Deadpool & Wolverine Review: Cameos Galore.

The first two Deadpool movies are a lot of fun.
The self-aware adventures of the titular merc with the mouth can always be counted on for a lot of fun violence and fourth wall breaking comedy.
Although, going into the latest film, Deadpool & Wolverine, I was a bit concerned because I knew this movie would be a follow up to Logan, my favorite movie of all time.
I was wondering how they would bring back Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, while staying respectful to that movie.
Well, Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson explains how they plan to do it right from the film’s opening narration.
“We’re not.”
Yeah, see, Deadpool & Wolverine begins by literally desecrating Logan’s grave.
Had this been any other movie, I would have probably been enraged by this insult.
But… well, this is a Deadpool movie, and so the way they went about this desecration was somehow inventive, fun, and hilarious.

The opening of this movie would have most likely angered me had this had not been a Deadpool film.

Directed by Shawn Levy, Deadpool & Wolverine sees Wade Wilson kidnap a disgraced version of Wolverine to help him save his universe.
The story is honestly pretty bland but that is okay because it is merely used as a vehicle to get Deadpool and Wolverine on screen together, which definitely does not disappoint.
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman have a lot of chemistry, making every dialogue exchange and fight scene they have comedic gold.

“I waited a long time for this team up,” Deadpool says in the movie. As have we all, Wade. As have we all.

Another highlight of this film is the cameos.
Oh, boy, does Deadpool & Wolverine have a lot of cameos.
I was expecting to see some since the film deals with the multiverse, but I was surprised by the sheer number of them.
With so many, it would have been easy to make these cameos feel cheap and unearned.
I would argue this has been the case with many of the MCU’s multiverse stories.
I mean, they even just announced that Robert Downey Jr. is returning to play Dr Doom, which reeks of desperation, in my opinion.
However, the cameos of Deadpool & Wolverine are often unique and unexpected, and I am glad I did not get spoiled about most of them.

You are bound to recognize some of the superhero and super villain cameos in this film, even if you only have a minor understanding of superhero movies.

Along with the cameos, there are also plenty of new characters, like the antagonist Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), Charles Xavier’s evil twin sister.
Her character is pretty fun, with her gleeful villainy creating a fun yet threatening antagonist, who is pretty unpredictable.

Corrin clearly had a lot of fun playing this villain.

As for my criticisms of the film, as I said the overall story is pretty meh.
Along with this, I feel like one of the cameo characters honestly deserved a bit more to do.
Otherwise, Deadpool & Wolverine is an enjoyable film.
The cameos are well executed, the comedy is top notch, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are expectedly fantastic as their characters and have great interactions.
Last, but certainly not least, the film serves as a love letter to the Fox era of Marvel, which has now ended.
Check it out just to see how many cameos you can recognize.

Pokemon Detective Pikachu Review: Probably Just for Fans.

When I first saw the trailer for Pokemon Detective Pikachu, directed by Rob Letterman, I honestly thought it was some kind of elaborate joke.
I had no idea it was based on a video game, and had no clue what they were trying to achieve.
Having now seen the film, I can tell that Detective Pikachu was a love letter film to Pokemon fans.
There are multiple fan service moments for the people who enjoy the game and series.
However, I am not one of these people.
While I did watch Pokemon as a kid, I am not, nor have I ever been, an avid fan.
So, take note that I do not fit into the intended demographic for this film before you read the review.
If you are a fan of Pokemon, then I am sure you will enjoy the film.
I even liked some parts of it, which I will get to later.
However, overall, I found Pokemon Detective Pikachu to be a film with a lot of problems.
The first twenty minutes were straight up boring for me, with many of the jokes failing spectacularly.
I quickly came to dislike many of the characters, including the main character Tim Goodman (Justice Smith), and his love interest, Lucy Stevens (Kathryn Newton) whose introduction had to be the worst scene of the entire movie.
During these twenty minutes, I was practically praying that Ryan Reynolds’ Pikachu would show up to add something to the film, which thankfully he does.

Seeing Ryan Reynolds voice Pikachu is something I honestly never expected to see.

Reynolds does a good job as Pikachu and his interactions with Tim actually made me start to like him half way through the film.
Sadly, though, his presence is not enough to save the film for me.
Apart from Pikachu and Goodman, I cared for none of the other characters, and a lot of the jokes fell flat for me.
Then there are the twists, which are pretty predictable, for the most part.
Granted, I did like the last twist, but it did raise quite a few plot holes in the story.
This is not the only case of plot holes in the film though, because there are actually quite a few.
There is one action sequence with some Pokemon created by scientists, but there was no reason for them to be created because they did not tie into the villain’s ultimate plan.
Like I said though, there are some good parts.
Although a lot of the jokes did not land for me, there is a great scene where Pikachu and Tim interrogate a Mime Pokemon, which gets a lot of laughs.

The scene with the Mime Pokemon is the funniest of the movie, with a lot of great visual humor.

Pikachu’s chemistry with Tim is pretty good but, again, I only started liking Tim half way through the movie.
Finally, there is the CGI for the Pokemon, which, while not fully realistic at times, feels appropriate for the film.
But, Detective Pikachu’s target audience is ultimately Pokemon fans.
If you are one, then you will most likely love this movie.
For me, however, while there are some good things about Pokemon Detective Pikachu, there are also a lot of bad that stop it from being good.

Deadpool 2: Hilarious From Start to Finish to Mid-Credits

Tell me if you have heard this one, a time traveling Cyborg goes to the past to kill a kid before he can commit horrible crimes in the future.
Yeah it sounds a lot like the plot to a Terminator film doesn’t it?
However, what Deadpool 2 has but a Terminator film never could was everybody’s favourite merc with the mouth to make fun of the similarities.
Directed by David Leitch, Deadpool 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to the original Deadpool, the surprise hit that took Deadpool from his embarrassing debut in X Men Origins: Wolverine to his lovable, foul mouthed, fourth-wall breaking self that we know and love.
And there is definitely plenty of fourth wall breaking to be had in Deadpool 2, with Ryan Reynolds killing it as the titular hero.
No one can deny it at this point that Reynolds was born to play this character.
As I stated, the film features Cable, the time traveling cyborg who is played by Josh Brolin, going to kill a kid named Russel, the kid who will commit horrible crimes and is played by Julian Dennison.
However, due to a both tragic and hilarious series of events, Deadpool gets thrown into the mix and fights to protect Russel by forming a new “derivative” superhero team, known as X-Force.

Deadpool and X-Force — Deadpool forms the X-Force to help Russel…. oh boy (If you have seen the movie you know what I mean by that).

Deadpool 2 is a blast of comedy from start to finish, with hilarious meta jokes and entertaining action sequences, with more than a few surprises along the way.
Reynolds is not the only excellent actor in this as Brolin and Dennison also do great jobs in their roles and are funny when they need to be.
As for returning characters Collosus, played by Stephen Kapicic, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, played by Brianna Hildebrand, it was good to see them again.
Although, I will admit I was a bit disappointed with how Negasonic and her newly introduced girlfriend Yukio, played by Shioli Kutsuna, were utilized because these two characters felt very underused.
The real standout new character though was Domino, played by Zazie Beetz, whose superpower of luck was very cinematic, no matter what Deadpool says.

Domino proves once and for all that luck can be cinematic.

As for the comedy, it was spot on and had me laughing numerous times to the point that it hurt.
Numerous films were referenced and parodied from Logan, to Batman V Superman, to even Basic Instict.
Probably the funniest moment of the entire movie was the mid-credits sequence, which is probably the best one ever done so make sure to stick around for it.
However, although most of the jokes were hilarious there was one right at the end that went on way longer than it should have.
Overall Deadpool 2 was a blast to watch.
Is it better than the first one?
I am unsure at this point but it definitely depends on how you view the first film on whether you will like this one or not.