That wasn’t a movie.
Back in 2019, famed movie director Martin Scorsese made waves across social media sites everywhere when he gave an interview to Catherine Shoard of The Guardian
“I tried, you know?” the director said when asked if he had seen Marvel’s movies. “But that’s not cinema.”
He continued: “Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
This, naturally, sparked a lot of rebuttals and agreements from various talking heads both on the internet and off. It was a popular icebreaker comment for a couple of months at least. At the time, I found his assessment to be frustratingly elitest, but having just watched Deadpool and Wolverine, I am forced to consider that perhaps he was perhaps more right than I had believed.
Spoilers ahead for Deadpool and Wolverine, other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, previous Deadpool movies, and other Marvel movies before and alongside the MCU.
There was a time, I think, when the movies were far closer to cinema than they are now. But that time perhaps ended with Endgame. Since that film was released, neither the MCU movies nor TV shows have been terribly concerned with telling coherent, interesting, cinematic stories. Instead, it’s been all about special effects, quippiness, and setting up whatever the next thing is. Deadpool and Wolverine is just the absolute pinnacle example of this trend.
Now, I can’t pretend to be a huge Deadpool fan. I enjoy the silliness in small doses but I’ve never been someone who enjoyed crass humor or gore, especially not comedic gore, and both of those things are as much trademarks of the character to many as the silliness and fourth-wall breaking.
That said, I even enjoyed aspects of the first two Deadpool movies enough to be excited for this film on its own merits even if it utilizes a lot of things I am not generally a fan of. I remain a much bigger fan of those first two films than this one.
One particularly notable difference, to me, is that while this film still featured plenty of gore and a multitude of references to cocaine, it lacked a lot of the absolute crassness that was in the first two movies. Even as a person who has already admitted I don’t generally find that sort of thing funny, I think this film missing those things makes it feel more like a ripoff of Deadpool that doesn’t really understand what the character has been on film. I will never be able to forget the bit in the second film where Deadpool, healing from his injury, was found to be going full Winnie the Pooh (though the film uses a much more vulgar term that I cannot use since this is a family website.) And the epic, but vulgar, chanting during the climax of the film remains the absolute funniest moment* and a prime example of the creative team’s desire and ability to fully commit to the bit. Something that was missing from this Disney-fied version of the character.
*Yes, that is my personal blog, no I don’t update it very often at all.
Both of those movies featured story and character arcs for Deadpool and even some secondary characters. That seems like it would be the starting point for an example of cinema. On the other hand, Deadpool and Wolverine features no character arcs for either of its titular protagonists. The Deadpool and Wolverine who finish the film are no different from the Deadpool and Wolverine that start the film except in the journey they took. Neither character really works toward their nebulous goals. None of the villains' motivations make much sense, either. Things just sort of happen in a way that almost seems like a story is being told.
On the other hand, this movie makes a solid amusement park ride if you’re a certain kind of person and that’s the experience you’re hoping to have. As for the former, I’m as close to an ideal audience member for this movie as you’re likely to find. I’m one of relatively few people in the entire world who has watched (and mostly enjoyed) The 2003 Daredevil movie, the Elektra spinoff, all three Blade movies, all of the Fox X-Men movies (except for the second and third Wolverine movies and the second X-Men reboot, but I’m still well aware of them,) the Fantastic Four movies featuring Chris Evans as the Human Torch, and I was even aware of the casting rumors around Channing Tatum and Gambit.
In other words, I was one of a small percentage of people in the world who was in a position to get all the references and cameos. And I enjoyed them! It was nice to be reminded of the things I had enjoyed when I was younger. Of course, even cameos aren’t enough for a truly excellent amusement park ride. You also need some thrills and action. This movie lacks those things. Again, this has been a problem for a while now in Marvel. Action aficionados have long complained about it, but Deadpool takes things to a new low by having Deadpool hype up the fights before disappointing the audience with them.
They spend several minutes hyping a fight between Wolverine and the first Fox incarnation of his brother, Sabertooth. The fight ends in moments. They hype even more a fight between Deadpool and Wolverine, and then a team-up fight with them against a bunch of Deadpool variants. Both fights are shot and edited in such a way as to make them visually incoherent beyond splashing a lot of CGI blood around.
So, yeah, Martin Scorsese was right. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is misnamed. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with making a movie that is more amusement park ride than cinematic. There’s a reason amusement park rides exist in addition to movies, after all. It just helps to be honest about what the expectations should be.
