Deadpool & Wolverine

Was this trip really necessary? I’m far from convinced that it was. I won’t say there isn’t any funny in here; there are some real laugh-out-loud moments along the way in this script. But then again, a lot of the story reads like it was copied and pasted from fan fiction posted on message boards. I wasn’t quite sure how and why the main characters were where and what they were at the start of things—I guess I really don’t live and breathe these flicks after all; score one for me—and it never got all that much clearer as things went on. Others may be satisfied with the Easter egg experience of seeing some obscure characters brought into the plot as cameo devices, but that only goes so far in my view. (Dafne Keen’s appearance worked best for me, as her character actually had some relevance to the last time we saw Hugh Jackman as Logan.) And, of course, the over the top violence is fun, for a while. Then it gets numbing, and your mind starts to drift onto other ideas—like, for instance, what is the point to all this besides making money? The answer may not surprise you. Alas, everyone’s favorite unkillable supersomething may live on again and again, until the profit margin grows small enough to invoke the powers that no franchise can resist: studio accountants. I guess that’s the real subtext of this thing. That certainly is the lasting takeaway of this movie. Let’s see how many wisecracks it takes to overcome that.

IF

The premise is its problem. Because this script focuses so strongly on suspension of disbelief, such as comes naturally to a child, it gets lost in that focus and expects a child’s reaction from everyone in the audience—even the adults who are watching with a substantially more critical eye. That primal flaw spawns others, including a weak storyline that renders much of the movie a pastiche of loosely related scenes that have more cutesy to them than anything else. You get the sense that the filmmakers expect the viewer to look at the imaginary characters (such as Steve Carrel's Blue) and think, “He’s delightful,” when in reality the reaction is more like, “He’s annoying.” Meanwhile, the main plot point is so telegraphed that when the crisis arrives, you’ve already seen it coming a mile away—and then the story chickens out and doesn’t follow through to the logical—but probably too upsetting for the target audience—conclusion. And the twist at the end is predictable, too—otherwise, you wouldn’t have spent most of the running time wondering just what was the deal with that character anyway. (That twist is also a gigantic violation of the story’s own rules, which indicates a lack of attention to detail.) Really, much of these proceedings feel like cheap setups to produce cheap, unearned sentiment. Perhaps all that’s just my cynicism talking. For sure, John Krasinski has made better and more interesting films in the past, and he has built a reserve of goodwill from previous works, so I don’t want to be too harsh; it would be churlish to direct a hiss towards what is essentially a children’s movie (though one I’m not sure a lot of kids would actually enjoy it, even with its bevy of CGI characters). I’ll leave this one in MEOW territory, and let myself imagine that it deserves that such credit.

Free Guy

I find it almost impossible to give this film the credit it may, possibly, deserve. Perhaps because my tried and true rule of thumb—movies based on or about video games are always bad, or at least major disappointments—should apply here. Ryan Reynolds' well-honed likability as the lead goes a long way towards overcoming that pitfall, while the storyline does just enough to transcend its familiar tropes and bland predictability to remain largely entertaining throughout. Still, it’s difficult to watch this film, as an intelligent human animal, and not be baffled by how far people today go with their gaming obsession—and how normal that is now considered to be. Shrug. There must be a certain amount of downgrade for that; hence, this one rates a MEOW—but with certain tweaks, it could have been a PURR. What can I say? Moviemakers have to learn to level up, too.

Green Lantern

A superhero movie that comes with an ironic undertone: beauty is equated with heroism and virtue, lack thereof not so much. No wonder Ryan Reynolds made more of an impact as the antihero Deadpool. The garish nature of that vibe makes it difficult to root for the people you're supposed to like, because you get a distinct impression that they wouldn't like you (unless you're one of them, of course). This story might have been strengthened if it had been more directly tied to an extended universe, a la later flicks in the genre, but there's little evidence of that sort of overarching thinking here. (Released in 2011, this may be the last superhero movie that was designed to be, at least somewhat, a standalone piece.) As it is, the film is mildly entertaining, but with too many stretches that are not engaging--and the climax is somewhat lame, if not downright dumb. We may be safe from seeing a sequel to this one, though a reboot is always threatened in this genre. I think this one effort is more than enough.

Deadpool 2

I laughed. I think that was the goal of this crew; I did laugh, in a few places out loud. But not all the way through. Too much of the effort was forced; the referencing was not nearly as organic and impactful as in the previous film. "Trying too hard" is always a poor option, especially so when it's an idea so antithetical to the very protagonist himself. It also didn't help that our...hero?...did not exactly have the same level of motivation as in the original outing. The whole thing was a little too forced. Relax a little and maybe the next one--we know there will be a next one--will rise back up to the earlier heights.