Deadpool and Wolverine isn’t just a bad movie – it’s changing the definition of what a ‘movie’ is.

Claw of averages: Hugh Jackman in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ (Marvel Studios)

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What exactly constitutes a movie? It might sound like an odd question, but it’s one I’ve been pondering since I saw ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ last Friday. The film, packed with Marvel cameos and breaking the fourth wall, earned an astonishing $438.3 million in its opening weekend, setting a new record for an R-rated film. It feels like a significant moment in cinema history, but not in a positive way. If we are indeed witnessing the decline of cinema, it seems to be happening in a very public and dramatic fashion.

There have been worse movies than ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’. Even within Marvel’s own lineup, last year’s ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ and 2022’s ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ were messier and more disjointed than this film. Yet, ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ feels the most disheartening of the lot, lacking any real spirit or creative drive. It’s a film that seems to exist solely for the sake of perpetuating its own corporate mythology, with no apparent purpose or artistic ambition.

The film includes jokes about the Disney-Fox merger, producer Kevin Feige, and general dissatisfaction with the Marvel franchise. At one point, the leads, played by Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, come across a group of nostalgic superheroes: Jennifer Garner’s Elektra, Wesley Snipes’ Blade, Chris Evans’s Johnny Storm, Channing Tatum’s Gambit, and Dafne Keen’s mini-Wolverine.

The film invites us to marvel at these nostalgic returns, but the characters, stuck in some sort of out-of-universe “void,” get only a few lines of dialogue each before they meet a rather mundane end. There’s no real attempt at developing these characters or delivering a meaningful meta-joke. It’s perplexing that the film seems to assume that audiences are excited to see Reynolds’ Deadpool exchange trivial banter with Tatum’s Gambit. Fans didn’t enjoy Blade because Snipes merely showed up and recited catchphrases; he was part of a story with depth and stakes. The fact that Marvel either doesn’t recognize or chooses to ignore this difference is quite troubling.

Interestingly, Reynolds has been publicly dismissing his 2011 DC Comics film ‘Green Lantern’, which would likely be celebrated as a “forgotten gem” if it were a Marvel property.

‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ isn’t the first film of its kind; it’s reminiscent of 2021’s ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, which also featured numerous surprise cameos. However, that film offered more in terms of story and character development than *Deadpool & Wolverine*. Even though the previous Spider-Man actors had limited arcs, they were given something to work with.

So, how do we define a movie? Over the past twenty years, Marvel has reshaped Hollywood, transforming it into something more serialized and TV-like. We call ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ a movie because it’s shown in theaters and runs for two hours, but it diverges significantly from what traditional blockbusters aimed to be. The issue isn’t that it tells its story poorly; it’s that it shows no interest in telling a story well at all. Its sole focus seems to be on maintaining and reinforcing Marvel’s brand, functioning more as a product and advertisement than as a genuine film, caught in a cycle of self-consumption.

Deadpool & Wolverine trailer

“Turn off your brain and enjoy it for what it is,” has become the prevailing mantra of the Deadpool defenders on social media. And of course, people are allowed to enjoy what they like. But freebasing cocaine is surely enjoyable to many people; that doesn’t mean we should all get on board with its production and distribution. If cinema starts losing the notion that it even ought to function as a work of art – if it becomes not just bad art, but some new and insidious other thing – then the jig, as it were, is truly up. If Deadpool & Wolverine is what the future of cinema looks like, it’ll take more than a few plucky heroes to save it.