ARKADELPHIA, AR July 26, 2024-

Well hello there Headpool. If you would have told me that I’d see a Deadpool movie I liked (the first movie; I am admittedly not a fan of much of anything Rob Liefeld has done), much less that a few years later a Deadpool movie that is a love letter to the Fox Marvel era, well, I would not have kicked you out of bed for eating crackers, because for me the real surprise was that they did an Avengers movie in 2012. Since then, anything Marvel seems in play in the MCU. Howard the Duck. Ego the Living Planet. The Eternals. Harry Styles as Eros/Starfox. Anything.

The third movie in the series and first Disney movie for the former Fox licensed kids is fun, but messy. You get a lot of service to the old Fox universe. There are known surprises like The Capital One lady returning as Elektra. What’s in your wallet? Some guy coming back as the silly version of Sabertooth. And there are a few more as that I won’t write about here in case there are folks who want to go into the move cold on those spoilers. They did pull in some good ones, however, and as the family pointed out, they aren’t just random, they do try and serve a purpose to the story. It’s really the story that is the issue for me because like a lot of the weaker Marvel movies, it feels convoluted and like hey, we’ve seen much of this before. And some plot points that well, just don’t make much sense and aren’t earned resolutions. The biggest offender is that Wade and Vanessa are no longer a couple because I guess the foul mouthed, pegging, nasty as she want to be stripper went suburban mom as Wade felt disillusioned and well, they just didn’t last? Get a therapist. Honestly me writing that makes it to be a lot more sensical than it does on film.

The movie fits together in places a lot like the X-Factor in-joke in the second film. Cameos of characters you thought you’d never see (again) on film and some new ones too that do server a purpose, but more for moving the story along than actual characters. You don’t get a lot from them than just being there. You get tongue and cheek jokes like Deadpool asking about others trapped in the Void and who is died there, Daredevil (Affleck, not Cox) of course is mentioned, Deadpool saying he’s sorry and Elektra basically winking at the camera with a “no big deal”. Nice, but it ends up less than the sum of its parts.

At least using the Void in the plot fits and is the best part of the film- as a dumping ground for variants/misfits. It follows along with what we’ve seen in two seasons of Loki. The TVA as well fits nicely, and there is an excellent supporting appearance by Wunmi Mosaku as the head of the TVA. I have to plug for her work in We Own This City from last year. If you have “Max” (Should still be H Fucking B Goddamn O) and have not seen it, you should. Wunmi is great. Assuming they haven’t pushed it off the streamer yet, and sold to like, Crackle, for pennies on the dollar or some shit so they can fund another season of Ancient Aliens.

Anyway, that is kind of where the problem lies. We have Wade on a crusade (HA!) to save his timeline. Well, rather he wants to save it, he’s not being asked or forced to. He’s given an offer to go to the main MCU timeline by a guy called Paradox at the TVA, while they prune his timeline cause Logan is dead in it. OK sure, but the TVA are only sort of villains and in the Void Cassandra Nova is also a kinda villain, but not really the main villain. each feels weak and while they try to link them together it never works and so the antagonist feels splintered.

Paradox, by the way, as a recognized name in the workplace. That’s kind of like an accountant having the name of “OffShore”. You’re going to trust that schmuck as a co-worker? That shit ain’t going to fly.

Nevertheless, names aside the movie does have heart. The problem feels like each of the two sequels have gotten more packed with gags and co-stars and so the plot and has become less and less coherent. Not to say the first was a masterclass in screenwriting, but it was simple, told in an interesting non linear fashion that made sense, and kept it small characters wise. This movie is not small in terms of impact, but you don’t ever feel like anyone or anything is at risk. There never feels like there is any danger for the Deadpool timeline. It’s not small character wise as there are a metric shit-ton of cameos. And of course we get more non linear story telling to set the scene. We’ve seen this before two times. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s maybe just a little formulaic at this point?

The old characters got the shaft. At the end of the second movie we get Wilson saying he has built the family he always wanted. That family includes a few super powered beings. In the third they are relegated to nothing save for some very brief shots, and a couple lines. I know that Wolvie is supposed to be the key to saving the timeline but if it’s me, I’m going to bring Colossus and Nega Sonic Teenage Twenty Something Warhead too to the fight. It feels like the movie is trying to one up the second which had to one up the original. It’s tired. It took, if I remember right, four people to come up with the story. That’s never a good sign for a movie, unlike a TV show. Feels like throwing darts at a dart board.

That said, it was nice to have Deadpool back on screen. Wolvie too. And I agree that bringing him back in now way tainted the earned death in Logan. The gags are funny and as I mentioned earlier, the cameos fun. You get to see a LOT of Wolverine and Deadpool fighting. And it really is a love letter to the Fox Marvel Universe. That’s cool because in hind sight there were some fun movies in there. We got a couple takes on the X-Men. A Silver Surfer in a really not great FF sequel. Another try at the FF that was not great. Deadpool movies. A movie that allowed Jennifer Garner to buy property in Laguna Beach or something. I mean, on the whole it wasn’t too bad. It gave Jennifer Lawrence something to do besides play Katpiss Neverclean. That’s not nothing.

Also, bald chicks are hot.

-IR

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