Deadpool and Wolverine - 4K Digital Review

Movie
Ladies and gentleman, it’s finally here. After years of waiting, years of teasing, and quite simply, years of us nerds begging, we actually got it. Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, and a hard R rated movie that pretty much thumbs its nose at the decline of super hero fatigue. Yeah, you got it, Deadpool and Wolverine is finally here. If you’re like me then watching Marvel Studios slow decline from being THE tent pole studio of the 2010s, to basically being on veritable life support has been depressing. I literally was one of THE biggest Marvel Stans out there. I paid way too much money to go see Iron Man in theaters, literally drove 3.5 hours to go see The Avengers in the biggest IMAX theater in the state, and have bought, rebought, and rebought again most of my Marvel film collection over the years chasing the coolest steelbooks and “box o swag” editions out there. But as time has gone on the studio has been struggling. Some of that is simply evolution (nothing can stay on top forever), and part of that is the fact that Marvel has been struggling with ideas for the last 2 phases (Phase 4 had SOME decent stuff, Phase 5 has basically been a dumpster fire). And while I seriously doubt Deadpool and Wolverine is going to suddenly lift them back to A+ tier status, it is a MUCH needed boost, and acts almost as a love story to comic book movies.

Deadpool/Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) looked like he was living the high life back in Deadpool 2. He had fixed his timeline thanks to the help of Cable’s time travel device, and made sure that he and Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) were happily ever after. But it looks like things have not gone that well for the Merc with the mouth. After getting rejected by the Avengers Wade went into a downward spiral, losing his entire identity and eventually losing Vanessa as well. He’s living as a used car salesman in a single room apartment and celebrating his 40 something birthday with his friends, but there is still that emptiness. That all changes when the TVA pulls Deadpool from his timeline and Paradox offers him a chance at getting into the MCU (e.g., the Sacred Timeline). The catch is, Wade’s timeline is dying due to his Logan (Hugh Jackman) dying off in the most epic fashion (from Logan) and Paradox is going to “prune” the entire time line.

off and not one to take things lying down, Deadpool steals one of Paradox’s timeline jumping devices and searches all over the multiverse for a single Wolverine that he can take from one of the other worlds and place in his world to stop the decay, thus saving his universe and everyone in it. Unfortunately that doesn’t exactly work out, as Paradox never had any intention of saving Deadpool’s timeline. Instead he laughs in old Pool’s face and sends him and Wolverine off to live in the Void, a veritable trash bin of a reality outside of the multiverse that the TVA uses to send people who don’t play nice with their plans. There Deadpool and Wolverine find a whole host of pruned superheros, along with Xaxier’s twin sister who just so happens to rule the entire roost there. Now it’s up to the most pigheaded duo in all of Marvel history to break out, save their universes, kick some butt, and possibly make more than a few snide comments about the state of the MCU along the way.

Honestly, that really is the entire plot of Deadpool and Wolverine. Deadpool hooks up with another Wolverine, gets stuck in MCU purgatory, and basically has to kick, bite, stab, cuss, and kill their way out of it. The end. On the surface this is the weakest film of the Deadpool trilogy, and rightfully so. It IS narratively the weakest one of the bunch. But fun wise? Oh my goodness, it is right up there with the first one, and only weakest by the SMALLEST of hairs. And it’s all because of the stars. And I’m not talking about Just Hugh and Ryan’s chemistry. Don’t get me wrong, Hugh and Ryan are firing on all 4 cylinders here, and it’s really just a film where two buddies get to get together and have fun, and that chemistry just oozes out on screen. Both Ryan and Hugh have very verbosely stated over the last couple of years that this was a passion project for them, and it really shows. Jackman got into absolutely JACKED shape for this film (maybe not up there with Days of Future Past shape, but that’s hard to top) and both actors are having a BALL with their characters. Shawn Levy let both Hugh and Ryan loose to have fun, and turn them into peak buddy comedy mode. Jackman simply has Wolverine down to an absolute art, and shows why he is the GOAT when it comes to X-men (the only who has ever rivaled him is obviously Patrick Stewart as Xavier). Ryan is just going nuts with his character and maxes out the absurdity of the character to the max.

Now, I mentioned above that the success of the film was not ALL on shoulders of Jackman and Reynolds, and that’s very true. The film’s secondary success comes from being an absolute love letter to Marvel characters of the Fox world that have been, and could have been (Chaning Tatum, anyone) and brings back DOZENS of cameos for the film. And by dozens, I mean DOZENS of cameos. We get to see almost 30 years worth of character cameos appearing in film franchises that have been long dead (or butchered by Marvel Studios central), along with hundreds and hundreds of winks and nods to other films, and to the state of the MCU in general. Some of them were good (nice to see Pyro again), others were mind blowing (I think I literally squealed like a 12 year old girl who was told she got to go to the One Direction concert when I saw Wesley Snipes in full Blade regalia). But holy cow, I was NOT prepared for how amazing Channing Tatum was as his long awaited Gambit entrance. I know some people had a problem with his accent, but as someone with a lot of family in hillbilly Louisiana, his accent was not only hilarious, but AMAZINGLY spot on (it was creepy, it was liking going home to a family reunion and seeing uncle Ryan on screen).




Rating:

Rated R for strong bloody violence and language throughout, gore and sexual references.




Video:

Like usual, I’m going to refrain from giving a star rating to the video and audio simply because the streaming review copy I had was via fandango Now, and as we all know, image quality can vary based upon your bandwidth capabilities. That little PSA out of the way, the film looks AMAZING. I was literally shocked at how clean and digital shiny sucker was on my 85 inch Sony. This was by far one of THE best looking 4K streams that I’ve had the pleasure to watch, and for good reason. The bitrate seems to be fairly large and the colors on this film are off the chart. Shawn Levy is known for making colorful films, and this is no exception. Bright reds, blues, blacks, and yellows (yes, we get to see the iconic yellow and blue Wolverine suit for the first time) are sparkling in their punchiness (yes, that’s a real word...that I just made up) and did I mention the detail levels? This is just one of those bright and glossy looking digital shoots that screams high end detail levels, and the 4K native master of the streaming (and of course the upcoming physical releases) looks top notch.








Audio:

The Dolby Atmos track sounds really nice too. Maybe not perfect, but streaming audio is ALWAYS the arena (outside of Kaleidescope) where we see some actual downsides vs. the physical release. Dialog is spot on and clean, and surrounds get a healthy bit of action. I didn’t have to turn up the volume knob too much, which is surprising for a lot of MCU releases lately, and the bass packs quite a punch. Still, I feel that the bass could have been a BIT heavier as some of the action scenes lacked a little bit of punch. I won’t call it an Atmouse track, but it’s not as lively and forceful as I was hoping. But that simply may have been the compression on the stream, and we’ll have to see with the 4K UHD’s Atmos whether or not it was a mastering issue.







Extras:

• Finding Madonna: Making the Oner
• Practical Approach: Celebrating the Art of Ray Chan
• Loose Ends: The Legacy Heroes
• Wolverine
• Deadpool's Fun Sack 3
• Gag Reel
• Deleted Scenes
• Audio Commentary











Enough gushing and drooling about the film. The TLDR version. Yes, the movie is a weak narrative, but makes up for it by being a literal pop culture reference bomb in an era where most people are fairly weak on Marvel Studios right now (part of me wonders if Feige put his ego aside and let them go full tilt with this thing because he feels they have nothing left to lose). It’s fun, irreverent, and if you’re an elder millennial like me who grew up watching Fox and Sony superheroes BEFORE the MCU was a gigantic thing, you’re going to love every second of this. The 4K stream I watched looked and sounded amazing, and I have my Pre-order for the 4K UHD disc already locked and loaded, waiting for next week. Freaking FUN watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, 5 Million Camoes
Directed by: Shawn Levy
Written by: Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos
Subtitles: English
Studio: Disney/Fox
Rated: R
Runtime: 128 Minutes
Digital Release Date: October 1st, 2024
Deadpool & Wolverine is now available at Digital retailers, and will be released on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD October 22.

Travis Ballstadt said:

* Kaleidescape isn't streaming.

Saw this in a Dolby Cinema and it was fantastic. I picked it up on Kaleidescape on day one but haven't yet had time to watch it. I'm hoping for this week. Great movie. The gags and digs and overall chemistry with these two leads is off the charts.

Click to expand...

to be fair, I should have said "digital". lol