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As a veteran Marvel fan, I haven't watched a single movie in a theater since I watched Avengers: Endgame 5 years ago (only for Marvel movies). Until the trailer of Deadpool vs. Wolverine (hereinafter referred to as Deadpool 3) was released, the rave reviews from major websites gave me a shot in the arm.

In 2016, Deadpool was released, earning $780 million at the box office with a production cost of $58 million. The market success and word-of-mouth even attracted the "retired" Hugh Jackman to wear Wolverine's uniform for the first time.

After watching the movie, I felt mixed emotions. On the one hand, I can say boldly: it's interesting! The most "crazy" Marvel movie has appeared! But on the other hand, I have to admit: Marvel, which is in a mid-life crisis, has not successfully transformed.

The film tells the story of Wade Wilson retiring from the underworld, but when his friends, family and the whole world are in danger, he decides to come out again and fight together with Wolverine... If I use one word to describe "Deadpool 3", it must be "old-fashioned".

But this is Marvel. Even if Marvel goes further and further astray in the path of making movies, it is still the company on the planet that knows how to control its fans best.

A few years ago, when Scott Snyder brought the concept of DC's dark multiverse to the stage, and even whetted the audience's appetite with the content of human nature and divine power, the jealous Marvel stumbled on its originally wide road. Entering the fourth phase of MCU, the content of Marvel movies began to change. "Doctor Strange 2" and "Thor 4" both turned to the exploration of human nature, leaving behind the childishness, and the originally humorous content tended to become more and more adult.

In the early days, Marvel was willing to explore the inner world and life experiences of its characters, but as Marvel reaped the benefits of the multiverse, it began to gradually mix and mingle inexplicable IPs.

As for character creation and foreshadowing? Sorry, when the story logic can no longer be restored, fans can just watch the subsequent episodes...

This is why Captain America 2 was praised as the paving film for the Marvel Universe. Even though Captain America 2 did not reach the height of Iron Man 3, it still created a new high for Marvel movies in terms of word of mouth. However, these past glories are hard to see in Marvel movies today.

Stills from Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Back to Deadpool 3, Marvel finally breathed a sigh of relief as word of mouth has been getting better since its release. Not all IP integrations can be successful, just like no audience wants to see Thor and Star-Lord as a couple, but if you use the multiverse to revive sentiment, it is still easy to briefly capture the hearts of the audience in the fierce market competition.

Deadpool in the film encountered a midlife crisis, and the helplessness he showed in the film was like Marvel's fate. So "Deadpool 3" took the simplest, perfunctory, but most effective way to boost its morale, which is endless IP cameos and Easter egg collages.

Of course, we can see that Marvel is confident in the market response that this huge selling point can bring, and this is indeed the case.

For this film that was eager to save the market, it is a completely fan-oriented movie. If you want to fully understand this film, you at least need to know something about the MCU movie universe, the Wolverine series, the X-Men series, the Deadpool series, the Fantastic Four series, "Loki" Seasons 1-2, and the acquisitions and affiliations of Disney, Fox, etc.

Therefore, for non-fans and readers who have not seen the movie, "Deadpool 3" can bring unprecedented surprises to the audience. Without spoiling the plot, every character in "Deadpool 3" is trying to make up for the past regrets.

Among them, the unspeakable "rotten smell" between Deadpool and Wolverine constantly stimulates the audience's brain nerves, and finally returning to the family in the name of a hero also reflects Disney's consistent family style.

IP collage and the fourth wall being smashed

(The following contains spoilers)

As a popcorn movie, the diverse Easter eggs in Deadpool 3 try to satisfy the audience's "one-time" consumption experience when entering the theater. Although Deadpool 3 retains the framework of the classic narrative, it makes extensive use of Easter eggs to dissolve the original seamless story logic, resulting in challenges to the closedness and integrity of the traditional narrative structure.

To a large extent, due to the unlimited nature of the multiverse, the film does not have to consider the integrity of "cause" and "effect", which means that the story itself and the characterization are implicitly allowed to be empty.

For the IP of Deadpool, the character should have a lot of room for plasticity. Deadpool is first a super villain, and then a superhero. The greatest charm of the character is that he can infinitely deconstruct the definition of a superhero and independently control the right to speak in the process.

In the online drama market, "The Boys" is a representative of "anti-heroes". Through a profound analysis and deconstruction of reality, a kind of "just judgment" with implicit informal sanctions gradually emerges.

The plasticity of the order disruptors, such as Homelander, satisfies the audience's infinite expectations. The audience smells the scent of freedom in them and is able to constantly challenge the authority of orthodox narratives.

In the film market, Deadpool was originally the best representation of this image. But now, Disney's halo of "family and love" is placed on Deadpool's head, making this character the object of ridicule in the series itself.

The audience's ability to assimilate Disney is obvious to all. Perhaps the small number of R-rated shots and the swear words that were cut out are all the content of "anti-hero" that Disney can understand.

In "Deadpool 3", Deadpool constantly mocks major characters including superhero movies, DC, Fox, and Disney. In order to highlight the contrast of the character, breaking the fourth wall can indeed attract the audience.

But when the number of times the wall can be broken is unlimited, the film becomes like a talk show made up of short videos.

It seems that only crazy memes and short video-style alienation can attract today's audiences, but to be honest, this will only make the audience feel: he's here again.

In order to satisfy Deadpool's desire to join the Avengers or the X-Men, the film summoned his teammates without any plot foreshadowing. Gambit and Blade were even willing to sacrifice themselves to pave the way for the duo...

Let's not talk about whether the CP feeling of this duo is strong or not. In the first 10 minutes of the team-up, the two just fought, reconciled, fought again, and reconciled again for no apparent reason to satisfy the audience's curiosity. Isn't this just a show for the sake of show, and a CP for the sake of hyping up the CP.

The two incompatible superheroes, who can even be said to be the products of two different universes with cognitive differences, are forced to form a corrupt CP in order to cater to mainstream values. This is far more ridiculous than any superhero mocked by Deadpool.

What's more interesting is that positive encouragement and friendly team family have become the label of "Deadpool"? It's understandable that Deadpool wants to revive for his girlfriend, and it's also understandable that Wolverine wants to revive for his brothers in his own world, but the two of them share the same negative character arc, which is a bit boring...

Why did Wolverine join the Void Team (a name I made up myself) just because of a few sincere words from X-23, whom he had never met? When Deadpool controlled Cassandra, Wolverine suddenly showed inexplicable sentiment and a desire to protect Professor X, who was not present, in order to give him a sense of existence? Similarly, two superheroes who fought for world peace gave way to each other and bravely died when a war was about to break out, and finally saved the earth hand in hand?

The excessive pursuit of entertainment and abandonment of story logic resulted in a script with empty sentimentality. To be honest, the fact that Deadpool is responsible for saving the entire universe is like a joke in itself.

The selling of sentimentality was infinitely magnified in "Deadpool 3", let me give you a very simple example.

Everyone on Team Void was devoured by Elrios, but why did the stories of the others not get told, while X-23 was the only one who could sit with Wolf in Deadpool's house and enjoy the family atmosphere? To make up for the regrets in the emotional story between Wolf and X-23?

If a character who does not belong to this branch of the universe stays here, according to what TVA said in the "Loki" series, shouldn't this branch be chaotic? Or can the plot bug really be ignored?

Looking back, as a superhero movie that is a collage of Easter eggs, the comedic effect it can achieve is far greater than the heaviness of the multiverse, and it can be regarded as a successful attempt at madness.

If you still want to see the complexity of the character itself and its typical social significance, it may be a luxury nowadays when superhero movies are becoming less and less popular.