Deadpool & Wolverine revels in Scorsese's critique on Marvel

A few turns of the sun ago Martin Scorsese was met with pitchforks and torches for comparing Marvel to theme parks. This sparked quite a debate on the definition of cinema and movies. Ranging opinions from “I go to the movies to be entertained, not to reflect on my life and philosophy” to “I think cinema needs to stir something deep in your soul and not just pander to your base urges” (said probably while adjusting a monocle).

This coupled with the fact that Marvel has been through a bit of a nosedive post their Endgame phase hasn’t made it easier for the crowned king of cinematic universes. A host of terrible management decisions, a laundry list of content to follow canon and a string of flops has led them scrambling to look for a new recourse post hitting the peak. The MCU painted itself into a corner.

This made them fumble nervously for a new recipe to undo the damage.

Enter fan service through nostalgia baiting.

The MCU’s legacy has been peppered with the ability to be inter-contextual through their movies. Characters from one franchise can seamlessly slip into others resulting in the same thrill we got as kids watching unlikely team ups in sports/WWE. Cinematic universes and crossovers weren’t exactly a novel concept, but the MCU owned it by dialing it up to 11.

The problem with dialing things up was it lead to important details drowned by the noise. The notorious tropes of mustache twirlingly cartoonish villains, odd timings for gags/jokes amidst serious moments and a big CGI battle finale have persistently plagued them.

But now since they have more than a decade worth of legacy behind them, they are old enough to play the nostalgia card legitimately. Adding to that, the concept of multiverses has enabled them to tap into the resources that date far before the inception of MCU. This is nostalgia baiting at it’s purest when you’re allowed to dip your fingers into “pre-loved” IPs.

The first effective use of this power-up was with Spiderman: No Way Home. The success of which led to an amped up crossover baiting with Deadpool & Wolverine.

Deadpool movies have managed to carve out a new genre at this point. Heavily reliant on fourth wall breaking jokes blurring the line between the real and the reel world. Deadpool & Wolverine manages to slap the unparalleled 2+ decade legacy of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine on top to create a brand new concoction.

This led to a movie filled to the brim with gags at times at the expense of the serious world-endingness of the situation. But now with the power of Deadpool’s self awareness, this uneven tonality is shown to be by design than a flaw. This escape hatch of absolving yourself for indulging in MCU tropes might be smart. But it’s still a ruse.

The movie is thus geared for “fun”, which doesn’t necessarily comply with the definition of ‘cinema’ by Scorsese standards.

Deadpool & Wolverine is unabashedly self aware of what it is: Fourth wall breaking nostalgia powered snippets of violent action and jokes with loose connective plot tissue, generously sprinkled with cameos whilst being aware of the sins it commits by playing off it.

The movie leans of the “theme park ride” nature of it wearing the critique it was slandered with as a badge. Like making fun of a McDonalds greasy burger for being ‘unhealthy’ only to find out that McDonalds released a new variant of it with three more layers of cheese.

Personally, I do find merits in what Scorsese and his ilk do critique about the MCU. MCU movies can feel more like products than art at times. There are plenty of videos essays of how the cinematography and music are kept flat on purpose as a means to keep it palatable. Since studio money would taper the edges off in order to be geared at maximum profits.

Deadpool & Wolverine though does take bold steps in going anti-Disney through it’s visceral R rated-ness. I wasn’t a big fan of the movie, but this is credit where it’s due, as you can only imagine the DCEU suits squirming in their pants every time the MCU gets a payoff from a bold decision.

The critique by calling it un-cinema like can bring out the ugly gatekeeping nature of art. As if it’s a hipster kids club where mass popularity might be frowned upon. But the sentiment is borne out of behemoths like Disney taking over the movie business and turning it into manufacturing units. Unfortunately or fortunately, it’s still spitting out a product that works.

To take forward the McDonalds analogy from earlier, MCU would be pretty much the fast food of the movie industry. Where the Scorsese’s and Tarantino’s are carefully planning out seven course gourmet meals with subtle nuances at play. But that doesn’t mean you’d stop eating triple cheeseburger with fries, right?