Deadpool & Wolverine Review

Deadpool & Wolverine Review

Medium: Movie

Release date: 7/26/2024

Review date: 11/17/2024

Score: 3/10

In “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Wolverine, played by a tired, fifty something Hugh Jackman, gets pulled out of his cinematic universe into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to go on a whimsical adventure with Deadpool, played by an ever chipper Ryan Reynolds. And while I haven't felt a personal connection to a superhero movie in what feels like decades, watching this movie broke that streak for me because much like Mr. Jackman, I too feel like I have been pulled, tired and unwilling, from my own personal universe to have to sit through a whimsical adventure with an ever chipper Ryan Reynolds, and you know what?

Logan was right, this sucks.

A frustrating aspect of the MCU is that you can’t just talk about one Marvel project when talking about one of their movies - by design you end up having to talk about all the other interconnected films for any of the plot of the movie you do want to talk about to even make sense. No Marvel movie stands by itself which means you can never talk about just the one movie you saw, you have to rope in everything else as well. And “Deadpool & Wolverine” exacerbates that even further, as to technically follow the story you have to know the plots of “Deadpool,” “Deadpool 2,” as well as “Loki” Season 1, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” “Avengers: Endgame,” oh yeah, and every single one of the Fox Marvel movies they made in the early 2000s, there’s a number of ‘em so you should probably get on that so you’ll be ready by the time the film starts. I can’t sit here and tell you what I thought of just “Deadpool & Wolverine” because “Deadpool & Wolverine” isn’t a movie that can even exist as just itself! There is no contextless version of “Deadpool 3” you can watch, its sequels all the way down baby!

Speaking of context, there’s really no way to talk about “Deadpool & Wolverine” like a typical movie because it's not a typical movie; not in a cool, fun, unique way, but in an exhausting, middling, focus tested way. “Deadpool & Wolverine” was supposed to save the Marvel superhero movie, and cinemas in general, after both had experienced major recent slumps, and it managed to do both! “Deadpool & Wolverine” is currently the highest grossing R-rated film of all time! Disney’s now able to dump all their action figures from their Fox purchase into the MCU toy bin, let’s gooooooooo!

Wait, why aren’t you cheering? Why aren’t you excited for one mega corporation buying up another mega corporation’s IP in order to sell you more recognizable slop? Isn’t all the superheroes being in one big, shared universe what you have wanted since you were a kid, since you first started watching MCU films in high school? You cheered in theaters after “Iron Man,” after “Captain America,” after the first “Avengers” movie; what changed man?

Why can’t you just be happy with this?

Can I make a confession to you guys? Before “Deadpool & Wolverine” the last MCU film I’d watched was 2017’s “Thor: Ragnarok.” And as is befitting of a movie in a series that makes you stop watching future installments, I thought the whole project was… pretty funny? Very charismatic from front to back? Arguably the only “Thor” film I’d recommend to another human being? You know, all pretty damning criticism.

No, my issue with “Thor 3” was actually because of how funny it was - the “Thor” series, up until that point, wasn’t particularly humorous. I know that sounds like I’m dogging on the “Thor” movies, and I am a little, but I think people forget that, at least originally, the different MCU film series were supposed to be somewhat thematically and tonally disparate from one another. Now obviously with Kevin Feige producing everything there was going to be a level of homogeneity throughout all the projects, yes, but again, at least initially, the “Thor” series was supposed to have a sort of epic, mythological fantasy vibe to them; that’s why Marvel hired Kenneth Branagh, the director famous for leading grand Shakespearean films, to helm the first “Thor” movie - it was supposed to be tonally more Hamlet than, say, Batman or Spider-Man, more divine high drama than rank-and-file street heroics. And the first two “Thor” movies, quality aside, did manage to somewhat strike that vibe, at least more so than its MCU siblings’ series, giving the films a distinct feel that the third movie immediately lobs in the trash in order to turn Thor into just another knockoff Star-Lord. Hey, do you remember when all the different MCU heroes didn’t just quip constantly like they were cursed by a witch who was too into Joss Whedon? Yeah… haha… those were the days… anyways Thor just tells stupid jokes now. Epic Norse saga? Never heard of ‘em. With “Thor: Ragnarok” the series went from its own thing (of arguable quality, please don’t think I’m some sort of “Thor” 1 and 2 truther or something) to just being another flavor of “Guardians of the Galaxy;” be it the neon color pallet, the cosmic alien setting, or the, yes, humor. And if I’m just watching a “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie in everything but the name, then we can probably get rid of that “Thor” title on the poster and just call the movie what it really is. “Thor” is now just “The Guardians of the Galaxy” which is now just “The Avengers,” none of these series mean anything or are distinct - they’re like new Taco Bell menu additions; you can tell me it's a totally brand new recipe and item, but I know there are only so many ways you can dress up beef, cheese, and tortillas.

Anyways, totally unrelated, let’s get back to “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

“Deadpool & Wolverine” exists because Disney bought 21st Century Fox in 2017. Period. End of sentence. “Actually the screenwriters had a really clever idea for-” shut up. This movie exists because Marvel, through Disney, bought back the film rights to Daredevil and the Fantastic Four, and because comic book nerds are annoying little prima donnas who need everything to be connected and tied up with a cute little bow. You could argue that the entire purchase of Fox was so that Disney could get their Marvel toys they auctioned off back, and you’d be wrong (those “Star Wars” movies sure do print a lot of money), but it was definitely a point of interest behind the sale. And if you’re normal, you probably assumed that once the sale was complete, Disney would just start reintegrating their wayward Fox superhero children one new addition to the MCU at a time - we’d get a brand new X-Men movie with an all new cast and that would be that; the X-Men are now in the MCU. But no, no, no we can’t just do that, where’s the pomp and circumstance? Where’re the overwrought cries of anguish at the death of Nic Cage Ghost Rider? Where’re the super annoying fanboys who can’t ever let anything go?

They’re here, in “Deadpool & Wolverine.” And they drag this thing doooooooown.

I really do wonder what your average, non comic book reading audience’s reaction was to Deadpool when he first entered the mainstream in the 2010s. I was already aware of the character by then; in comic book fan circles, Deadpool isn’t nearly as universally loved as his filmed counterpart is, or at least wasn’t so initially. Critics found him annoying, with his Fourth Wall Breaking schtick being seen more as a crutch for poor storytelling and lack of interesting characterization rather than a fun gimmick. It also probably didn’t help that Deadpool’s creator, comic book artist and writer Rob Liefeld, is not regarded particularly fondly by comics fans, generally being held up as a “talentless hack” who “helped ruin comics in the 90s.” I’ll be honest, I also always found the character to be more aggravating than endearing - people who didn’t spend time in nerd adjacent spaces growing up got to miss this, but the most aggressively irritating comic fans and cosplayers were always Deadpool guys. Always (and they were always guys). You couldn’t go to any comic related event without seeing at least 800 dudes in Deadpool costumes harassing the other guests, and around 50 dudes in Deadpool costumes out front who were already kicked out for being sex pests. Deadpool’s easy to emulate - you just have to say random and inappropriate things out of context constantly, no personality required. Before 2016, the character had only ever really appeared in one piece of decent media in my eyes, that being the original 1997 run of the Deadpool comic series (titled “Deadpool,” in case you were wondering) kicked off by Joe Kelly, with even the character’s 2013 solo video game (titled “Deadpool,” in case you were wondering) getting forgotten pretty quickly after release. And you and I can both look at each other, look to the camera and wink, and then look back grinning and say “and Deadpool appeared in 2009’s ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ film ahehehe,” but basically outside of the character's name there was nothing Deadpool related to Ryan Reynolds’ role in that movie; you could have changed his moniker to the “Hash Slinging Slasher” and the film would have literally been the same. So yeah, the 2016 Deadpool movie (titled “Deadpool,” in case you were wondering) was almost certainly most people’s introduction to the character, and what a bizarre project that ended up being. Its weird to sit here on the other side where the third “Deadpool” film is the most profitable R-rated movie of all time and remember a point where the first “Deadpool” film had to literally be dragged, kicking and screaming, into existence, but yeah, the 2016 “Deadpool” movie could 100% be considered a fan passion project that almost didn’t exist at certain points about 1000 times over. Per Reynolds, who I have no reason to disbelieve, getting to play Deadpool (the character) was a bit of a passion project for the dude, and he too recognized that 2009’s portrayal of the character was not really what he or fans wanted from that role. So following “X-Men Origins: Wolverine’s” successful enough release, Reynolds and Fox got to work on a stand alone film for the character that would adhere more closely to his comedic slapstick nature as found in the comics. In 2011 the film finally received a director, Tim Miller, a somewhat untested special effects guy who would be making his directorial debut with the project. But after the disastrous launch of Reynold’s 2011 DC super hero movie, “Green Lantern,” Fox became a lot cagier about the project, eventually only greenlighting a small budget for the team to produce some test footage that was completed in 2012, but that Fox ultimately shelved. It seemed like the Deadpool film was going to be lost forever to the depths of development hell, that is until “somebody” went and “leaked” the test footage “online” in 2014, leading to enough grassroots interest and positive reception to peer pressure Fox into OKing a full feature film for release in 2016. Those are a lot of hurdles to overcome for a movie that ultimately made over $700 million and whose sequel’s sequel is the highest grossing R-rated film of all time, and is why, quality of certain elements of the film aside, I can’t really bring myself to dislike the first “Deadpool” movie - there just really is no reason for it to exist other than because of the passion of its cast and crew.

However, none of that is still true by “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

Do you know what my number one issue with the MCU films are? I can sit here all day and say its the truncated comic plots, or the samey dialogue, or the VFX slop that makes up all of its films’ climaxes, or hey, even that giant tone problem we brought up earlier, but no; actually, my main problem with the MCU movies is that all their antagonists and villains are absolute dogshit. I do apologize, gentle reader, and I hope you can please find it in your heart to forgive me, but I actually lied to you when I said “Thor: Ragnarok” was my last Marvel project; 2018’s “Black Panther” was actually my last trip to the MCU. For a mountain of reasons, it's just easier for me to say “Thor 3” was the one that got me to stop watching Marvel movies, but it was actually my disappointment with how “Black Panther” turned out as just another formulaic MCU movie that made me decide I didn’t need to watch any more of them. And part of this is my own fault - I made the mistake of listening to Marvel fanboys hype up the movie as the best Marvel project yet before I went and saw it, so to a degree, I have no one but myself to blame for being let down. But on the other hand, I feel like a lot of my criticisms are very valid, especially with how Marvel has continued to make similar mistakes in subsequent projects. I thought the movie spent too much time with Martin Freeman’s token white character when literally every aspect of the movie’s plot doesn’t involve him or need his involvement; I thought the film leaving Wakanda at all for its runtime was dumb and tonally a mistake; I thought Daniel Kaaluya’s character didn’t have enough screen time to justify his inclusion in the plot and should have just been cut; and I thought the CGI fight scene at the end of the movie looked more like a kid mashing two action figures together in the air rather than an impressive, climactic finale. But more than anything, it was Killmonger’s character, or more accurately, lack of a character, that really killed that movie for me. Again, shame on me for buying into the Marvel hype, but leading up to “Black Panther” I’d seen people calling it the best Marvel movie released, and more specifically, Marvel’s very own “Dark Knight,” which means that unlike “Thor 3” I had actual expectations for the film going in, namely a gripping plot and memorable antagonist, that were very let down by the final release. Was Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger a bad villain? No. But was he on screen for enough time during the movie to be anything other than a typical forgettable Marvel movie villain? Also no. I wanted to like or at least have something more to say about his character, I really did, but “Black Panther” wastes so much runtime on things like “showing Martin Freeman's pointless character gawk at things” that there's hardly any performance for me to even really comment on. Of the 15 MCU films I’ve seen, I could only name about five of their villains, and that’s just me being able to remember the character’s name, no endorsement of their actual roles in their respective movies.

Which is weird man, like I feel like more people should be talking about this: how do you pump out this many comic book movies with these many forgettable villains? Big, fun, theatrical, over-the-top antagonists are comic books’ bread and butter, but no; outside of the movies these guys debut in, they don’t ever appear in anything else (unless, of course, you are Loki, who immediately gets transitioned into being a hero after “The Avengers” and so stops getting to count as a super villain). All the MCU cameos are always other heroes appearing in each other’s films - it's never the villains, no one ever cares about them, there’s never going to be an after credits stinger where freaking Whiplash appears on screen to cheers from the audience. Movie after movie Disney goes and hires some big name, expensive actor to play that film’s antagonist only for their role to be the most uninteresting and forgettable part of the whole project. People still talk about Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker today, and that movie came out over 10 years ago! How do you fail at something this many times in a row? It's almost like, for as much money as these movies make, no one involved actually really cares that much about making a “good movie,” and instead are only focused on getting it out the door to get ready for the next MCU film. Because we always do know that there’s going to be another MCU movie and what that next MCU project is going to be about; Kevin Feige has more in common with Stalin than DC’s Man of Steel since he’s out here announcing Marvel Five Year Plans at any opportunity he gets. Why would I believe you’re all that invested in a film’s production when you’re already moved on to planning the next three installments? These things have gotten so assembly line produced that there’s never a chance that an MCU film is going to surprise you - there’re only so many different combinations of beef, cheese, and tortillas you can do before you’ve seen everything Taco Bell has to offer.

I guess we should probably actually talk about “Deadpool & Wolverine” now - a film that exists solely to throw all of the Fox Marvel action figures and the Disney Marvel action figures in the same toybox; a film that exists solely to grant closure on projects that didn’t need closure for fans who never really actually wanted that closure; a film that exists solely to make Disney a disgusting amount money, and boy howdy did it. I feel like discussing the plot of the “Deadpool & Wolverine” is actually doing a disservice to you, the readers, as well as everyone who worked on the film - we all know why this movie was made, pretending it's plot had literally any bearing on its development or played any role in why people actually showed up to watch the final product would be so painfully naïve that I feel like any writer who claims so should be forcibly signed up for an adult conservatorship.

Who’s the main villain of “Deadpool 3?” Who cares? I’d bet actual money that the majority of the people who saw the film couldn’t even tell you. Some egg looking lady? A big evil CGI cloud? The need for a coherent plot? This movie exists so that Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine can be in a movie together and also be a part of the MCU, and every other aspect of the story was written around that one angle. I was actually a little shocked when the bald chick showed up again at the end of the film after Hugh and Ryan had escaped the Void they were thrown into for the majority of the movie's runtime - didn’t the writers understand that her entirely forgettable and interchangeable role was over the second after she performed the plot magic to teleport our boys back to reality? No character in this movie, outside of Hugh and Ryan, matters; nothing they did before the plot of this movie matters, and nothing they do during the movie’s duration matters.

Which is a bit of an unusual choice seeing just how many cameos there are in this thing.

Can I be honest with you guys? I mean, I know I’ve already lied to you a couple times throughout this piece, but I feel like we’ve gotten close enough that I can let my guard down a little: I really hate that Wesley Snipes’ Blade is in this movie. The whole gimmick of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” that the Fox Marvel toys can now play in the Disney Marvel sandbox in a “canonically compliant” manner, means that the movie is chock full of cameos from actors and characters that appeared in the old Fox Marvel films that moviegoers can point to on the screen and say “hey I remember him, that’s Toad boy!” Some of those cameos, namely Wesley Snipes’ Blade, Jennifer Garner’s Elektra, Dafne Keen’s X-23, and Channing Tatum’s Gambit, have a little scene together where they, very metatextuality, talk about being “forgotten” and “abandoned” in the Void, and that them helping Hugh and Ryan escape back to reality is their way of “finally having a proper ending to their stories.” And it's like, OK guys, we get it, that sort of sentiment is very cute and all, except, actually, Wesley Snipes’ Blade did get a conclusion - Ryan Reynolds should know, he was in the movie! Blade got three full movies that concluded with 2004’s “Blade Trinity,” and as mediocre as that film may have been, it was an ending; pretty much all the Fox Marvel movies did well enough for at least one sequel, and all three of the “Blade” films made money and were decently popular, so I’m not sure what “deserved ending” Wesley Snipes is bitching about not getting in “Deadpool 3” - why would you have not picked Jennifer Garner to deliver that line if you just had to include it? But even then, their “ending” in “Deadpool & Wolverine” isn't even a good ending either! They just stand around talking for one scene and then die after fighting some faceless goons we don't care about five minutes later! How was that a proper ending either? How did anybody find that a more satisfying conclusion to all those characters’ stories than the endings of their own movies?

But the bigger question here is why do these Fox Marvel super hero films need “proper” conclusions? “Deadpool & Wolverine” came out in 2024, I’m writing this review in 2024, and at no point in my adult life has anyone ever said to me “You know what? They should make more of them Ben Affleck ‘Daredevil’ movies.” At no point in my adult life has anyone ever said to me “You know what? They should make more of them Jessica Alba ‘Fantastic Four’ movies.” At no point in my adult life has anyone ever said to me “You know what? They should make more of them Nic Cage ‘Ghost Rider’ movies.” Why do I bring this up? Because “Deadpool & Wolverine” would sure like you to think there were a bunch of fans clamoring to just get “one more look at all their old favorite heroes” to help justify the film’s self-fellating tone. And to be fair to Disney, as I loathe as I am to type that out, those cameos were all I heard people who had seen “Deadpool & Wolverine” talk about - no one cared about the plot, it was all “did your hear Chris Evans plays his old ‘Fantastic Four’ character in this one ahehehe?” But I would argue that reaction is more of a symptom of there literally being nothing else noteworthy to mention about the production rather than everybody just being feral to see Sabretooth again. Nobody wanted, or needed, these cameos, to get to see all the “old guard” suited up one last time. It’s pedantic canonicity, it's the worst comic book fanboys’ need for every loose end ever mentioned to be tied up, but played at an industry scale. Why are we tolerating this obsessive behavior, let alone celebrating it to the tune of the highest grossing R-rated film of all time?

Outside of the cameos, the only other real reason to watch this movie is to get to see Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine together in a movie in the MCU, and I've got to be real man, Deadpool's gimmick has gotten pretty old by this point. I had watched “Deadpool 2” when it came out in 2018 (and Deadpool wasn’t in the MCU by that point so I technically didn’t lie to you guys again by not bringing it up earlier), and had found the returns to be greatly diminished compared to the first one. Much like its subsequent sequel, “Deadpool 2” almost certainly got greenlit only because the first film made a lot of money and not because anyone on the production team had a great idea for a follow up, and it shows in the final product. By the end of its 119 minute runtime I’d found the shtick of having a super hero break the Fourth Wall and say naughty swear words to have run its course, and kind of wrote all further movies in the series off. Remember when I said that, from the comics side, I really only liked that initial “Deadpool” comic run, the one started by Joe Kelly? Yeah, the “Deadpool” comic is now on its fourth iteration, with countless spin offs and one-shot stories, and would you believe that just writing more Deadpool doesn’t make Deadpool any more palatable - the bit gets old after a point. So if the pitch of “more Deadpool” to get me to watch “Deadpool & Wolverine” didn’t really do anything, then that just left Hugh.

Ahhh, Mr. Jackman, the one that got away and should have stayed away. Hugh really could have just sat this one out - doesn’t PT Barnum hagiography pay better these days? Hugh Jackman, unlike literally every single one of his Fox friends, not only got a conclusion to his character’s story, but three! “X-Men: The Last Stand,” “The Wolverine,” and “Logan!” Three whole conclusions for his character and Hugh’s role as him! And people even thought “Logan” was good! The dude got to be the one actual early 2000s Marvel hero who was popular, successful, and got a real conclusion to his character’s story, and that conclusion was even a critical and commercial success! Why in the world would Hugh ever feel the need to come back, what could Disney have possibly offered to manage to-

$20 million.

Look man, this whole farce was about money - “Deadpool & Wolverine” exists solely because of money, and Hugh Jackman only showed up because of money.

Nobody actually cares about any of this, that’s why the only thing you heard about this stupid film was its cameos.

“‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ gets to give the Fox X-Men universe a proper endin-” no, actually, it doesn’t. One of the biggest elephants in the room with this whole project is that tonally, the “Deadpool” movies and the “X-Men” movies are not similar whatsoever. Like I’m not saying the “X-Men” movies don’t tell any jokes or aren’t ever funny, but at their core they take the concept of the X-Men and mutants pretty seriously, absent bright yellow jumpsuits notwithstanding. “X2” is a genuinely emotional film, with tons of intentional and incidental subtext mirroring the mutants’ harassment and treatment by the humans to the then current legal same-sex marriage and gay rights movement that was playing out on a national scale in the US. None of the “X-Men” films are played for jokes - sure “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Dark Phoenix" might have made you laugh, but that’s because of production quality reasons, not because they were packed with humor front to back. The “X-Men” movies were serious movies, or as serious as movies about people in tights with magical powers could be. That’s what made “Logan” (which for the record, is not the last Fox “X-Men” movie, that’s 2020’s “New Mutants”) such an engaging conclusion to the series back when we all thought that was the conclusion - the “X-Men” movies at least attempted to be thoughtful and about a bit more than dudes just screaming and punching each other in the face. So “Logan’s” meditative ending that was about more than dudes just screaming and punching each other in the face, and seemed to really resonate with fans, felt like the perfect final resting point for the Fox “X-Men” movies and Mr. Wolverine himself. But nope, here we are, another “X-Men” movie that literally has to resurrect the dead and buried huge jacked man to go on one more ride. But it's not the same - quality of the humor aside, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is a joke-a-minute type of affair, with a tone closer to a bunch of high schoolers bullying a substitute teacher than anything, you know, meaningful. It's almost like the latest installment just tries to copy everything else that worked for other popular Marvel movies and- hey you guys remember when I was talking about “Thor: Ragnarok” earlier in this piece? Huh, weird, probably totally unrelated, why am I thinking about the Crunchwrap Supreme? Bringing the Fox “X-Men” movies into the “Deadpool” universe, and by extension the MCU, didn’t save the Fox “X-Men” films - it just stripped them of all their context and everything that made them unique and special, and turned the whole affair into “just another ‘Deadpool’ movie.” Yes, sure, the most annoying fanboys in the world can piss themselves with joy that now, canonically, Hugh Jackman Wolverine and Chris Evans Captain America are technically in the same cinematic universe, but for everyone else, why would you ever give a shit? It's one thing to be happy that the characters from the X-Men can now appear in MCU films; OK, sure, whatever, but to need a specific actor who played one of the X-Men in a series of movies that was, until this movie, completely separate from the MCU feels like we as a culture not only not being able to let go of our comfort blankets, but actively celebrating not letting them go. Why did we need a multimillion dollar movie to hug these adults (remember, this stupid film was rated R, this slop was supposedly for grownups) and tell them that all their favorite 100% fictional characters are actually all OK and are actually all friends and actually your mommy and daddy love you very much?

I get the feeling I’m just supposed to accept that “Deadpool & Wolverine” is actually good and funny and the type of movie we all really wanted deep down - I say that because I’ve seen the film’s over $1 billion box office bandied around as some sort of impenetrable shield that magically places “Deadpool 3” beyond criticism. “The movie sucked,” “Yeah but it's the highest grossing R-rated film of all time so obviously it's exactly what audiences want from a movie and are you saying we're all wrong,” that sort of thing. Do you know what that whole argument reminds me of? Do you guys remember back in 2018 when comic book dorks and Disney executives got it in their heads that the Academy Awards were like, “disrespecting” comic movies by never nominating any of the MCU films for any awards? All these fanboys got it in their heads that since their movies were the most popular films in the world, that meant that they should automatically be critically celebrated as well, so the Academy never awarding these films any Oscars was just because of Academy voters’ bias against popular culture and comic books and not because, you know, nobody in their right mind would ever classify any of the MCU movies as art. And the Academy capitulated! They were planning on introducing a whole new category, the Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film, just so that the MCU losers and Disney shareholders could finally win an Oscar and use that win to beat everyone who actually possesses emotional maturity over the head to tell them they were wrong for not liking the most popular movies in the world and actually those films are real cinema and good and not, you know, slop. It wasn’t enough for these films to just regularly top box offices and make their casts international megastars - no, you have to say they’re great, you have to say they’re the best films ever made, you have to give them all those awards that are supposed to be reserved for real cinema. The only reason the Academy shuttered the plans for that new category is because too many high profile actual artists mocked the thing top to bottom (well, and because the film that probably would have won the award that year had the category actually been created was “Black Panther,” and it's probably a bad look to have the most successful black superhero film ever win your first “Separate But Equal” Oscar).

Six years later, I think a lot of audiences have just given in and said “Yeah sure, whatever, I'm happy with this, a superhero movie starring Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds full of a bunch of cameos is just what I’ve always wanted, I loved it, it was great.” And I get it man, it's exhausting to have the biggest films every year be such slop every single time, so it's easier to just say “this is fine” and go with the flow, but like… the highest grossing R-rated film of all time? If on the scale of movie content ratings that people actually use (get out of here NC-17) rated R films are the least restrictive category of movie with the fewest number of censors and changes to the original vision needed from conception to box office, allowing the closest parity to the project’s creators’ original vision and message, then shouldn’t we want the highest grossing R-rated film of all time to also be, you know, at least sort of good, and not represent the industries’ worst impulses? “Deadpool & Wolverine” sucked guys; just because you didn’t hate watching it doesn’t magically make the movie good. If we all keep claiming that we actually really like the slop, and that the slop is what we always wanted, then all we’re ever going to get is slop.

And I don’t care how much Deadpool loves chimichangas - I, for one, am sick of eating Taco Bell.