When Fox Studios released the first Deadpool movie in 2016, it felt like a refreshing and unapologetically funny antidote to the growing fatigue with comic-book movies. Wade Wilson, known as Deadpool, is a foul-mouthed mercenary who dismantles both his enemies and the Fourth Wall with reckless abandon.
Throughout the film, Deadpool frequently breaks the fourth wall, mocking superhero movie clichés with such dry humor that you almost forget you're watching a superhero movie. Ryan Reynolds, Hollywood's sharpest leading man, seemed to have created the perfect vehicle for this irreverent warning shot. I enjoyed the movie immensely; however, by the time Deadpool 2 arrived in 2018, the self-aware humor started to come off as overly self-satisfied.
Now we have a third installment, Deadpool and Wolverine, which incorporates some recent trends in the movie industry. When Disney acquired Fox a few years ago, Deadpool and other mutant characters from the X-Men series officially became part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
This new context puts the latest movie in a somewhat tricky position. It tries to poke fun at its corporate overlords; one of the first things Deadpool says is, "Marvel is so stupid." However, the film also has to adhere to the narrative constraints of the MCU. It attempts to have it both ways: acting as brand extension while satirizing brand extension.
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