FINALLY!!! I SAW THIS MOVIE IN THE THEATER!!! And no, there was no Nicolas Cage as Ghost Rider! 0/10!

Okay, in all seriousness though, let's go over my thoughts on the previous two Deadpool movies before going into this. And yes, because it's been out for a while now, I'm going to make this a spoiler review. As for the first one, I remember all the way back when I saw the leaked CGI test footage which got me excited about the idea of a Deadpool movie finally happening and Ryan Reynolds getting a second shot at playing the character after, well, that whole disaster that should not be mentioned. And when I saw the first movie in theaters, I had a blast! It was funny, had bloody action scenes, a solid origin story, and of course, it did the character justice! The second film I thought it was even better in all honesty! The action was even better, it was just as or possibly even funnier, and Cable was a great addition! Now, while I remember really enjoying these movies, I admit that it has been a very long while since I last saw them. I'll always stand by that they're good movies, but I do need to go back and revisit them in order to give my full opinions and see how well they hold up for me in the current year. And as for this movie, I was of course excited about the idea of Deadpool finally joining Wolverine... though at the same time wondered how exactly were they going to do that considering that Logan was such a beautiful finale that shouldn't be tampered with. But still, even with the MCU being a lot more inconsistent in quality lately (don't say that the MCU is dead when we got this, Guardians 3, No Way Home, Wakanda Forever, and Loki), I had faith that they could pull this off, especially since that this was going to be quite meta with rumored cameos and poking fun at the whole Disney/Fox merger. As for why it took me so dang long to finally see it in theaters? Stuff got in the way. I'll just leave it at that.

So first thing's first, how did they manage to bring back Wolverine without messing with Logan's finale? Well, right off the bat, Deadpool just digs his grave in order to prove to the TVA that he's not fully dead so that the Fox universe wouldn't have to be erased. But turns out that he is fully dead, so Deadpool kinda messed around with his skeleton a little bit and then puts some of his bones around his arms in order to use his metal claws to fight against the TVA, which of course is set to Bye Bye Bye...by NSYNC! So what they did here was make it to where Deadpool totally disrespects Logan's grave while still keeping him dead. It was so disrespectful that it came back around to being hilarious and something only Deadpool can manage to pull off! And I gotta say, while I'm not at all familiar with NSYNC since I don't listen to their music, I did find the song to be very catchy and a surprisingly great choice for the opening credits action scene! Easily one of the best moments in the film!

But of course, since this version of Logan is fully gone, Deadpool has to go through all sorts of alternate timelines/universes in order to find the perfect Wolverine in a sequence set to Power of Love by Hewy Louis. We get to see Eye Patch Wolverine (might need to look into that in the comics), a comic book accurate Wolverine who's actually really short (one of the funniest moments in the movie), and HENRY CAVILL AS WOLVERINE!!! Okay, I did remember hearing that he makes a surprise appearance here, but I didn't think it was a variant of Wolverine! Now I kinda wanna see that in action! But of course, he finds an exact lookalike with the iconic yellow outfit and takes him in to the TVA only to be banished to the void alongside him. And it turns out that this is the "worst version" of Wolverine, one that let down the X-Men in his universe letting them all die. This is great because we get a different Logan so that we don't retcon the ending of, well, Logan, but we do get to see Hugh Jackman once again giving his all here, and unsurprisingly, he is utterly fantastic as usual! The straight man comedy, the visceral action, and even the dramatic stuff all work well with him! The comedic banter between him and Deadpool is priceless at times and consistently entertaining throughout! It's a fantastic dynamic! I also loved both of the scenes where they fight each other, the first one being set to Hells Bells by AC/DC, and the one in the car set to You're The One That I Want from Grease, which was such an unfitting choice that it comes back around to being weirdly perfect! Have I mentioned that the song choices here are really good? I also like the fact that as they're fighting in the car before the Grease song comes up, we get like a second of the opening song from Greatest Showman as a nice little in joke.

But okay, what about the cameos? I expected there to be fan service, but some of these still caught me off guard. Henry Cavill as a variant of Wolverine was epic. We get to see Toad and Sabertooth from the first X-Men movie, and while I wasn't initially expecting to see Johnny Storm in this, I did piece it together once he revealed his face and as they were building him up to be Captain America since this is Chris Evans in the role, but it was still cool to see. Poor guy didn't deserve to get his skin pulled out in an instant though. As for other surprise appearances, I didn't fully expect to see Dafne Keen back as X-23, but it was cool to see her again. I remember hearing rumors about Jennifer Garner coming back as Elektra back before there was even a trailer, so again, while I didn't expect it at the moment, I wouldn't say that it totally surprised me either. But then there's also Channing Tatum as a comic book accurate version of Gambit! Sadly though, I was spoiled due to seeing this image online by accident, including as other people's profile pics here on Letterboxd. But again, I loved seeing this! He looks cool, the way he fights is awesome, and that ridiculous Cajun accent led to some very funny comments from Deadpool himself! I would totally love to see a very similar version of Gambit play a major role in the MCU X-Men! But I think that the one who surprised me the most was Wesley Snipes returning as Blade! I don't think I heard anyone saying that he was potentially going to be in it, so it was definitely surprising to see him here and I wouldn't have it any other way! Wesley Snipes is still as cool as ever playing this character! He even says that there will always be one Blade, which is interesting given that there's an MCU Blade movie that has been in development hell for a long time now. I would love to see Mahershala Ali in the role, but it's also nice to see Wesley get one more shot twenty years after the last Blade movie. Oh, and the whole entire army of Deadpools was an amazing sight to see! They set up this concept by having Deadpool and Wolverine meet up with Nicepool (who was a funny addition) and his pet Dogpool beforehand, who is so ugly and cute at the same time!

But now, I want to talk about the main villain herself, Cassandra Nova. I didn't even know this character was even a thing before the trailers started coming out. She's apparently the long lost sister of Charles Xavier, and has some absolutely insane telekinetic powers that can be deadly in an instant such as the case with poor Johnny. She can even phase through people's bodies leading to some freaky imagery with her fingers coming across people's faces. She is a pretty effective villain and an intimidating threat. She doesn't have much in the way in motivation, but she makes up for it by being a legit threat and at times darkly humorous. Emma Corrin did a great job chewing the scenery here and makes Cassandra fun to watch. It would have been easy to play her completely straight and boring, but I appreciate that she brought some personality to what is otherwise a standard Marvel villain.

So yeah, I really enjoyed this movie! The action scenes were fantastic, a lot of the humor really lands, the fan service was so in your face but still highly enjoyable, the dynamic between Deadpool and Wolverine was brilliant, and they managed to respect the ending to Logan while still bringing in Hugh Jackman to play him one last time (or until he's 90, as Deadpool said). Now is this the best that the MCU has to offer since Endgame? No, but it's certainly one of the best outings since then. I liked how No Way Home did the whole multiverse thing better, and I will say that Guardians 3 was better as well even though I weirdly prefer this movie's soundtrack. Wakanda Forever would be a weird comparison though since that was paying tribute to an actor who sadly passed away. And I will say that while most of the flaws here didn't bother me while watching it, I did notice how a bit all over the place the narrative can be at times. It's relatively self contained which I appreciate, but it does jumble quite a few things at once. The cameos were great fun, but aside from maybe X-23, they don't really have a greater purpose to be there other than pure fan service. It's fine though, because (a) it's a comedy that doesn't take itself seriously for the most part, and (b) they tie in with the fact that this part of the void has a bunch of leftover Fox Marvel characters from past movies, or in the case of Gambit, never getting his own. I will say that while the film is mostly funny, there are some crude jokes here and there that just feel kinda immature. I know that was in the previous films as well, but that's why I might need to rewatch the first two just reevaluate my opinions a bit, even though I'm sure that they still hold up well since I came out really liking this movie.

Dare I say it, regardless of how I feel about the first two movies, this one is likely to remain my favorite of this solid trilogy! Pacing wise, the first two films flow a bit better, but in terms of just having dumb fun, this one is the most fun I've had watching a Deadpool movie, which is saying a lot given how funny and awesome the previous two can be. I also really appreciated the heartfelt tribute to all of the X-Men movies during the end credits showing Hugh Jackman in behind the scenes footage and interviews and emphasizing his legacy playing Wolverine. That was so sweet, and it alongside the dramatic moments where this version of Wolverine is sharing the pain that he went through in his universe makes up for Deadpool literally digging his grave at the start as brilliant and hilarious as that was. And just as the little chimichanga on top, we get a funny post credits scene where Deadpool proves that all of the awful things that Johnny apparently said about Cassandra Nova were in fact his own words. Brilliant!

So once again, great movie, had a ton of fun in the theater, was happy to see it in said theater, and now I kinda wanna listen to Bye Bye Bye on its own. Now as for the MCU itself, I'm still concerned with how things are gonna go down between Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom and the indecisiveness of whether Spiderman 4 will be a street level story or another multiverse one. We'll have to wait and see. But at least it's nice to know that the MCU can make jabs at themselves when it comes to Deadpool at least.