The first time I reviewed a Deadpool movie, back in 2018, I found it refreshing—a term that didn’t go over well with my editors at the time. Yes, it was violent and vulgar, but like “Thor: Ragnarok” and the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies, it provided a much-needed pushback to the relentless bravado of the unstoppable superhero movie genre.

Six years later, “Deadpool & Wolverine” still offers some of that same swagger, but times have changed. For one thing, Disney bought 20^th Century Fox, which owned the rights to Marvel heroes like Deadpool and the X-Men. More importantly, the MCU has fallen far from its lofty profit-producing perch. Spider-Man joined the MCU in its heyday; Deadpool is arriving to sift through its bones.

This review is coming on a bit of a delay, since I was stuck in the Chicago suburbs around O’Hare airport during the press screening for “Deadpool 3.” So I’m well-aware that Ryan Reynolds’s long-awaited team up with Hugh Jackman is performing better than most anything that has come out of the genre in the last five years. And now having watched it myself, I can understand why.

And yet…something is off.

The basic premise is promising: Everyone’s favorite foul-mouthed anti-hero joins everyone’s favorite occasionally foul-mouthed anti-hero to save Deadpool’s loved ones from a nefarious bad guy. Disney is finally bringing together the two most beloved Fox heroes on screen, and welcoming them into the MCU in the process.

So far so good, except to pull off that last bit, “Deadpool 3” has to get immersed into the same incomprehensible and inane multi-verse garbage that has made recent MCU films even more irrelevant than movies about indestructible beings fighting each other were in the first place.

The reason Deadpool’s loved ones are threatened is because their “universe” has been scheduled for destruction by a rogue bureaucrat at official multi-verse headquarters. And since the Wolverine in Deadpool’s universe has already offered the ultimate sacrifice (see 2017’s “Logan”), they have to recruit a different version from a different universe to make the team-up work.

Mind you, the preceding isn’t nearly as clear to follow in real time, and to be fair, being Deadpool, Reynolds takes ample opportunity to point out the absurdity of it all (“Deadpool & Wolverine” may set a record for both fourth-wall breaking and surprise cameos). But in spite of all the transparency and self-awareness, you get the sense that the Marvel people are just trying to paper over their own problems with some Deadpool brand band-aids, but they can’t quite stop the bleeding. Sometimes admitting that you’re doing something silly lets you get away with it, but eventually it gets a little tedious.

If you can look past all the horrible exposition and the logistical loop-de-loops, and just focus on the irreverent buddy movie this wants to be—not to mention a heartfelt tribute to Jackman and co.’s early-era Fox Marvel—“Deadpool & Wolverine” is a good but not great experience. And from the box office receipts, plenty of people have. But the subtext here is that even though the heyday of the superhero genre is long gone, Disney and co. are going to keep hammering the audience until morale improves (see: Robert Downey Jr. returning as Dr. Doom).

In other words, decent Deadpool movie (3 stars) plus 2024 MCU meddling (2 stars) = 2 ½ star verdict.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is rated R for considerable bloody violence, profanity, and vulgarity.

The post MCU meddling hampers promising ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ appeared first on Utah.Film.

The best family movies usually find a way to appeal to both kids and the adults taking them to the theater. In the case of John Krasinski’s “IF,” you could almost make the argument that in this case, the movie’s primary audience is actually the adults. It’s hard to say if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

“IF” is the story of a pre-teen girl who discovers a hidden world of rejected imaginary friends. Bea (Cailey Fleming) has just arrived in New York City with her father (Krasinski). She’ll be staying with her grandmother (Fiona Shaw) while Dad undergoes a heart operation. This would be scary enough on its own, but to make matters worse, Bea’s mother has already passed away years earlier.

At 12 years old, Bea’s entire world is awkward, even when she isn’t facing the ravages of parental mortality. But then she discovers a group of cartoonish characters living in the unit on the top floor of her grandmother’s building. Their caretaker is Cal (Ryan Reynolds), an ex-clown who has been tasked with managing the lives of imaginary friends whose assigned children have grown up and forgotten their old pals.

While Dad gets ready for his surgery, Bea starts spending time with Cal and a couple of the imaginary friends, including Blue (voiced by Steve Carell). Eventually Cal takes her to the secret retirement home for the friends, deep under the facilities at Coney Island. Here Bea realizes her true mission: help Cal to reconnect the friends with their long-lost kids.

As “IF” digs deeper into its layers of meaning, it becomes clear that Krasinski’s film is more about the sorrows of lost innocence and the burden of adulthood than entertaining kids. In spite of the cute and cartoonish characters that fill the screen, the film carries a sad melancholy that goes for the heartstrings more often than you might expect.

The centerpiece of this theme is Bea, who has lost one parent and is bracing against the possibility of losing another. Fleming’s performance is spot on as a kid who is clinging to childhood, with all of its hopes and wonders, while feeling the burden of approaching adulthood, and the shadow of real life.

Reynolds is a nice choice as Cal, and his natural charm is a good match for a character that kids will take to. At the same time, he’s not given too much to do, and “IF” won’t go down as one of his more memorable performances.

It isn’t hard to see “IF” as a close cousin to 2015’s “Inside Out,” which followed the struggles of another pre-teen girl adjusting to some dramatic changes in life (in her case, a family move to San Francisco). “IF” almost feels like a feature-length riff on the sequence about Riley’s own forgotten imaginary friend, Bing Bong.

“Inside Out” is the better choice for kids, but thanks to its meaningful story, “IF” is able to score enough points to move it into the “good” category. A little more sweet might have helped this bittersweet film appeal more to the young moviegoers needed to make it successful, but adults who see “IF” may find some unexpected value in its 104 minutes.

“IF” is rated PG for adult themes, mild profanity and animated mayhem.

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“Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds took to twitter this morning to share the first official photo of his Deadpool costume. Reynolds captioned the picture with, “With great power, comes great irresponsibility. #deadpool #officialsuit @deadpoolmovie”

This is the exact pose I would expect to see from both Deadpool and Reynolds… I hope someone frames it and hangs it above that fireplace.

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