archive | I’m NOT interested in the review, but in the complaint about a generalized movie trend. The author, Louis Chilton, goes on a rant using about what he sees as having gone to far in and overly exemplified by the latest Marvel release:
If we are watching, as some critics have suggested, the death of cinema happen before our eyes, then it’s taken the form of a public execution.
It is a film that is about absolutely nothing – a film with no discernable purpose or artistic ambitions, beyond the perpetuation of its own corporate myth.
He explains a little:
Audiences didn’t love Blade because Snipes just showed up, stood there and barked catchphrases – he was part of a story, with a proper character, and stakes, and intentionality. That Marvel cannot see the difference – or, even worse, if it can see the difference but chooses to ignore it – is surely damning.
We call Deadpool & Wolverine a movie because it is released in cinemas, and is two hours long, but other than these technicalities, it shares almost nothing with a traditional blockbuster, when it comes to intent.
And finally concedes with admonishment:
And of course, people are allowed to enjoy what they like. But freebasing cocaine is surely enjoyable to many people; that doesn’t mean we should all get on board with its production and distribution.
This person is clearly not the target audience. That’s fine. Not everyone has to like everything.
It was entertaining, but it wasn’t good enough to be in my top 10… or top 20.
Honestly, I am not sure who the target audience was for that movie after seeing it. It was just a mashup of plot points that tried to hit every major category for every viewer at the same time.
But… If Deadpool were to ever write a movie, that would probably be it.
That last line captures exactly what I think they were going for. This was about as faithful of a Deadpool comic book as you could’ve made within the medium of movies.
Well yeah, that’s not what super hero movies are for. Honestly, having a Marvel movie in your top 20 is just a good argument for watching a lot more movies. They’re fun but they’re not profound or amazing or particularly artfully shot or anything.
For a Deadpool movie though? It’s perfect. It captures the chaos and reference-heavy nature of the Deadpool comics about as well as you could expect.
I am the target audience, 50yo, grown up reading comics in the 70s/80s, love Star Wars, am nerd, computer geek, played zillions RPG, saw all the SW, goonies, ET, BTTF, mad max, terminator and all shwarzy movies in theater, etc. Seriously, MCU movies are somewhat bad, dull, some characters looks like impersonator, heroes in thigh, actors lack credibility, too often bad CGI, stories are empty, I realized comics from the 70s/80s are really story for kids. They are actions movies, but uninsteresting. At 50yo I prefer to do something else during those 2 hours.
Do you spend those 2 hours watching something with more ‘substance’ or do you do something else entirely – like play with your kids or read up on investment trends? For the time you do choose to use for passively consuming entertainment, is it in the medium of: books, tv, podcasts, music streams, or what? Regardless of medium, what sort of content is it (documentary, romance, action, op/ed, true crime, sci/fi, real-tech, instructional)?
Something else, gardening, cleaning up basement, etc. When I watch entertainment it is mostly tv/streaming.