The last we saw Deadpool, the motor-mouthed anti-superhero, it was an entire pandemic and presidency ago. It’s been six years since the “merc with a mouth” was on the big screen in “Deadpool 2” in 2018, and since then, there’ve been corporate mergers and acquisitions that left star Ryan Reynolds’ signature character adrift with questions about his future. What was Disney, of all studios, going to do with this hyperviolent rascal who only works blue?

Short of washing his mouth out with soap, Marvel head boss Kevin Feige has instead crowned the crimson crank the official Clown Prince of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — but only under strict supervision. That’s right, Deadpool has gotten himself a babysitter, another refugee from Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, the clawed one himself, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). The two have paired up for “Deadpool & Wolverine,” a crossover event that’s also a sort of Viking funeral and salute to the 20th Century Fox Marvel era.

Reynolds has brought along his “Free Guy” and “The Adam Project” director Shawn Levy for this one, with previous director David Leitch moving on to other projects. Reynolds and Levy have teamed up with “Deadpool” writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, as well as “She-Hulk” writer Zeb Wells, to pen the screenplay.

It’s a unique script, as it’s almost exclusively comprised of quips, references, fourth-wall breaking, celebrity gossip, Hollywood inside baseball, jabs at other film studios, ironically retro needle drops, and detritus scraped from mid-aughts movie message boards. Plot? Nonsensical. Characters? Thin. Motivation? Eh. But get a load of these cameos! It feels like “Internet: The Movie,” but only the internet occupied by Gen X and elder millennial power posters.

At the risk of saying anything about what the film is about, at all, the story follows Deadpool as he recruits Wolverine to help him save his own little corner of the multiverse, because Deadpool likes his friends. This iteration of Wolverine, aka Logan, could use a little personal redemption, anyway, though the majority of the runtime finds the two squabbling incessantly in what’s essentially an enemies-to-lovers storyline.

The tremendously powered big bad is played by Emma Corrin, though the real big bad is a corporate sleaze (Matthew Macfadyen) who is obsessed with ruthless efficiency and streamlining. His character, coupled with several other notable digs at “the guys down the street,” essentially makes “Deadpool & Wolverine” a lightly sassy Disney diss track aimed at the other Burbank-based movie studio that makes superhero movies from a different comic book publishing house — Warner Bros. How’s that for regional humor?

By the third film, you’re either already in the tank for Reynolds’ Deadpool and his snarky, self-referential material, or watching this sounds like absolute hell. I happen to be in the latter camp, but with this many jokes fired at the audience with the cadence of a semi-automatic weapon, at least a few are going to hit their target, and there are some chuckles to be had (I’m not made of stone). Its focus on superheroes past, and even potential, makes for a fascinating corporate media analysis, and someone seriously needs to dig into Deadpool’s queer sexual politics.

However, it is not a film that’s transporting and emotional, or even engaging, beyond seeing which stars were willing to show up for a few days of work. The characters deliver meaningless speeches and engage in zero stakes fights. Who wants to watch two superheroes with famously robust regenerating powers stab each other a lot?

Levy doesn’t manage to stage the action in any interesting way either. His visual style isn’t particularly innovative, and when he’s not aping the style of other projects in order to make a reference, almost everything is staged in the Marvel house style: flat, shallow, wide and medium shots, with plenty of overhead angles on the bigger brawls to see everyone scurrying around like ants. It all dissolves into a din that’s more dull than anything else.

Deadpool’s provocations just seem so silly and provincial this time around, with all his protestations about whether or not Disney will “let them” discuss cocaine on screen. But Deadpool is and always has been a faux-naughty edgelord try hard. While it will likely amuse its target audience of comic book geeks and the terminally online, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is a whole lot of hot air and not much else.

‘Deadpool & Wolverine’

2 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for strong bloody violence and language throughout, gore and sexual references)

Running time: 2:07

How to watch: In theaters July 26

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