By all indications “Deadpool & Wolverine” looks to be the massive moneymaking blockbuster the laboring Marvel Cinematic Universe desperately needs. After a run of big budget flops in theaters and on streaming, Kevin Feige and Disney have looked to a movie that caters to the easiest targets. And from the looks of things their not-so-risky “gamble” is about to pay huge dividends.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is a movie filled to the brim with fan service which it uses, along with an assortment of gimmicks, to draw in a variety of fans. There are those who love Ryan Reynolds’ schtick. They get plenty of it here. There are others who are giddy for more R-rated superhero movies. This one works REALLY hard to earn its R rating. And of course there is the ultimate act of fan service – paying Hugh Jackman a boatload of money to return as Wolverine. But that only scratches the surface of this movie’s pandering for reactions.

I’m not knocking anyone who is drawn to those things. But for me, Reynolds’ routine can be exhausting and a little of it goes a long way. And I don’t think I’ve ever rooted for a movie to have a specific rating (whatever fits the film). But since its beginning, many have embraced the Deadpool series for its R rating as much as anything else. As for Wolverine, Jackman’s character arc reached a perfect conclusion in 2017’s “Logan”. Yet the MCU creatives play the cheap multiverse card to bring him back (and more importantly, to sell more tickets).

Then there’s Deadpool. I’ll always prefer the early version of the character that existed before Marvel Comics started using the crutch of “mature content” to sell his books. The movies have leaned heavily into the ultra-silly and endlessly foul-mouthed version and it’s no different in “Deadpool & Wolverine”. New director Shawn Levy (who recently worked with Reynolds on “Free Guy” and “The Adam Project”) teams up with a total of five (!!!) screenwriters. What they give us is a series of Deadpool skits, stitched together by yet another bad MCU story.

From the very beginning the filmmakers go for the nostalgia jugular, hitting us with endless waves of meta gags, surprise appearances, and absurd needle-drops. There are countless callbacks to Fox’s Marvel era. And of course it spends a ton of time lampooning superheroes, superhero movies, and pretty much anything else that comes to mind. In essence it’s the same Deadpool movie formula, only cranked up to 11 and now with MCU baggage to lug around.

Yes, Deadpool is now part of the MCU, grafted in through yet another multiverse convenience. I have no idea how such an exaggerated and self-aware character will fit with the other Marvel films. But since “Avengers: Endgame”, I’m not sure the MCU heads have put much thought into things like continuity or cohesion. And as this movie proves, there’s not much interest in plot either.

Good storytelling was never a strength of the first two Deadpool movies. But there was a semi-intimacy between Wade Wilson and his friends that at least kept their stories focused. “Deadpool & Wolverine” is hampered by one of the laziest scripts I’ve seen in a superhero movie. So much of the story feels patched together. Things routinely happen with no real explanation, and the quintet of writers seem perfectly content with skating by on comic mayhem and the buddy chemistry between Reynolds and Jackman.

After a silly but funny opening credits scene, Levy waste no time throwing us into Marvel’s multiverse, almost immediately bogging the movie down with vaguely defined and uninteresting mumbo-jumbo about the Sacred Timeline, plot contrivances such as “anchor beings” and a contraption called the “Time Ripper”, and so on. It’s almost as if there are two movies fighting for time – an obsessively bloody and vulgar Deadpool rehash and another messy MCU post-“Endgame” misfire.

While celebrating his birthday with his friends, Wade Wilson (Reynolds) is apprehended by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) who take him to their leader, Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen). Paradox informs Wade that his timeline is rapidly deteriorating. Why is it deteriorating you ask? Because the timeline’s “anchor being” has died and apparently timelines die as a result (don’t ask any questions because the movie doesn’t offer many answers). It turns out that the “anchor being” who died from Wade’s timeline was Logan aka Wolverine.

Desperate to save his friends, Wade swipes a gadget that lets him travel the multiverse. His plan: find and retrieve a suitable replacement Logan from another timeline and bring him back to his world. He settles for a grizzled drunken Wolverine (Jackman) and returns to the TVA only to discover that he has broken a few rules. As a result, Paradox (who has nefarious yet paper-thin plans of his own) banishes them to a place called the Void. Once there, Wade and Logan fight, we get some cameos, they fight again, we get more cameos, and so on.

This time around, Reynolds pushes his wisecracking semi-sociopathic anti-hero farther, mechanically churning out one-liners and on-the-nose profanity in nearly every breath. Jackman falls in line. Chiseled, moody, and forced to drop f-bombs on cue, he brings a certain grit and gravitas the movie needs. It’s too bad he spends so much time being the straight man to the scene-gorging Reynolds. Even worse, it’s tough to see the supporting cast from the previous Deadpool films relegated to the sidelines – replaced by attention-getting cameos and new less interesting characters.

We do get one particularly fun surprise appearance, a couple of good though nonsensical action sequences, and occasionally a joke will hit its mark. But much of it starts to feel like recycled material. Meanwhile the story is clearly a secondary concern. We get no menacing villains, absolutely no suspense, scenes of boring exposition that don’t say much, and plot holes that are impossible to miss for anyone slightly looking. It eventually leaves “Deadpool & Wolverine” resembling a fan service cash grab from a cinematic universe in desperate need of a big box office hit. Well, it looks like Disney has one.

VERDICT – 2 STARS

Where 2016’s “Deadpool” was just fresh enough to be entertaining, its 2018 sequel “Deadpool 2” can’t say the same. Still, that didn’t stop it from making a ton of money and becoming 20th Century Fox’s highest grossing X-Men connected movie. That’s quite an accomplishment for a feature that’s more committed to getting an R rating than telling a worthwhile story.

“Deadpool 2” clearly follows the same blueprint as its equally successful predecessor. New director David Leitch and returning writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick inundate us with an endless cavalcade of juvenile humor, forced profanity, and CGI violence. But among its biggest problems is that fewer jokes land this time around. And the attempts at melding vulgar humor with gory action had me numb by the halfway mark.

Ryan Reynolds (in full Ryan Reynolds mode) returns as Wade Wilson aka Deadpool, delivering a carbon copy performance from the first movie. Wade and his girlfriend Vanessa (a returning Morena Baccarin) celebrate their anniversary by deciding to start a family. But once again their dreams are shattered, this time when a hitman’s bullet misses Wade and strikes Vanessa, killing her.

While in mourning, Wade attempts to blow himself up, but his healing factor keeps him alive. His old friend Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) finds him and takes him to the X-Men’s mansion to heal. While there, Colossus convinces Wade to finally join the X-Men which he does to honor Vanessa. It eventually leads him to a volatile mutant named Russell Collins (a painfully bad Julian Dennison) who Wade pledges to save after a couple of weird out-of-body encounters with his dead girlfriend.

Meanwhile, a cybernetic soldier from the future named Cable (Josh Brolin) travels back in time to kill Russell for reasons that never feel as impactful as they should. It all leads to a haze of tiresome recycled gags and glaringly digitalized action sequences. Good luck finding anything beyond that. Leitch and company try to squeeze in a few moments of heart. But when everything around it comes off as self-gratifying and over-the-top, it’s hard to take seriously any attempts at sincerity.

“Deadpool 2” caters to a big audience, most of whom have no problem gorging themselves on what amounts to cinematic junk food. But if you’re hungry for something with a slight bit of substance, you’ll want to look elsewhere. Again, the filmmakers are so absorbed in delivering one-liners and meeting f-bomb quotas that they toss aside basic things like good storytelling. There are countless narrative shortcuts which are routinely excused by Deadpool making jokes about them. It’s clever the first time or two, but we eventually see through it. There’s also the terribly underdeveloped antagonists who mainly exist to boost the body count in the film’s lame climax.

Even after nearly six years and a recent revisit, “Deadpool 2” still leaves me scratching my head. How does a movie with this many flaws get so many passes? How does a movie that proudly touts its irreverence and mayhem come across as so calculated? How do people find so much connection to something so empty? I could go on but I don’t want to be that kind of guy. Of course it’s okay to enjoy “Deadpool 2” for whatever reasons you do. But for me, no amount of self- awareness or comic chaos can plug the gaping holes in this unfortunate retread.

VERDICT – 2 STARS

Before Disney gobbled them up, 20th Century Fox had quite a run with its X-Men universe. Surprisingly, of the thirteen X-Men related films, the highest grossing were the two Deadpool movies. 2016’s “Deadpool” was a spin-off from the X-Men films and a big departure from the PG-13 brand of superhero movie. It was a film deliriously dedicated to obtaining an R rating through a force-fed diet of over-the-top violence and pointless profanity. To no surprise, it wooed and won over a lot of people.

First time director Tim Miller, co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, along with producer and star Ryan Reynolds, take a later iteration of the Deadpool character from the comics and ramp up everything, from the “mature” content to the relentless silliness. Through most of the movie they go out of their way to poke fun at everything superhero related, soaking us with goofy banter, routinely breaking the fourth wall, and peppering the film with absurd needle drops.

“Deadpool” is essentially an origin story and not a particularly original one. But its hope is that you’ll be so involved in the comic mayhem that you won’t care. Reynolds plays Wade Wilson, a wisecracking tough guy who works as mercenary-for-hire, helping the city’s weak and needy. He meets and falls for an escort named Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), and just as their warped storybook romance is about to take off, he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Rather than let her watch him die, a devastated Wade leaves Vanessa.

Now that sounds like pretty heavy stuff and for a few brief minutes or so “Deadpool” lightly tugs at your heartstrings. But its gag-a-second proclivity and origin story constrictions makes it hard to take even its most heartfelt moments seriously. Baccarin is especially good considering Reynolds’ act sucks most of the air out of every scene. Not only is she a good match, but she’s pretty much the only character who doesn’t feel like she’s doing a comic routine.

One day Wade is approached by a mysterious man who tells him of an experimental treatment that will not only cure his cancer but potentially grant him super powers in the process. Though hesitant at first, the prospect of reuniting with Vanessa drives him to accept. But after he’s sent to a laboratory ran by the film’s paper-thin villain, Ajax (Ed Skrein), Wade learns he’s little more than a lab rat for a torturous experiment meant to trigger mutations within the subject.

The agonizing procedure leaves Wade horribly disfigured but grants him healing factor, super strength, and agility which he uses to escape the laboratory. Fearing his appearance will scare Vanessa away for good, Wade makes it his mission to track down Ajax in order to find a cure. But before doing so, he creates his own super-powered vigilante he names Deadpool. Anti-hero hijinks ensue.

The astute among you may ask the obvious question, why doesn’t Wade’s newly acquired healing abilities heal his disfigurement? It heals gunshots, it heals broken bones, it even grows back severed limbs. There’s a very convenient explanation in the comics about his normal cells forever battling the cancer cells. But the movie never addresses it. And that’s pretty much how it approaches most of the questions that arise from its patchwork story – don’t ask.

“Deadpool” tosses numerous other side characters into the mix, the better ones being a solid-steel (and solely CGI) Colossus (Stefan Kapičić), Wade’s roommate Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), and Deadpool fanboy Dopinder (Karan Soni). Like everyone else, they’re only there to spit jokes but their’s are some of the funnier one. As for the jokes, just enough of them land to keep things amusing. And while the film’s gimmick grows old, there was still a freshness factor that helped “Deadpool” overcome its annoyances.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS