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How long has it been since netizens watched a Marvel movie in the cinema?

Five years ago, "Avengers 4: End Game" set off a carnival of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in mainland China. While earning 4.25 billion yuan at the box office, it also marked the end of the "Infinity Saga" era.

With the deaths of Iron Man and Black Widow, the retirement of Captain America, and the premature death of "Black Panther" actor Chadwick Boseman, the "old faces" have all left, and the "new faces" are unable to take on the responsibility.

Marvel movies started to go downhill after Spider-Man: No Homecoming, and each one is getting worse than the last.

Marvel executives are starting to get anxious!

In order to reverse the downward trend, they used the two popular characters "Deadpool" Wade Wilson (played by Ryan Reynolds) and "Wolverine" Logan (played by Hugh Jackman) taken back from Fox, and invested 200 million US dollars to shoot this year's only Marvel action blockbuster "Deadpool and Wolverine".

As Deadpool said in the trailer: "I am the Marvel Christ (Savior)", "Deadpool and Wolverine" has the special mission of "revitalizing Marvel".

From the 80% freshness rating (media rating) and 97% popcorn index (movie fan rating) on ​​the foreign Rotten Tomatoes website, we can see that this sequel is full of sincerity.

The global box office was also good, reaching US$440 million, equivalent to about RMB 3.2 billion.

So, how is the box office performance in our mainland?

First of all, as an R-rated film, the film company took the initiative to classify it when entering the Chinese market, reminding underage audiences to be cautious when choosing to watch it.

On the first day of its release, it took in 60.13 million yuan at the box office with 18.7% of the screenings.

The attendance rate of 11.0% is even lower than that of "Catching Dolls", which has been released for 11 days.

By Saturday and Sunday, although the single-day box office ranked second, there was still a huge gap between it and "Catch the Dolls".

It was like being pinned to the ground and rubbed in all directions.

The media predicted that the final box office would only be 376 million, which was disappointing.

I believe that netizens who have watched the movie already have an objective evaluation of the movie in their hearts.

Pico feels that "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" has extremely distinctive characteristics and unique highlights, but at the same time, the shortcomings in the drama that cannot be ignored also doom it to go no further.

01、

Let’s talk about the advantages first. This is a fan-oriented movie made for veteran Marvel fans.

If you have been interested in all Marvel movies since "X-Men" in 2000, even if you have seen movies like "Daredevil", "Elektra", and even New Line Cinema's "Blade" series, then you will definitely get the points buried deep in the film and be excited about it.

We all know that on March 21, 2019, Disney completed its acquisition of 20th Century Fox for US$71.3 billion, and the two major IPs "X-Men" and "Fantastic Four" also returned to Disney Marvel.

The "X-Men" series originally owned by Fox also came to an end, and only the "Deadpool" series, which had an excellent reputation among the audience, was promised to continue to release sequels.

In this film, Mr. Paradox from the Time Variance Administration (TVA) invites Deadpool to join the MCU's main universe Earth-199999.

The Earth-10005 where Deadpool is located, which is the universe of the "X-Men" series, is on the verge of extinction due to the death of the key character Wolverine in "Logan", and Mr. Paradox is preparing to trim it with the timeline cleaner.

In order to protect Earth-10005, Deadpool traveled through various universes and found Wolverine in a yellow suit to help him in Earth-807128.

However, the two were framed by Mr. Paradox and exiled to the Void, where they met the forgotten X-Men villains and abandoned Marvel heroes, ruled by Professor X's sister Cassandra Nova.

Cassandra wants to use the Timeline Clearer to prune away all the universes, leaving only her own Land of Nothingness.

In order to stop Cassandra's conspiracy, Deadpool and Wolverine, with the help of Marvel heroes, destroyed the timeline eraser, saving the main universe Earth-199999 and also preserving the X-Men universe Earth-10005.

Outside of the film, Marvel also hopes to use this movie to "summarize and conclude" previous Marvel works that did not belong to the MCU.

The one that receives the most tributes is the "X-Men" series. Not only can we see the return of characters such as Sabretooth, Juggernaut, Deathly Hood, Pyro, etc., but we can also see Wolverine wearing the classic yellow and blue battle suit from the comics.

In the movie, Wolverine hopes to use this suit to commemorate his deceased X-Men comrades.

After watching the movie, we will find that what he wants to commemorate is the "X-Men" series that has disappeared in memory.

The behind-the-scenes footage that appears in the post-credits scene is also a tribute to the "X-Men" series. I believe that audiences who still have feelings for this series will feel it even more.

The exploration of Wolverine's character can also meet the expectations of fans.

In the film we not only see Wolverine at the same height as in the comics;

Wolverine in a brown and beige suit fighting with Hulk;

Wolverine from the Ultimate Universe;

There is also Henry "Superman" Cavill as Wolverine.

Deadpool is still the same chatterbox who breaks the fourth wall and talks nonsense.

But after joining the MCU, his image is inevitably affected to a certain extent.

For example, he was eager to join the Avengers and even went to Stark Industries to apply for a job;

His behavior also seemed decent, and at the end he teamed up with Wolf to save the timeline, which greatly weakened his anti-hero image.

As for the appearance of those legendary Marvel heroes, they bring more unexpected surprises to fans.

For example, Erica (played by Jennifer Garner) in "Daredevil", Gambit (played by Channing Tatum) who was forced to cut his film plans due to the acquisition of Fox, Blade (played by Wesley Snipes) and "X-23" Laura (played by Dafne Keen).

When seeing these characters regain vitality in the movie and prove their worth with their actions, I believe that veteran Marvel fans will be deeply moved and even shed tears.

Their appearance as a group also opened up new directions and possibilities for subsequent Marvel films.

02、

Having talked about the advantages, let’s look at the shortcomings of the movie that cannot be ignored.

The above movie is obviously fan-oriented and will definitely satisfy veteran fans.

But at the same time, if you are not a Marvel fan, or even a complete Marvel novice, the shortcomings of the movie may be infinitely magnified.

If you don’t get the Easter eggs carefully prepared by the screenwriter, and you don’t understand the significance of the appearance of Chris Evans’ version of the Human Torch.

The movie's overly simple storyline and the adventures of Deadpool and Wolverine can only be described as "tasteless" and "unremarkable".

Both Deadpool and Wolverine are close combat masters who are good at cold weapon combat, and the main scenes of the movie are in the desolate void.

This leads to the lack of big action scenes in the movie.

Although $200 million was spent, there are almost no CG special effects scenes that can bring a strong visual impact to the audience.

Even the road fight scenes that were standard in the first two Deadpool films were abandoned.

We all know that Wolverine and Deadpool have the same blood, and both have extraordinary self-healing abilities and are "immortal".

The film designed two lengthy fight scenes for them, one in the wilderness and the other in a Honda sedan.

Although the fight was lively, the smoothness of the movements and overall continuity lacked highlights and failed to leave a deep impression on the audience.

One uses steel claws, the other uses dual knives and dual guns, and they stab and hurt each other. I lose interest after watching this kind of scene a few times.

The appearance of characters such as Blade, Gambit, X-23, and Deadpool did bring surprises.

But it’s a pity that the movie didn’t design any eye-catching exclusive actions for them!

The worst thing is that Deadpool and Wolverine are both characters who are good at "physical damage".

However, the movie did not provide them with a capable villain.

The climax even lacks a highlight scene where the two team up to fight the villain.

Here, the old problem of Marvel's personal movie villains being too weak appears again.

As the evil twin sister of Professor Xavier, Cassandra Nova not only possesses the same telepathic abilities as Professor X, but can also copy and manipulate the DNA of all living beings.

In the movie, although these settings are retained, the background and character development are almost non-existent, and the behaviors and motivations lack logic, making people feel that their IQ is not online.

At the end, Cassandra used her own energy to drive the timeline eraser, and Deadpool and Wolverine teamed up to trigger the eraser to short-circuit and explode, killing her.

The two of them didn't even have a face-to-face encounter with Cassandra, let alone a hard fight. It was really disappointing that this peak showdown ended so abruptly in this way.

03、

Due to the decline in the overall quality of movies in the fourth and fifth phases, the influence of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) works is becoming less and less.

Especially in our mainland, the box office of "Black Panther 2" in 2022 was 106 million yuan; last year's "Ant-Man and the Wasp" had a box office of 272 million yuan, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" had a box office of 606 million yuan, and "Captain Marvel 2" had a box office of 606 million yuan and 110 million yuan, all of which were lower than expected.

With the decline of Marvel movies, "Hollywood blockbusters" have also ushered in an unprecedented "winter" in mainland China.

The highest-grossing Hollywood movie last year was "Fast & Furious 10" (released on May 17, 2023), which had a Douban score of only 6.1, and its box office did not even exceed 1 billion (only 984 million).

Perhaps since then, the "billion box office curse" has become a hurdle that Hollywood movies cannot overcome, and so far no blockbuster has been able to achieve a box office revenue of more than 1 billion.

This year's summer season, unlike the "protected month" restrictions of previous years, Hollywood blockbusters such as "Deadpool and Wolverine" have also had the opportunity to "fairly compete" with domestic films.

But even if Wolverine and Deadpool were recalled, Marvel can only make movies of this quality with such a large lineup. There is still no hope of revival in the future of Marvel movies.

The film’s cumulative box office revenue so far is 186 million yuan.

With the upcoming popular movies such as "The Decoded" and "Life in the Dark" joining the battlefield, the box office trend of "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" will be further affected, and it is likely to stop at 300 million.

Perhaps Deadpool cannot become the "Marvel Christ", and a "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" cannot change the dilemma of the decline of superhero movies.

Text/PiPi Movie Editorial Department: Passionate and Loyal

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