‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Review Roundup: Critics Split on the ‘Messy,’ ‘Overstuffed,’ ‘Exhausting’ Sequel

The reviews are in for “Deadpool & Wolverine,” and the snarky superhero isn’t wooing critics quite as positively as “Deadpool” and “Deadpool 2” did in 2016 and 2018.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is the first R-rated Marvel Cinematic Universe movie and the only MCU theatrical release of 2024. The film is also the first time Deadpool will team up with Disney and Kevin Feige.

Industry inside jokes and self-deprecation run rampant in the film with some critics calling it “amusing and exhausting.” You will hopefully utter at least one chuckle throughout the 127 minute feature, though. 

“When you throw 7,000 jokes at the screen hoping something will stick, a few of them certainly will,” Jordan Hoffman from Entertainment Weekly said. “I did laugh several times; I am not a monster.”

The film has a 79% Rotten Tomatoes score with 116 reviews, compared to the original film’s 85% and the sequel’s 84%.

Alissa Wilkinson of the New York Times noted that the film is more about the corporate mergers of a “bloated and risk-averse industry” than the superhero plot itself, writing, “Now that the jabs are coming from inside the house, it hits different. On the one hand, ‘Disney’s so stupid.’ On the other hand, Disney paid for this movie, and we pay them to watch it. This business makes suckers of us all.” 

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw said the “highly-anticipated odd-couple action bromance shatters the fourth wall into a million pieces with plenty of juke-box slams to keep blood-sugar content high.” He also acknowledged MCU inside jokes about bringing characters back to life willy-nilly.

The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney pondered, “Will reviews, either good or bad, matter at all to a release that promises to be a crowd-pleasing box office juggernaut? Not in the least when each MCU cameo and callback and ironically deployed pop song elicits squeals of joy from the audience. Does that mean it’s good? No.” As for his real opinion, Rooney said, “I’ll be honest, I found this movie messy and overstuffed, but I laughed almost as often as I cringed from its obnoxiousness and can’t dispute that a vast audience will delight in every moment.

Deadline’s Pete Hammond agreed that you can’t help but laugh, writing, “The jokes come at you so rapid-fire this time, even more than in the first two Deadpools, that one viewing is way not enough.” Hammond added that Deadpool leaves no joke unsaid — “a crackerjack quipster who constantly breaks the fourth wall, letting nothing and no one off the hook including the studio paying for all this.” The review also noted Hugh Jackman’s return as the superhero with claws was “his strongest turn ever as Wolverine.”

IndieWire’s David Ehrlich gave the film a C+, calling the film “triumphantly half-successful — which makes it more successful by half than anything else Shawn Levy has ever directed.” He added the “action is flimsy and garish, the joke is beaten to death harder than any of the bad guys, and the punchline is that Deadpool has cracked open Pandora’s Box (don’t hold your breath for any wisecracks there, Kevin Feige only agreed to butt stuff).”

David Fear of Rolling Stones remarked, “God forbid this snarky fan-favorite leaves the fourth wall unshattered for five seconds.” He reassured fans, though, that the latest installment in the franchise is still “filled with all the ultraviolence, shock-jock humor and nihilism you’d expect,” but once it “enters the trash-heap zone, however, it embraces the already meta-aspects of the series to an absurd degree and never looks back.”

Jordan Hoffman of Entertainment Weekly lamented that “Deadpool and Wolverine can’t die — so we watch three lengthy scenes of them just stabbing one another to no effect, set to zany needle drops,” further noting, “[o]ne would be acceptable. Three, ironically considering how there’s no killing, is overkill. Hoffman added that the film “tries so hard to be clever, it just ends up being cringe. Luckily, ‘Twisters’ is still playing if you haven’t seen it yet.”

Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri wrote, “Honestly, it appears to exist solely to make money.” Ebiri acknowledged that Deadpool delivers fan service, yet undercuts the entire multiverse itself. “’Deadpool & Wolverine’ isn’t a particularly good movie — I’m not even sure it is a movie — but it’s so determined to beat you down with its incessant irreverence that you might find yourself submitting to it,” she wrote.

Reviewing for TheWrap, William Bibbiani called the third, and last according to Reynolds, “Deadpool” installment a “shameless piece of self-congratulation, fueled by self-cannibalism, as the studio which built its identity on superhero crossovers finally abandons the pretense of trying to justify them dramatically.” Read our full review of the film here.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” opens in theaters Friday.

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