!" As with the previous two films, some emotions are inserted in the final act, which give Wolverine pathos and weight, preserving his mythical status. But this also leads to an astonishing conclusion regarding this movie—it is better during Wolverine's scenes which matter and have weight, and actually weaker during Deadpool's scenes which have too much throw away, wasteful jokes.
Grade:++
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