While standing on the precipice of a universe altering moment, it was the Canadians who stood tall.

In theatres now, Deadpool & Wolverine can’t 100% erase the missteps of previous iterations of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but via the structure of a rapid fire buddy comedy it allows for some soul and redemption to come back into it all thanks to two of its more irredeemable yet popular characters.

A world weary Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) has simply had enough in his universe and finds himself climbing down the bottom of a bottle in order to be left alone.  However, when the MCU’s favourite loudmouth Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) who has traversed the multiverse in hopes of befriending the wild beast in order to take down a common foe and give themselves both some purpose again.

As it unfolds at comedic breakneck speed with throwback defences, inspired cameo’s and one liner’s flying across the screen that would make the late, great Robin Williams lose his breath, Deadpool & Wolverine manages to be exactly what has been so desperately needed in it all.  A chance to pay reverence to what it all was, acknowledge the chaos that is all is and embrace the future of what it all could be.

Filled to the gills with callback’s and self-referential bits, the time was ripe for the MCU to take the piss out of itself just a little bit and who better than the foul mouthed Canadian to get it done.  With Shawn Levy on board to direct, Reynolds still keeps the action high but lets us laugh about what it took to get here with ease.  Reynolds is throwing so many jokes at the screen it’s hard to believe they were all scripted and while they don’t all work, the success rate is at a more than a high enough rate to make us forgive any clunkers very much like in some of the R-Rated comedies of the 1980’s like 48 Hrs or Midnight Run.

In an unexpected twist to it all, Levy as director and Reynolds who co-wrote the script allows it all to rely on good old fashion charisma then any sort of occasionally confusing but usually self-involved lore in order for the story to get anywhere.  More than anything this was a story that puts the fun above everything else, and while Reynolds gets to embrace his truly unhinged nature it need to mine the sage wisdom of a character who could be the straight man to the comedy and mostly not give a fuck.

Hugh Jackman is why this movie works plain and simple.  It smartly and deftly acknowledges that yeah the Logan character had an epic death back in 2017, but it also wasn’t canon MCU so we need to run it back for him to play the straight man in epic comedy fashion to and unhinged Deadpool who could see almost anything poor out of his mouth.  It all rings so self-aware and true in classic fourth wall breaking fashion that riding shotgun on this one into the more family friendly MCU could back fire on him in a huge way.

In many ways, Deadpool & Wolverine might not be the movie that the hard-core fans who spend far too much time dissecting the Disney/Fox merger and its effect on the stories going forward wanted, because it’s rather for the more casual fan who wants to get invested in the moment with characters that we care about.  After the intensity and seriousness of Avengers: Infinity War & Endgame that had us invested in a completely different way, our new dynamic of Ketchup & Mustard (I defy you not to see it) gets us back to the joy of living vicariously through characters that are more of the traditional anti-hero more than anything else, which is what we needed.

As much as I enjoyed Captain America & Spider-Man in my various comic book adventures, I wanted to BE Wolverine growing up…and I was not alone.

In a world where we’re all growing up a little too fast, Deadpool & Wolverine embraces the idea of not overthinking it all too much and being able to laugh at it when it does.