The History

Ryan Reynolds was first cast as Wade Wilson/Weapon X in the abysmal X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the fact that the character of Wade Wilson was something more significant than a minor villain would have only been apparent to comic book fans and the casting of Reynolds in of itself. For years Reynolds campaigned for there to be a Deadpool movie and he eventually got his wish. Deadpool was a brilliant and unusual addition to the comic book movie world, adopting many elements featured in the comics, most notably the fact that Deadpool breaks the fourth wall. A lot. And in an environment where the MCU is constantly criticised (including by me) for having a formula for its films Deadpool did feel different. Deadpool 2 didn’t quite manage the same success but still a very enjoyable film. Normally, Deadpool 3 might be expected to deliver less simply by the law of diminishing returns but it does have something going for it the others didn’t – Wolverine. This is not Deadpool 3, it is Deadpool & Wolverine.

The rivalry between Wolverine and Deadpool goes back to the comics. The two characters have a lot of similar powers and have faced off against each other as frenemies numerous times. The Deadpool movies have continued this rivalry with Deadpool breaking the fourth wall in criticising Wolverine and his movies. But then, and this has been going on for years, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, have had a similar, somewhat staged, frenemy rivalry going on. Both men have spent a lot of time on social media playfully insulting the other, going back so far that it was before any notion of this film was dreamt up.

God’s Perfect Idiot

A lot of the success of the Deadpool movies is down to the charm of Ryan Reynolds and that is a lot of charm. As someone who enjoyed the short-lived Two Guys and A Girl sitcom of the early 2000s which starred Reynolds, I can say that that charm has always been there. Reynolds is immensely likeable and able to laugh at himself – Deadpool contains references to his brief and unsuccessful stint as Green Lantern, and even the opening credits listed him as “God’s Perfect Idiot”. So the stunningly handsome, charming, willing-to-laugh-at-himself and talented Reynolds was a phenomenal choice to play Deadpool.

The Wolverine

Hugh Jackman is of course a megastar and an actor who has found a career-defining role of an unkillable claw-slashing mutant (whilst still being able to be cast in high-budget Oscar-winning musicals). Logan is quite possibly the best superhero film ever made. Crossovers are hardly new but the fourth-wall-breaking nature of Deadpool allows them to have a bit more fun with it. The trailer seems to show Wolverine and Deadpool fighting next to a partially destroyed 20th Century Fox logo (20th Century Fox for a long time owned the rights to X-Men and this is why they were not part of the MCU). The multiverse shenanigans that now exist in the MCU comfortably allow characters who were not originally in the MCU to be brought in, and things like death and destruction are not barriers to appearing.

I hope Deadpool brings some spark back to MCU as just anything to inject some originality and difference into it. And I do realise looking for originality in a second sequel shows the dire state of things. Anything that moves the MCU from the formula they relentlessly cling to. And Deadpool does seem to try to constantly pull away from the formula – Deadpool bills itself as a love story, and Deadpool 2 is a family movie. Deadpool brings a level of brutal violence rarely seen in the MCU, let alone from the supposed hero. Every Deadpool movie has been Rated R in America (as opposed to the solid PG13 rating for just about everything else in the MCU) meaning swearing, drugs, sex and various adult situations are present in Deadpool movies and if nothing else that gives more freedom to the filmmakers. That said they do lean into this, in Deadpool there is literally a sex montage scene. Ultimately I am more concerned with Deadpool & Wolverine being a good movie than its place in the MCU, and I think if every MCU movie was made that way, the MCU would be a lot better.

Also Read: Marvel Cinematic Universe: From A Love To Hate Relationship

The post Deadpool & Wolverine: The Antidote For A Stagnant MCU? appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

An antihero is a central protagonist of a piece of fiction who does have the typical qualities of a hero. These qualities are things like bravery, humility, kindness etc. and instead have qualities like cowardice, selfishness and brutality. A classic cinema example would be Han Solo, or at least Han Solo at the beginning of Star Wars, certainly not a “bad guy” but after money, kills people without it troubling his conscience and pours scorn on the idealism of others. Luke Skywalker is a good example of a traditional hero – honest, noble and idealistic. An anti-hero will usually have a good aim but use methods that your typical hero would refuse to do, Deadpool was a recent example where the title character explicitly pushed away from the hero label, leaving a trail of bodies in pursuit of his aims.

Breaking Bad

In recent years antiheroes are becoming more and more common and their “anti” hero status becoming more and more extreme. Breaking Bad gave us one of the all-time great anti-heroes in Walter White, the seemingly pleasant and mild chemistry teacher who upon diagnosis of cancer decides he needs to make as much money as possible as quickly as possible to provide for his family once he has died. So he starts making crystal meth. Now the goal of providing for his family is laudable, and at first, he is not concerned with treating his cancer, but helping those he loved. Walter’s anti-hero behaviour certainly crosses into just plain villain territory, with much debate as to when that happens, as well as making and selling an illegal and dangerous drug Walter kills people, uses violence and intimidation, works with truly terrible people who do terrible things. Throughout the show, Walter repeatedly states that he is doing this for his family but in the final episodes, he confesses that ultimately it wasn’t about that, that it was for him, for his ego. This could mean he was never an anti-hero – always a villain.

Loki

Both in film and television Loki is a villain who has been gradually pushed into anti-hero status. In Thor, Loki conspires against his brother and father and is charming but clearly a villain. In Avengers his goal is simply to take over Earth, classic villain behaviour. But perhaps simply because of the character’s charm and Tom Hiddleston’s excellent performance fans really took to Loki and slowly but surely been pushed away from outright villainy. Looking at the tv show Loki the character clearly adopts more traditional heroic behaviours, in caring for others and not simply looking out for himself.

Why Do Audiences Like Anti-Heroes

The ideal of the movie hero, say various depictions of Robin Hood, is not something that really exists in reality. And often even movie heroes are boring. It’s telling that in the recent Marvel films, it was Iron Man, the sarcastic, hedonistic, cynical character who became the leader, over the far more traditional hero of Captain America. Even the best of people in reality and complicated and flawed and audiences want to see that in characters (at least some of the time). Two types of heroes from classic cinema are “cowboys” in Westerns and police officers who are often seen as daring, brave, loyal and decent people. But immediately people recognise that both of these archetypes are complicated, the days of assuming police officers and the organisation as inherently noble are long gone, and to say the world of cowboys is morally complicated is a vast understatement. Also, they can be more interesting and fun, Deadpool is fun, and James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is fun.

Like so many things in culture, these things are trends and at some point, audiences will yearn for more typical heroes. One of the nadirs of anti-heroes was Dexter, not for the performance of the actors but for choosing someone so utterly reprehensible as the anti-hero, often worse than the “villains” he targeted. It’s hard to imagine getting any deeper into the barrel of a character not possessing the traditional attributes of a hero. Perhaps soon we will the trend change and heroes become more obviously heroic.

Also Read: The Evolution of Female-Led Superhero Films

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The post Beyond Good and Evil: The Allure of Anti-Heroes in Modern Cinema appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.