The X-Men Movies (Part 2 - Prequel Trilogy)
The X-Men Movies (Part 3 - Wolverine Trilogy)
Deadpool (2016)
The Buildup:
After
years of being denied a second chance at the role, Ryan Reynolds “leaked” some
test footage onto the internet once Tom Rothman was gone from Fox. He and the
director arranged to get a small amount of funding to make this happen, and it
looked like it was going to be almost perfectly comic accurate. The movie was
releasing on Valentine’s Day, so some of the ad campaign made it seem like a
love story so men could get their unaware girlfriends into the theater. Another
side of the ad campaign were videos about testicular cancer checks from
Deadpool on YouTube.
The Plot:
Wade
Wilson is a smalltime mercenary who falls in love with Vanessa before finding
out he has cancer. In an effort to save his loved ones the pain of seeing him
die, he opts for an experimental treatment that turns out to be a operation
that makes mutant soldiers sold as slaves. In the process he gains phenomenal
healing and regenerative abilities but is left permanently scarred. Taking the
name Deadpool, he works his way through the criminal underworld to get revenge
on the people who transformed him and kidnapped his girl.
What went right:
Just about everything. Deadpool was perfect in this. It
exactly encapsulated the character, his antics, fourth-wall breaking, and
inability to shut up. The story wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it didn’t
need to be – a simple revenge story mixed in with a love and kidnapping subplot
was plenty. Plus, Wade and Vanessa had great chemistry together.
We got to see Blind Alfred, Vanessa (Copycat), and a comics
accurate Colossus (finally). Negasonic Teenage Warhead was changed from the
comics version of a telepath and precog to be closer to something like
Cannonball. Gina Carano was a brilliant choice for Angeldust, as it was very
believable that she knew how to throw a punch.
There were plenty of jokes poking fun at the Fox producers,
Reynolds' past role of Green Lantern, how terrible Deadpool was in X-Men
Origins: Wolverine, the confusing X-Men timeline, etc.
What went wrong:
A few jokes didn’t land as well as they could have, and some
of the funniest bits were kinda spoiled in the trailer.
What I would have changed:
Not a damn thing.
Deadpool 2 (2018)
The Buildup:
Deadpool
is back and he’s got some new friends this time, as well as a bigger budget since the first movie was so profitable. Deadpool took over Blu-ray releases, as all of the cardboard slipcovers were replaced with Deadpool versions of basically every Fox-produced film at stores like Wal-Mart. Fans of the first movie know
what to expect so there wasn’t a fakeout campaign, though there was a PG-13
re-release where Deadpool read the story of Deadpool 2 to an adult Fred Savage
in a recreated bedroom set from The Princess Bride with the proceeds going to
cancer research.
The Plot:
After a
job goes badly, Vanessa is killed in a revenge hit, sending Wade in a spiral
and he ends up being an X-Men trainee after attempting suicide. Meanwhile in the
future, Cable’s family is also killed by a fire-powered super villain, so he
uses a time-travel device to return to the present to take the bad guy out
while he’s still a kid. Wade ends up attempting to save the kid from Cable,
while teaming up with Domino, Colossus, and Negasonic before finding out who
the real villain is.
What went right:
Mostly everything again. More fourth-wall breaking, referencing the Logan movie's success,
and poking fun at the Origins: Wolverine movie. Seeing the Juggernaut and Cable
done properly.
What went wrong:
The movie had a few more jokes that didn’t land than the first one. Due to the
plot being about Vanessa’s death, she had very little screen time despite being
one of the bright spots of the first film.
What I would have
changed:
Cut the budget by a few million and see if it turns out better. I somewhat feel like the budgetary constraints the first movie had forced the director/writer/Reynolds to be more creative, and with an increase in budget a commensurate increase in quality wasn't there.
The Buildup: After being bought by Disney, the Fox Studios properties can finally be put into the big tent of Marvel, leaving only Spider-Man with shared custody with Sony. How the R-rated Deadpool would integrate with the more family friendly MCU remains to be seen, but the biggest draw is the team-up with the old canucklehead himself, Wolverine. The announcement seemed to be (or was suspected of being) prompted by a rather lackluster post-Endgame D23 presentation so Reynolds was quickly allowed to make it known about this movie's existence.
The Plot: Wade tries to move on from Vanessa by becoming an Avenger, but is denied a tryout by Happy and settles on being a car salesman. But he is apprehended by the TVA (from the Loki series) and made aware of the death of his timeline due to an anchor being dying, that being Wolverine. Deadpool steals the controls and goes to a variety of alternate timelines to find a replacement Wolverine and stop his reality's impending death, but get trapped in the Void, where forgotten things are dumped. There he meets and teams up with other forgotten Fox-Marvel characters including Elektra, Blade, Johnny Storm, and Laura/X-23 and fight against Xavier's twin sister Cassandra. Wolverine is redeemed to be the hero he was supposed to be and their reality gets to continue going on.
What went right: As usual, the humor was on point, and Disney actually let Deadpool do his thing, even skirting the line that Marvel boss Feige told them not to cross. We get to see one last hurrah for many characters, and Gambit being done right. Seeing Wolverine and Deadpool get to endlessly pummel each other while neither dies, as well as seeing AoA Wolverine, Patch, Comics-accurate Wolverine, and others referencing famous comics covers/poses. It also had the variations of Deadpool (Ladypool, Kidpool, Dogpool, etc.) as well as the yellow-blue Wolverine suit with the mask.
What went wrong: Some of the humor is going to be fairly time-sensitive, like the (then) current state of the MCU. Having to loop in the TVA a bit means giving that Loki series some legitimacy that I would really like to ignore.
What I would have
changed: Basically written out the TVA and replaced it with something similar just so viewers wouldn't have needed to be subjected to that Disney Minus trash series.
Dark Phoenix (2019) and The New Mutants (2020)
The Buildup:
Honestly, the less said about these movies the better. I went in to Dark Phoenix expecting a train wreck, and I got
it. The only reason we went was because we were meeting family in Vegas on the
weekend it released and we had 4 hours to kill before checking in to the hotel,
and there was air conditioning in the theater. I watched New Mutants once at home after downloading it, because it kept getting delayed because of Covid, the Disney/Fox merger, and reshoots.
The Plot:
Don’t Care. I couldn't tell you what happened despite having watched it. Didn't even buy it on DVD.
What went right:
There's always a new character to see on screen.
What went wrong:
A lot. So much.
What I would have
changed:
Like Apocalypse, I just would not have made either movie, period.
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