MAKE MINE MARVEL MADNESS

 

MOVIE
Deadpool & Wolverine
Director Shawn Levy
Review Ray Chan

The renowned film studio 20th Century Fox pioneered the real age of Marvel superheroes. Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), it brought some of Marvel Comics' most iconic four-colour characters to life on the big screen with the X-Men and Fantastic Four.
    In 2019, of course, it was acquired by Disney to become 20th Century Studios, and so became cohorts with Marvel Studios, the creator of the MCU, a media franchise and shared universe of films and television series based on characters that appear in Marvel Comics publications.    
    As time attests, not all of Fox's productions were favourably received, although the two Deadpool offerings stood out for their originality.
    Deadpool & Wolverine is Marvel Studios' first foray starring the Merc with a Mouth, and carries on the flavour of the initial 'Pool pics with irreverent humour and shenanigans.
    But more importantly, it serves as a love letter — a regular missive of memories — to everything that came before it, celebrating the Fox universe and all it accomplished over the years.
    The movie is stuffed with silly in-jokes, references, fourth wall disruptions and bits of comedy, pretty much the same as its predecessors, but taking it to an extreme.
    Despite an effort to infuse a hint of emotion during the last act, it’s basically a non-stop laugh-a-thon that exists to deconstruct everything we know about superhero films. It certainly shows no fear at biting hard the hand that feeds it.
    The overall gist is that Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) — a being with superhuman strength and regenerative healing abilities — is tasked with preventing his timeline from being destroyed, entailing finding a multiverse version of the claw-sheathing Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) to join him on a trek through the Void, a wasteland for all the Marvel projects that failed or never reached fruition.
    There, they encounter Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), the megalomaniacal twin sister of X-Men leader Charles Xavier, who rules the Void with an iron fist.
    Early scenes are as funny as they are violent, leading to the movie’s R-rating (MA15+ in Australia). In his efforts to find a “perfect” Wolverine, Deadpool meets several different versions of the Canadian carnivoid, most of which result in amusing encounters with variants adapted from comic book appearances.
    (One gripe: on the first of his travels, he exhumes the skeleton of the mutant who died in 2017’s Logan, the magnificent saga of the last Wolverine story, and one this writer considers the best ever superhero movie made. The shocking exploit is done for cheap laughs merely to set up a grisly confrontation with a group of assassins, and severely dilutes a cinematic masterpiece which really should have been left untouched.) 
    The picture truly takes off though once the protagonists hit the Void. Many gags are aimed at the Marvel movies made by Fox, several of which didn’t exactly satisfy fans. Others deal with figures who declined in popularity, never made it past the casting rumour stage, and so on.
   But there’s an effort to give these maligned or faded characters some redemption. Multiple well-known actors appear in cameos, game to be in on the gag while also quite clearly happy to get a makeover. A surprise twist featuring Chris Evans is almost the icing on the cake, while look out for the guy who was last seen playing a certain Man of Steel in the Warner Bros franchises.
    Reynolds had a part in the script, and he doesn't shy away from making himself the butt of much buffoonery. Yet despite the red rogue's many incessant quips, it's Jackman who steals many scenes, smartly playing the straight guy, with the pair resembling a modern-day Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis for the masses.
    But here’s the thing. Deadpool & Wolverine is so laser-focused on satirising all things Marvel that there’s really not much else to it. The two previous films at least had a semblance of story, whereas this is nothing more than a 127-minute string of references for Marvel fans to salivate over.
    So on that note, here's a warning: if you come in cold and know nothing about the Deadpool or Marvel legacy, you will be sorely disappointed. 

#marvelstudios #deadpool&wolverine

FAIR WEATHER FARE

 

MOVIE
Twisters
Director Lee Isaac Chung
Reviewer Ray Chan

The original version of Twister spiralled across the screens almost three decades ago, a surprise disaster hit replete with flying cows.
    Reviving it for current audiences may seem like throwing caution to the wind, pun intended, even if the reiteration understandably comes with better effects. But is it a better story? Well, the title is plural for a start, indicating the audience is in for more than just one mammoth blast of air.
    Five years after the tragic death of three of her friends during a tornado-tracking experiment in Oklahoma, we hone in on weather expert Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones), now content with a desk job at the geomagnetic storm watcher agency NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).
    However, when Javi (Anthony Ramos), the only other survivor of the initial accident, asks her to lend her talents to his new twister-hunting endeavour, she finds the lure hard to turn down.
    And so off they go down the winding track, pun intended again, where they come up against a rival pursuit team headed by former rodeo cowboy-turned meteorologist and YouTube sensation Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), who immediately pushes all the wrong buttons with his arrogant, roughshod demeanour. 
    This thread is reminiscent of the original movie, where there were two rival chase teams, and two competing leaders with barely muffled romantic attraction. But they also share largely ridiculous weather science, particularly when Kate and Tyler try to refine one of the former’s old high school projects in the hope of accurately controlling the whirlwinds, which seem to occur pretty frequently.
    As they try to corral another tornado, they find out that it's going to hit the town of El Reno, resulting in a rescue job to evacuate residents. Things then happen quickly: amid general destruction and chaos, Tyler’s leg is trapped by debris from a crashed train, but Kate and Javi rescue him. Tyler then saves Kate after she gets overturned in a truck.
    Interestingly, there is no mention of climate change, which one might expect would have been used in any sort of moral exposition to explain the growing phenomena.
    But perhaps director Lee Isaac Chung deliberately refrained from a sledgehammer approach and doesn’t want to state the obvious: that our planet is on fire, and everything from hurricanes to wildfires to tornadic outbreaks are getting worse. That's why Twisters ends with a facile suggestion that new technology can somehow mitigate these disasters.
    All in all, there is a stronger sense of humour and fun in the movie that makes it a lot less stodgy then the original. The chemistry between Powell and Edgar-Jones is solid, and keep a lookout for new Superman actor David Corenswet, who plays a member of Tyler’s twister troop.

#universalpictures #twistersmovie