#but like i just saw that channing tatum plays gambit in the new deadpool and just like? outside of the movie he was supposedly supposed to

[robertsbarbie]

there is a list of actors, be it their actual acting ability or overpowering star power, that i have where no matter what i see them in i’ll never be able to suspend my belief because they are just the actor no matter the character they try to play

[lazerv4]

Deadpool & Wolverine

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

BE WARNED, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS

It’s been a while since I left the theater immediately wanting to rewatch the movie I just saw but Deadpool & Wolverine somehow managed to succeed at the task with flying colors and while it’s easy to tell it’s not for everyone, if you are a chronically online person that likes Marvel enough to keep up with rumors and developing projects, this movie is a love letter to you. The movie begins with the thing that had everyone worried the most, how will this movie work while also not tarnishing Logan, well the answer is Deadpool find Wolverine’s skeleton and proceeds to use it to kill like 100 TVA guys as he dances to Bye Bye Bye by N*Sync in probably my favorite action set piece in MCU history (maybe it’s recency bias but I really did like it a lot), it's ridiculous, it’s funny and fully gets you on board with the tone of the movie while also dropping the opening credits in a memorable set piece which I would compare to the iconic Devil Trigger opening of Devil May Cry V just with a very different tone. After this opener we flashback to catch up with Deadpool and see him very down on his luck as not only has he given up superheroing but Vanessa left him and he now works a dead end job as a used car salesman, the movie doesn’t linger on this for long as we get to a small celebration of Wade’s birthday with all of the Deadpool cast from the previous movies making an appearance before the TVA interrupts and takes The Merc With A Mouth to their headquarters to give him the signature new costume for a new sequel and pitch him the idea of joining the MCU which he seems on board with until they mention his universe being destroyed which upon further explanation we learn is because of the loss of their “anchor being” which is a person so important to that universe that without them it starts to slowly deteriorate until death in this case that would be James “Logan” “Wolverine” Howlett as portrayed by Hugh Jackman through all the previous Xmen films ending with his death in Logan.

And so begins Deadpool’s journey through the multiverse to find a replacement Logan in a roguish attempt to save his universe stumbling upon many iconic points in Wolverine’s history such as the X hanging, the Hulk fight and what I thought was General james Howlett but sadly I was wrong, that said we still get a few other versions of Wolverine like a height appropriate version of Jackman as well as a surprise cameo version played by Henry Cavill. All this comes to an end when Deadpool find a drunk Wolverine fucked up enough that he can take him back only for the TVA representative Paradox to explain to him that this is not how this works, that is in fact the worst Wolverine and he wants that universe destroyed ASAP so he is gonna hurry this along by sending them both to the Void from Loki. The bulk of the movie takes place here and it’s mainly an excuse to have a ton of memorable cameos as right of the bat we meet Chris Evan as Johnny Storm reprising his role from the 2005 Fantastic Four as well as almost every minor villain in the Xmen franchise until they are taken to meet our main villain Cassandra Nova who is played expertly by Emma Corrin and has some wicked powers that enhance her presence. Skipping a little both Deadpool and Wolverine escape the grips of Cassandra fight a lot and then meet the resistance compromised of Dafne Keen’s Laura/X-23 from Logan, Wesley Snipes’ Blade from his late 90s early 00s trilogy, Jannifer Garner’s Elektra from Daredevil and her own movie in the early 00s and Channing Tatum as Gambit from a doom project film that just never happened after being stuck on development hell for years. This dumb group of misfits is the heart of this movie, as they start an assault on Cassandra Nova to help Deadpool and Wolverine we get a showcase of what makes them all so great or in the case of Gambit what could have made them so great as they touch on every aspect that made them cool with Blade even repeating his iconic ice skating line as well as fixing the issues the character had previously like with Elektra in just a great action sequence that is also gonna be an all timer before they are teleported back to their reality by an unwilling Cassandra who happens to have one of the teleporting rings from Doctor Strange which she uses to also come to their reality so she can absorb the timeline destroying bomb and gain even more power because she is just a girl boss like that I guess. To do this, she employs like a good 50ish Deadpool variants that we know get to see our main duo fight with Jackman finally putting on the iconic cowl which just makes it so much better as they manage to kill all the Deadpools before realizing that they also have Wade’s signature healing factor which means we are stuck here forever but then the unexpected happens as Peter shows up and apparently all Deadpools love their Peters and he begins to be celebrated which allows our main characters to go and try to stop Cassandra. Upon finding Paradox the duo learns that the only way to stop the telepath now is by fusing the dark matter and the normal matter reactor which would kill them so they prepare for the worst before Deadpool tricks Wolverine into staying outside and goes for the sacrificial play as he struggles to make it before Logan manages to break in and gives Wade his hand and stabs his claw into the reactor triggering the reaction which causes an epic orchestral choir version of Madonna’s Like a Prayer to start playing as we see both our heroes hanging on as the machine starts to beat Cassandra and eventually kills her before it all blows up and the timeline’s health is completely restored. The movie has a dumb little fakeout trying to convince you they both died but it’s short because we know they are built different and they come back to wrap up the film before deciding to get some shawarma and then Deadpool asks Wolverine if he would just like to stay with him to which he agrees as we see both sharing another meal with Blind Al before the camera turns to their masks and the movie wraps.

The audience for this movie might be niche but as someone that is (un)fortunately in it I had a blast and loved every second of it, I can more easily look past all it’s flaws and weird inconsistencies like wtf even are anchor beings because the movie was made for the very obsessive rumor crazed fans like me to have a good time and I would be lying if I said getting something like this wasn’t incredible. I loved this movie and will probably continue to even if I do start noticing more of it’s flaws. It might not be the highest most intrinsically made piece of filmmaking but sometimes you don’t need that and just a lot of heart will take you there and this movie has that in strides. The credits go through a lot of b roll and blooper footage from all the Fox films in a nostalgic but also sort of reverend way mourning the past but also celebrating all that it did, the Fox universe was not perfect but it definitely got the perfect send off.

[pwurrz]

i know it’s probably not the intention of most of you but it really seems like a lot of the people complaining about how gambit looks in the new deadpool movie are complaining because he’s “not sexy and/or skinny enough” and that’s uhhhh. hm. that doesn’t sit right with me for some reason.

i know channing tatum is ripped but gambit’s suit, unlike basically every other superhero costume isn’t designed to show off his muscles or his buff physique. he just looks like a bigger dude. a lot of people who saw the movie didn’t even realize it was channing tatum playing him.

[that-shamrock-vibe]

Movie Review: The New Mutants (Spoilers)

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the week following the movie first airing in the U.K, so if you haven’t yet seen The New Mutants do not read on until you have.

General Reaction:

A three year delay for the final instalment of a twenty-year franchise, was it ultimately worth it? Well as an X-Men fanatic I am always going to say yes, it wasn’t a swan song or a wrap up to the X-Men Cinematic Universe, far from as it was originally pitched as the start of a trilogy and does sew the seeds for that. However, while Dark Phoenix did feel like a sombre instalment not only for that “First Class” timeline but also the team movies as a whole, this had an air of sadness to it because this is the last time I will see anything X-Men related on the big screen for who knows how long.

In that sense, this was an emotional movie for me, more than just the fact that the emotion of fear is a running theme through the movie. However, in terms of my actual enjoyment of the movie, it was a very good movie for what it was.

When your very final movie is effectively an origin movie then there’s always going to be that sense of incompleteness, and what this movie teases both for these characters and who is the big bad behind all of this, it’s really frustrating to know it’s over before it truly starts.

With that in mind, The New Mutants is very slow to get started as there’s a lot of exposition and because it feels like it’s own branch of the X-Men Cinematic Franchise, similar to Deadpool, there is a level of “Beginner’s Guide to Mutants 101″ at play here with the explanation of what a Mutant is and when a young or “New Mutant” first discovers their powers that, to give this movie credit, I have never truly seen explored properly outside of the comics other than a quick explanation from Storm to Jubilee in the first episode of X-Men: The Animated Series.

It’s also disappointing to know that unlike X-Men: The Last Stand or Dark Phoenix, there isn’t a sense of finality for these characters as we have just been introduced to them. Outside of Sunspot who has briefly appeared in X-Men: Days of Future Past, this is the first cinematic appearance for all of these characters. The X-Men are briefly mentioned and Professor X is alluded to quite cleverly but every character outside of Sunspot is debuting here and to know they’re never going to be seen in this continuity again with a chance to develop is very sad.

In terms of the “horror” aspects of this movie I have to say this is very comic-book horror as in how Blade in the late 90s was horror. If you know the jump scares in this movie are coming then there are no jump scares, so basically if you’ve seen the trailers you know the jump scares.

As a horror movie, it felt very much like It-lite in terms of the theme of bringing nightmares into reality, only without the hard R-rating of the blood and gore because outside of one maybe two scenes there is nothing truly horrific to look at here.

There’s also a great parallel to the Gentlemen from Buffy the Vampire Slayer shown from their episode in this movie and the Smiley Men who are Illyana’s nightmare brought to life. They’re creepy like them but they’re not as sinister as them...and that is a great choice of wording considering who the big bad behind the scenes of this movie is.

As an X-Men movie, which is what this is as the New Mutants in the comics are basically younger versions of the X-Men, as I say the first half of this movie isn’t that power heavy but is about introducing and establishing this team, the second half/last third on the other hand is power heavy. Not exactly Days of Future Past or Apocalypse heavy but still heavy for the powers this group of Mutants have.

Overall generally as both an X-Men movie and a comic-book movie, this was really a great movie particularly for the first new movie I have seen since lockdown.

Characters:

So this breakdown will be easy as there’s only really six characters to talk about but I’m going to make it a seven-character breakdown as the looming presence in the shadows of this movie deserves their own section.

Illyana Rasputin:

Alright so it is somewhat difficult to say if Illyana is my favourite or if Rahne is my favourite but I ultimately landed on Illyana for first as Anya Taylor-Joy is really in the spotlight the entire way through this movie. Every time she’s in a scene she commands the attention, and all five of the New Mutants have solo scenes so for Illyana to stand out the most, this is why she is #1 for me.

I’m not entirely sure where this movie takes place in terms of the overall X-Men timeline...but considering it’s supposedly in the revised timeline and Colossus is a member of the X-Men in the late noughties/early 2010s, I imagine this is either around the same time or can even be modern day (2017 or 2020).

Anya Taylor-Joy is as suited to the role of Magik as Channing Tatum would have been as Gambit in my opinion. Not only does she have a reasonable Russian accent but she just simply looks like how Magik looks in the comics.

I loved the rebel teen angst she had all the way through from when we first meet her to the very end, not only is it fitting for the movie but in my opinion it’s fitting for the character. This is a girl that literally goes through some resemblance of hell and is effectively a serial killer so of course she is going to have this icy dark exterior.

In terms of powers, I am slightly disappointed she never fully armoured up, it was always just her left arm that she had armoured complete with Soulsword, whereas in the comics her main look is her entire body. I guess the argument could be made the majority of it is simply a uniform and her arm is the only part armoured but I would have liked to have at least seen her crown.

But Magik’s powers for me here are an interesting combination of Zatanna and Nightcrawler which is a very good combination. The scene where she first appears through limbo fighting the Smiley Men was very impressive.

I would have also enjoyed it if we had spent more time in Limbo, given that we always saw cameo flashes of it whenever she manifested a portal, but we never actually had a full scene of her in her “special place”.

Not being too familiar with the comics however, I am almost completely unaware of Lockheed as a character. My only prior knowledge is his appearance in Pryde of the X-Men as a pest and I have to say I much prefer him here. The animation of both Lockheed and the Demon Bear were stellar.

As I say, I feel we have only just scratched the surface with where this version of Magik could go. I doubt very much Kevin Feige would bring Anya Taylor-Joy back if/when he does bring the character into the MCU because he doesn’t like playing with used toys but if ever there was an exception I would hope it would be her.

Rahne Sinclair:

It is slightly obvious to think of when Maisie Williams was filming for this movie as her hair, unless it’s a wig, is in that “Arry” phase of her Game of Thrones tenure.

Because of the current entertainment climate and the non-starting stance this movie finds itself released in, I think the lesbian romance between Rahne and Dani is going to go unnoticed. But considering this is the first major LGBT romance in a comic-book property I feel this movie will be cheated out of that representation in favour of what is to eventually come from Marvel.

Outside of the romance, I feel Rahne’s story rooted in her religion and mutation was fantastic. I love me some werewolf action and I feel I saw enough actual wolf to satisfy Rahne spending most of her time in “halfway form” as the character has been known to do in the comics.

The fact her nightmare was that religious leader branding her as a werewolf and thereby a monster, not only was it believable given her character but also the parallels to devout religious views on homosexuality were subtle but there.

I do feel the character spent way too much time screaming towards the end of the movie. This girl is a werewolf but spent most of the final battle as the screaming protector of her unconscious lover, I mean she was I guess helpful in waking Dani back up but never truly let rip like I feel the character could have.

I’m not entirely sure if Williams has any Scottish heritage about her but the slipping in and out of the accent was slightly distracting at times. When she was able to be loud the accent was often broken but in her quieter moments or longer dialogue scenes you could hear it.

I do appreciate keeping the nationality of the character from the comics, considering the mess they made of Banshee and Moira MacTaggert, and I do understand having an at the time name talent like Maisie Williams in the role, but there are surely Scottish actresses out there and the casting pool wasn’t exactly high for this movie.

Dani:

The main character in this movie, or focal character I guess as it’s an ensemble movie, is either Illyana or Dani, but because we start with Dani and are introduced to the other characters through Dani I guess she is the focal character.

Again, I give credit to the movie for keeping the nationality of the characters from the comics, but while Anya Taylor-Joy and Maisie Williams border on appropriation as they are not Russian or Scottish themselves, although Anya is of Scottish Argentine descent, Blu Hunt is at least Native-American as Dani is. I think they come from different tribes but I don’t think people are going to focus too much on that technicality.

Similarly to all these characters I don’t really know much about Dani so have no frame of reference to compare her to. I remember she appeared in one episode of X-Men: Evolution and I know her powers involve dreams, which similarly to the majority of the characters in this movie lends itself beautifully to a horror movie, but that’s about it.

I felt her relationship with Rahne was genuine and her own “survivors guilt” over being the only member of her family still alive after the Demon Bear attack was well explained.

I just didn’t understand why it was decided that Reyes had to kill Dani because of the severity of her powers, maybe it was the unpredictability of her powers because their limitations are literally the power of imagination, but I thought Reyes was responsible for sorting out those capable of being killers...surely the power to bring nightmares to life as many times as it takes to kill the person qualifies?

With the Demon Bear being tamed at the end of the movie, I kind of don’t see anywhere for Dani to go if they did continue, she still has the power to solidify nightmares, and I guess she can always call on the Demon Bear, but unlike Rahne or Magik I do not see any further development for her.

Sam:

Sam Guthrie aka Cannonball was an interesting one for me as I knew the character and I knew the actor, but hadn’t properly seen either one fully explored before. I have not watched Stranger Things so do not really know Charlie Heaton’s acting potential...but what I do know is he is from Yorkshire and cannot really do a Kentucky accent.

As for the character of Cannonball, I thought that early scene of him strapping himself to that weight while zooming through the air to either test himself or hurt himself was really well realised. There wasn’t enough of him going full cannonball throughout the movie, mostly it just came across as a sort of super speed which in a way I guess it is but projecting that force-field while he is zooming about is what makes the power set unique.

Similarly to Dani he had guilt over his nightmare which was him causing a mining accident which killed his co-workers and dad, but unlike Dani who never really developed the thought of it being her fault for her family’s death because of her conjuring the Demon Bear, Sam did at least hold a lot of guilt over what had happened...despite his nightmare being probably the weakest as the main effect it had was totalling a washing machine.

I also didn’t understand the back-to-back scenes of Sam suggesting he was meant to be in the hospital and felt he had to be there, but then in the next scene him trying to walk out saying he doesn’t belong there. Maybe it was the editing but it just seemed like a complete 180 from scenes that were literally back-to-back.

Roberto:

As I said this is Sunspot’s second cinematic appearance and I guess in the revised timeline he has gone from being portrayed by Mexican actor Adan Canto to now Brazilian actor Henry Zaga.

I didn’t feel the boys in this movie had that much to do, with both Sam and Berto it did feel like them simply coming to terms with their powers. I did like how both had that fear of hurting people and both had to learn I guess to push past that fear.

With Berto’s fear though, I do feel his power first manifesting in conjunction to him reaching sexual maturity was very well explored, because of course the combination of testosterone and becoming a living solar flare are not exactly two things anyone wants to mix. So when the result is burning your girlfriend to a crisp it is going to shake you.

Outside of his powers though there wasn’t a lot to the character and it is hard to remember a good line that he or Sam had that weren’t douchey, but for what we got he was a good character.

Reyes:

Wow this woman deserved to be eaten by the Demon Bear, which by the way I found almost as humorous as Katie McGrath being carried away by a pterodactyl in Jurassic World.

But yes, this doctor was the “villain” of the movie as she was the agent of the big bad Essex Corporation in charge of determining the new mutants’ powers and whether or not they’re worth progressing to their facility.

Outside of that I didn’t really think much of her as a character, she wasn’t a sympathetic character, she wasn’t believing to be doing this for the benefit of these young mutants, she was simply following orders.

It’s a deviance from the comics where Reyes is a hero and member of the X-Men, whereas here she is far from it.

Alice Braga is also regionally appropriately cast as she is Brazilian whereas the character is Puerto Rican, although whenever she spoke I kept thinking about Gal Gadot a lot, even looks wise there are similarities.

Sinister:

Now let’s talk about the looming big bad who I imagine would have been the major big bad of this supposed trilogy. Despite the new mutants believing the facility to be owned and run by the X-Men, it is in fact run by the Essex Corporation...Essex as in Dr. Nathaniel Essex, a biologist obsessed with evolution who became the Mutate supervillain Mister Sinister.

I want to see Mister Sinister in a live-action movie so badly it’s unreal, they’ve done Apocalypse so why they can’t do Sinister I don’t know.

This isn’t the first time Sinister has been alluded to as the Essex Corporation was in an end credits scene of X-Men: Apocalypse that acquired samples of Wolverine’s blood presumably to create X-23, but because those events took place in the 80s and these events take place in somewhat modern day it’s hard to correlate the two.

Obviously we are no longer going to get X-Men movies in this universe and continuity, but with the seeds being sown for Sinister more than once now, the baton has been laid down for Feige to finally bring this villain to life.

Reccomendation:

If like me you are more or less interested in just completing the twenty-year franchise because you love these characters and any interpretation of them then this is the movie for you. However, don’t expect wall to wall action, and I would recommend not getting too attached to these characters. It’s too late for me with Illyana I already love her and already feel Anya Taylor-Joy has set a high bar for whoever plays Magik next.

But for me personally, this franchise has been my favourite movie franchise and my favourite property. Even the bad movies I can at least find something good about them regardless of if the overall movies have been good or not. But just to reiterate, I do feel this is one of the good movies.

In a ranking of the 13 movies (not counting Once Upon a Deadpool), this ranks somewhere between #6-8 for me.

Overall I rate the movie a solid 8/10, by no means the best or a perfect X-Men movie but by no means one of the worst. The movie benefits from new characters (aside from Sunspot) but suffers due to the inevitability of this being the definitive end for the current franchise.

So what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Movie Reviews as well as other posts.