The first wave of reviews for Deadpool & Wolverine hit yesterday evening and despite them not being as overwhelmingly positive as we'd expected, the threequel is off to a strong start. On Rotten Tomatoes, at least.
Nearly 40 more verdicts have been counted since our last update and it now sits quite comfortably at 80%. That's only 5% behind Deadpool and 4% behind Deadpool 2, a solid result and one which bodes well for the movie's chances of box office success over the weekend.
A Critics Consensus has also been generated which reads, "Ryan Reynolds makes himself at home in the MCU with acerbic wit while Hugh Jackman provides an Adamantium backbone to proceedings in Deadpool & Wolverine, an irreverent romp with a surprising soft spot for a bygone era of superhero movies."
Over on Metacritic, Deadpool & Wolverine isn't faring quite as well. 45 reviews give it a "Mixed or Average" score of 54/100. It's quite the contrast but not one which necessarily spells doom for this movie back on the rival review aggregator.
Metacritic is an unusual site in a lot of ways (in terms of how it selects which reviews are featured) and its scores rarely match up with those on Rotten Tomatoes.
Longlegs, for example, has 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, but only 77/100 on Metacritic. There's also a notable difference with Twisters as that sits at 77% vs. 65/100.
We'd imagine at least another 100 reviews will be added to Rotten Tomatoes in the coming days, though Deadpool & Wolverine's score is unlikely to change too much. A new movie only needs 75% and above to be "Certified Fresh" and, as we write this, Marvel Studios' first R-Rated movie is still safe in that respect.
Plus, when was the last time you saw a studio promote a Metacritic score?
You can read our full review of Deadpool & Wolverine here, but we concluded by saying, "A contender for the best superhero movie ever, Deadpool & Wolverine is two hours of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman proving they were born to play these roles and, crucially, be part of the MCU. It’s a f***ing masterpiece."
Shawn Levy directs Deadpool & Wolverine, which stars Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Matthew Macfadyen, and Dafne Keen. The movie is written by Ryan Reynolds & Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Zeb Wells & Shawn Levy.
Kevin Feige, Reynolds, Levy and Lauren Shuler Donner produce with Louis D’Esposito, Wendy Jacobson, Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, George Dewey, Simon Kinberg and Jonathon Komack Martin serving as executive producers.
Deadpool & Wolverine arrives in theaters on July 26.