Deadpool 2 review (I didn't like it much...)

 

(Spoiler... but like most people have seen the movie by now -_-)

I know I'm cynical and stuff, and suffer from anhedonia at times. However I still enjoy myself a bit of slapstick joke and have recently re-watched 'Airplane!' and enjoyed it. I laughed my arse off at a lot of the scenes.  And although on this Blogger, most of my reviews are negative, it's because I don't usually need to 'rant' about the good ones so I don't write about the ones I've enjoyed. Anyway, since I like slapstick comedy, I'd probably like Deadpool right? Well... I didn't really enjoy the first one for many reasons, most of which I forgot, so I delayed watching the second one. Because I almost forgot completely what Deadpool 1 was about and why I didn't like it, I thought it was a good time for me to watch Deadpool 2 to get with all the memes and enjoy the movie everyone else enjoyed. Well.... I didn't like it. I chuckled at a few scenes I think? But that was about it. Story wasn't intriguing, characters were meh, (partially because the characters I felt like I'd like were almost immediately killed off), and the jokes weren't really that funny... So I'll break these down.

Story: I don't like stories involving time travel and Marvel universe keeps pushing these in with very vague explanations of how it works. If one person can time travel, then so can anyone else. If Cable can go back to kill Russell, then so can any one of Russell's enemies? The explanation as to why Cable chose this specific time period is... none-existent. He says something vague about why he can't go back too far, because of battery power, but not why he couldn't go back a bit further, to just stop his family dying. If Russell was such an evil guy, who killed hundreds, why is Cable the only guy going back to kill him? And why did he only go back to kill him when his family died? It almost feels like Cable isn't even needed at all in the movie, except to be a very weak threat to Russell... and really, they could've come up with a better threat then a time travelling enemy... surely. Anyway, other than that... I mean the story is alright. It's a typical rescue mission. It doesn't have to be too deep for a movie like this anyway. It's just... other than that... it's just too predictable to be enjoyable is all.

Characters: I like Domino. She's new, she's cool. I also like the Colossus. But that's about it. I thought I'd really like the new introduction to all these different characters of the X-force. It probably would've put a bit more balance to this 'Deadpool is so cool and he's the main character' narrative that they push onto us so much. But they just do the same thing as 'The suicide squad' movie. "Haha you thought those characters were going to be interesting and enjoyable?? GOTCHA. They're all dead. Isn't that funny?" No. Now we just have to go back to Deadpool making all the breaking-4th-wall jokes again with the predictable storyline. So when Domino survived, it was nice. She wasn't pulling the whole, smug-cool character thing either, even though her superpower was luck. She just went with the flow.

Oh, and can I just take the time to rant about Yukio? and her cliched Japanese thing going on?

Of course the first asian they put in is a stereotypical Harajuku style, cutesy, ditzy girl with those bangs, straight hair and neon highlights that most Japansese people do anymore. And her superhero outfit has to scream 'Asian' right? (And it pisses me off that the outfit looks more like it's based on a qipao, cause chinese and japanese are just too similar right??) Like obviously all Asians are FOBs and they dress like 'Asians' *eyeroll*. I mean, I guess I can't complain with a movie that had so many other sterotypes like yakuza spa scene, Colossus being a stereotypical(??) Russian and I understand that pretty much all previous Marvel movies, like Wolverine are like that... Otherwise, I like Yukio as a character btw. 

Jokes: Anyway, I just wanted to point out that I found most jokes to be a bit boring. I didn't like how breaking the 4th wall itself was supposed to be the joke. Like when he signed a cereal box with 'Ryan Reynold', the constant looking at the screen and saying stuff to the audience, the whole end credit with the wolverine and ryan reynold with his green lantern script. It became rather annoying, as if the writers were constantly poking me, pointing out to the screen and saying, "Hey look, I'm self-aware. Aren't I cool and funny??" It stopped being funny after the 10th time you did it. Ok I exaggerate, it stopped being funny after the 1st time you did it. 

The youtube channel below also didn't like it. Which was nice, since I don't want to be the only one who found the movie a bit 'meh'

Deadpool 2 Sucks. - Rendan Lovell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMJBbuv7Ko8&ab_channel=RendanLovell

Weathering with you review

It's true. I don't enjoy anything anymore. I'm old and jaded and have too much lingering thoughts of doubt and negativity. Whilst I don't like that about myself, I just wanted to let this out of my chest, "Weathering with you was average"

Well... I didn't like it. It was a great movie visually, but the storyline, character development and themes explored were all 'Meh'. The good visuals eventually felt like they put a shine filter on their dull picture. 

As a love story, it was good. There's a good build up between 2 characters. The problem is that both characters weren't very likeable for me. They were just a bit too juvenile, meaning they made rash decisions, bad choices and had a lot of selfishness. And whilst Japan where collectivism is embraced a bit too much, a bit of selfishness is a good thing to be promoted here and there, for other western societies where selfishness has increased to the point where it does hurt other people here and there, it's not pleasant seeing it promoted like this.

I didn't like how it played out the theme of climate change. So one of the message everyone seem to always talk about when talking about this movie is that, "climate change is affecting the younger generation and we shouldn't sacrifice their happiness for our temporary happiness." And that message on it's own is great. The problem is how the movie played it out and disconnected the message from the viewer completely. The climate in this universe is not necessarily man made. It hints to us that it MIGHT be, but that's where it ends. and whilst the current climate change that we are facing should be fixed by all of us, for example buying less from companies that pollute, importing less goods and travelling less etc, this movie never gives the viewers any of this message. If the movie started off with a clear message that the climate change in this universe is man made and that humans were the ones that were sacrificing little girls to stop it, it would have connected a lot more to the universe and reality we live in. But it doesn't. Instead, it shows climate as this mythical weather creature living just above Tokyo and the sacrifice is not necessarily done by the community, but magical entity just choses a random girl and as she prays, she magically starts to disappear. That takes away the selfishness of people completely. I guess the old grandma at the end talks about how Tokyo used to be under the sea about 200 years ago, but literally no explanation is made as to why they made Tokyo dry and built a city there, or whether it was actually humans sacrificing girls to make it or not. I mean to us, as audience, it now has become a complete fantasy world, devoid of real life connection and the girl just seems selfish to not disappear with the weather creature or whatever, since they just put a whole city underwater. People would've no doubt lost lives because of this (with flooding, poverty depression etc). 

Another thing I hate about this movie is that; Nothing is explained well.

Gun. What?? Where did it come from? Why is it there? Why didn't Hodaka throw it away? (it was just a random plot device for no reason at all)

Run away. Why was Hodaka so desperate to run away and put pain on his parents? It shows a glimpse of his face being roughed up back when he was in the island. I mean, if he was bullied... like... that's it?? There were no clear conclusion as to how it went after he went back, like did he grow as a person and was he able to manage his life back in the island after all the things he went through? Like did his parents even exist?  What was the point of that scene where two girls interact with Hodaka near the end? 

Lastly I just wanted to say the character development was piss poor. I guess I'm a sucker for feel good movies where people have developed in some way in the duration of the movie. Like a big incident happens and people become more loving, caring, or brave etc always gives me a great after taste because it gives you the sense that you also grew with the movie. But this one... I... didn't get any of that. None of the characters felt like they were better people because they went through all that. Even that middle aged single dad dude. He was a wishy washy slapstick character who loved his daughter, and in the end of the movie, he was more or less the same, except I guess it hinted that he became a bit more loving?? I don't know, didn't even feel that, it felt about the same. The main 2 characters were all wishy washy and a bit selfish saying, "hey look f*k the weather and everyone else", and in the end of the movie, they were exactly the same.

Anyway, I just wanted to rant all that. So now I'm ranted out.

I feel like that youtube video below explained other dislike points very well.

Weathering With You Is Bad | Tenki No Ko | 天気の子

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG4OFxcqdZw&ab_channel=IbaraAkai