Deadpool & Wolverine discussion
This is possibly the biggest movie of the year, definitely the biggest R-rated movie of the year (probably all time if it has any legs after last night's huge opening), and Marvel's first R-rated flick to be part of their "Cinematic Universe", so I think it might be worthy of discussion on those grounds alone.
I saw the movie last night in the most packed movie theater I've been in since before COVID. This experience was an absolute treat, and reminded me why I've always enjoyed going to big tentpole Marvel/DC movies opening weekend despite never really being into comics or super heroes as a kid. The energy of the crowd is downright infectious, and impossible to replicate at home.
As for the movie itself, I enjoyed it. I thought the story was a little thin. Deadpool's character arc here is not as strong as what we got in either of his first two outings, with Wolverine doing more of the heavy lifting. The primary antagonists, Mr. Paradox played by Matthew Macfadyen and Cassandra Nova played by Emma Corrin, are also not as well developed as their counterparts from the prior films (Ajax, Rusty, and Cable). However both still turn in solid, funny performances.
I think this is made up for by how well executed everything else is. This is a movie that only works because it is a Deadpool movie. Act 2 in particular is a non-stop assault of cameos and references that would make me groan in almost any other context, but had me laughing my ass off. The chemistry Reynolds and Jackman have on screen is palpable, making for the most entertaining super hero team up I've seen.
Perhaps more than anything, this is a love letter to 20th Century Fox's decades-long run of super hero movies, warts and all.
Spoiler
If this wasn't clear during its runtime, the sequence of BTS footage and clips from these films set to Green Day's Time of Your Life during the credits absolutely does.7.5/10. I had a great time, but I think the central premise here only works once. If there is more Deadpool in our future, a smaller cast with more focus on character work like the first two would be welcome.
Some stand-out moments for me:
It's too fucking long, but otherwise I enjoyed it and still worth it.
I couldn't tell you what deadpool's arc was in the last 2 movies without guessing, and I think that giving even more screen time to more standard Disney "Up the stakes" scenes is missing the tone.
Still it was funny and the kameo's/references/4th wall breaks are mostly well done so what more could you ask for. And the fight scenes are mostly good (feel like given they were able to go off the rails with wolverine they didn't really use that enough).
I think making the movie shorter would have hurt the plot too much. It was only 2 hours and 8 minutes, apparently trimmed down from a longer cut shown in test screenings.
I thought Deadpool 2 had a pretty engaging character arc for Wade Wilson that hit home for me. It was about defining who you are as a person (Colossus' "one or two moments" speech), and finding your family. The latter tied in directly with the growth of both Cable and Rusty, facilitated by Wade's growth in the former. These themes were even echoed in the stories of side characters like Dopinder. This is probably why DP2 stands tall as my favorite in the series.
Deadpool 2 is one of my favorite movies in the X-Men franchise. I think a lot of that has to do with David Leitch and the eye he has for good action as well as his comedic timing.
Shawn Levy is more of a producer with a camera than a director. His films are void of personality and the reason I think Reynolds has been teaming up with him so much is because he can get him to do whatever he wants, as he’s had pretty well publicized issues with directors in the past.
Unfortunately this means this Deadpool film lacks everything that made the last two good. What also doesn’t help is that the story here is essentially a non factor. While the first two dealt with real characters and story beats, everything here is an excuse for fan service.
I couldn’t find any enjoyment in that nerd stuff. I just don’t care. So all I got was a movie that’s visually ugly, with bland cinematography, bland production design, often terrible CGI, with mediocre action. It’s occasionally funny (I’m a fan of Reynolds sense of humor most of the time anyway), but it made me roll my eyes more often than not.
It doesn’t feel like a real movie. Contrast this with Marvel’s first phase and its two different universes. With this being such a big hit with audiences I guess Marvel’s gonna double down on this stuff, which is a shame because I’d have hoped the lesson would be going back to basics and trying to make good movies.
It’s fine. Off all the key jangling, that guy from the thing-ing, and overblown stakes of the Marvel movies we have come to know and love, this is the most endemic of those things. It did what it was supposed to as a showcase of those two guys, and it serves as a goodbye of the Fox era of Marvel films, and works as a bit of an off ramp and a pallet cleanser since it’s not setting up a thing to be paid off later, but it doesn’t really have that much to say as a thesis. I guess it’s about moving on and managing your expectations and finding a little bit of a happily ever after in whatever situation you find yourself in, but that takes a back seat to the spectacle. I think I wanted more of a Gwenpool or She-Hulk take where Wade finds himself in the MCU and it’s everything he wanted, but at the end of the day Wade doesn’t want to do the stakes treadmill or put loved ones in danger or deal with evil multiverse variants and other dance monkey dance antics, and just wants to be in a universe with his friends that’s not as popular as it was, but that’s okay. (Until the inevitable Secret Wars tie in that puts a very upset Deadpool into his ironic hell cameo fantasy land just after he made peace with not wanting to be a part of the greater Marvel engine and everything he loves is about to be wiped off the map.)
But the movie as it was, it was fine. Deadpool 2 was better, Logan was so much better, but it’s a nice capstone of what came before. The X-men coming back to the silver screen is something of a known quantity, and I hope that this film closes the book on what was and we can turn to what now can be. (Probably not, but who knows?)
I had a blast with it. It did feel like a nice goodbye to the era, but I really enjoyed just going to a movie and vibing with it. It was just fun and it was worth a Tuesday night ticket and popcorn. But I do think Deadpool got to do the thing - be a hero and save the world, while also getting the fun fight sequences and just absolutely filthy language out of the mouths you expect it from the least.
I also had a nearly full theater tonight. And everyone seemed to have a good time.
I enjoyed it a lot. Laughed a lot of times, especially some of the cameos. I didn't feel like Logan's dialogue was that great for the most part, seemed like lots of swearing for swearing's sake.
There was a dude in my theater in the back corner talking...sounded like on the phone at times... that I shushed twice. I was pretty mad about that. I rarely go to the theater, feels like this experience just reinforces my inclination to wait and watch things at home. In this case I think it was still worth it though to avoid having the cameos spoiled.
Overall I had a decent time. However, many of the music cues and sequences clashed strangely with the scenes they were attached to. There is a world where a bloodbath scored to Madonna's Like A Prayer works, but Deadpool and Wolverine was not it.
I was reminded of this even more the next night when I went to see Longlegs in an adjacent theater (which is a very quiet movie) and could hear nothing but Deadpool blasting next door...