It’s been six years since the previous Deadpool movie, but quite a bit has happened in that time gap, perhaps most consequentially for the franchise being the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney. 

For those unaware: Fox owned the film rights to Fantastic Four and X-Men characters like Deadpool, while Sony technically still retains the rights to Spider-Man and his affiliated characters. Moving past the mergers and acquisitions business talk, the effect on the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that it now has its first R-rated movie of the series in the fitfully amusing and mercilessly metatextual Deadpool & Wolverine. 

It’s a team-up comic book fans will no doubt be giddy about given the history between the characters on the page, but one that could leave casual superhero movie fans confused with how convoluted the plot has to get to finally bring them together.

Six years after Deadpool 2, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) has retired his mercenary cowl and works as a used car salesman with his equally checked-out friend Peter (Rob Delaney). In the middle of a surprise birthday party, Wilson is abducted by agents of the Time Variance Authority and is brought to Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), a bureaucrat character similar to Mobius from the Disney+ series Loki. Paradox tells Wade their universe is collapsing due to the death of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in another timeline, which prompts Wade to suit up again and nab a Wolverine variant from the multiverse to save his world. During their mission, they run up against the powerful mutant Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), who seeks the power to destroy other universes at will.

In terms of plot mechanics, Deadpool & Wolverine is most akin to DC’s The Flash from last year, which expected viewers to not only know everything that’s happening in the DCEU but also have background knowledge of completed and uncompleted projects involving the characters. Without spoiling anything, it’s enough to say audiences going into this movie who don’t have a firm grasp on the MCU and the Fox run of superhero films the past 25 years will face challenges keeping up with this storyline. The amount of prerequisites for Marvel movies has been steadily rising since Nick Fury uttered those famous final words after the end credits of Iron Man in 2008, and the now collegiate-level requirements border on farce.

But behind the fourth-wall breaks and the winks to the camera — I mean those literally, as self-referential humor is a big part of Deadpool’s schtick — there are fundamental story issues with Deadpool & Wolverine that the movie would prefer we laugh and shrug off. I doubt I caught every single Easter egg director Shawn Levy and company threw my way, but I never felt out of the loop with the multi-layered jokes that come at a machine gun pace. What I struggled with were fundamental questions like, “Why are the heroes doing what they’re doing right now?” or “What does this villain actually want?” I think Levy wants us to forget about pesky things like character motivation and narrative inertia, but most MCU movies have excelled at prioritizing these basic filmmaking aspects while including some laughs along the way.

Having said all of this, I laughed numerous times during Deadpool & Wolverine, which is packed with cameos that mostly don’t just last a few seconds but actually figure into the plot in more consequential ways. 

There are plenty of profane one-liners that few in the business can rattle off with as much cheeky aplomb as Reynolds. Even some of the ironic needle drops worked for me, although some felt like they were straining too hard for laughs. It could be argued that the whole film strives too hard to get a reaction from the audience and borders on desperation at times. 

If this were a pure send-up of the superhero movie genre that wasn’t beholden to the obligations of being one itself, it could have worked as a pure comedy. But as an entry in the MCU, Deadpool & Wolverine feels too shallow to leave an impact.

New movies coming this weekend

• Playing only in theaters is Trap, a psychological thriller starring Josh Hartnett and Ariel Donoghue, which involves a father and his teen daughter who attend a pop concert only to realize they’ve entered the center of a dark and sinister event.
• Also coming to theaters is Harold and The Purple Crayon, a fantasy comedy starring Zachary Levi and Lil Rel Howery, adapting the classic children’s picture book about an imaginative boy who is able to conjure up anything that he is able to draw with his magical drawing utensil.
• Streaming on Netflix is Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie, an animated adventure starring Carolyn Lawrence and Tom Kenny, which further spins off the SpongeBob SquarePants series to give the subtitular Texas-based squirrel her own time to shine in the spotlight.