Are You Team ‘Infinity War’ Or Are You Team ‘Deadpool’?

Couldn’t we just like them both? Be excited for both? Eggsactly. But where’s the fun in that? Also, these are two very different superhero movies. Two movies that operate on very different levels. So let’s contrast and compare.

One is about a Titan’s intergalactic quest for a set of colorful McGuffins, and the resulting powerful one-against-all scenario that would lead to gigantic fights that’s most probably 80% punching. While the other’s just the first sequel in a franchise (as opposed to the former being the 19th movie in the series) that seemingly care less about anything else outside of its titular hero. And Cable. And X-Force. Who’s the villain? We don’t know. That, we will find out come opening day.

Maybe “the real heroes” aka the screenwriters have a few more tricks up their sleeves and subvert our expectations about the movie’s plot. But I don’t want to expect. That’s the golden rule: Don’t expect. And based on the trailer, it is probably more of a spandex-and-sword action movie, with a lot of talking and talking to the camera, and fewer punching scenes.

Looks like Deadpool 2 would be more fun to watch than Avengers: Infinity War. But I’m not discounting Avengers so easily, given that we saw Star-Lord with Iron Man and Spidey, and Thor together with Groot and Rocket in the trailer. There’s also Spider-Man’s “made-up names” joke.

Unfortunately, Team Wakanda seems to be less fun and less jokey compared with Team New York, with Tony Stark, Strange and Star-Lord expected to make witty back and forth. I hope that with Hulk/Banner in Wakanda, he could somehow balance that out. So it won’t be super serious. But maybe the part of the movie that’s set in Wakanda is supposed to be weighty and serious.

As confirmed by Marvel, the part where our heroes (Cap, Hulk, Bucky, Black Panther, and Black Widow), line up facing against a huge army of aliens, is actually part of the movie’s final act. While Iron Man’s team with Star-Lord, Spidey, and Doctor Strange, are going to fight Thanos on Titan, in the film’s second act.

Yes, Marvel and the internet has been giving us minor spoilers since the trailers came out. And it’s fun to speculate, geek over every little detail. Though I’d probably try not to think about all those plot details come movie time. I want to be surprised, I want to get fooled. On the other hand, Deadpool 2 didn’t get any “real” trailer until two or three weeks ago. But we got that brilliant Bob Ross parody that was so in-character. Still, we don’t get much of a plot other than Cable’s coming and Pool’s assembling the X-Force. Will “the kid” be the villain? Maybe. Maybe Deadpool’s wrong. But the lesser we know about that, I think, the better.

Will the movie’s plot be like that of Looper? Or Terminator 2 perhaps?

How about Infinity War? Are we in for some shocking revelation? Awesome surprises? Some twist? Maybe, some characters will die. Because Thanos will do anything just to get his hands on the Stones and the heroes, even though divided and apart, will unite once again to stop him. As simple as that. No complicated scheme like Zemo’s plan in Civil War. This would be more like the first Avengers, only Loki’s not the bad guy, and with twice (or thrice) as many heroes fighting the villain.

This won’t be some grounded, gritty, realistic movie like The Winter Soldier and Civil War, which were written and directed by the same people behind Infinity War. The Russos are now going into cosmic territory, which was Joss Whedon’s and currently James Gunn’s domain. So I hope that they get rid of their dull concrete and grey color palette, and their favorite aggressive editing and shaky cam (AND HERE IS WHY) and be more like James Gunn in terms of visual and action filmmaking.

 

When it comes to the fight scenes and memorable set pieces, I’d definitely go with Deadpool 2 simply because it’s directed by David Leitch. That opening carnage in the first Deadpool movie, which was directed by Tim Miller by the way, just literally shits on every fight scenes the Russo’s ever conceived in both Civil War and Winter Soldier. With David Leitch, DP2 could surely improve on that. While both Deadpool and Winter Soldier feature awesome fight choreography, Deadpool’s fight scenes has rhythm, is more coherent, and with just the right amount of slow-mos and quick-cutting.

Watch the video below and see what I mean. The Russo’s on the other hand uses aggressive editing and shaky cam to give their fight scenes fake speed and intensity, at the expense of dramatic emphasis, tension, and clarity. In these inexpert eyes the scene in the GIF above is actually split into two or three quick cuts in the finished movie, making it almost incomprehensible. Their style actually undercuts the movie’s awesome fight choreography, which is a shame. I only hope the Russos could borrow a few slow-mo tricks from the Master. I’m referring to none other than Zack Snyder, of course.

Nothing’s quite like having two event movies spaced just few weeks apart. Kind of feels like 2016 all over again. In case you don’t remember, that year gave us Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Captain America: Civil War, Kung Fury and Deadpool. Of course, this year would be bigger. And better. After WB’s Justice League, I’m glad they couldn’t screw up any further. And that leaves 2018 with a much better crop of superhero movies.

Obviously, we have much better lineup of movies this year than in 2016. But for the sake of geekery, let’s use those 2016 movies as reference to see how the 2018 movies will stack up. Batman v Superman was the definitely the worst, while the bloated Civil War just slightly better. Both has nothing on Kung Fury, which I’d rather re-watch than either of the two. That line “yeah, that’s my bicep” is just comic-gold! Doctor Strange was not bad, just average. And Deadpool? Deadpool was that year’s best superhero movie.

Not sure if there will be another DC movie this year, but we have three from Marvel and Deadpool 2 is their only sure competition from outside the fence. Will Deadpool 2 be this year’s Deadpool? Will the third Avengers movie be able to match The Avengers? Will it have a truly satisfying downbeat ending that we’re supposed to but didn’t get in Civil War? Or maybe Ant-Man and Wasp will be this year’s Kung Fury, which means that I will like it more than Infinity War.

I hope not. I have already lowered my expectations for Infinity War but I really want it to deliver on its promise. And this year’s Doctor Strange? The movie that’s not BvS-awful but not Deadpool-very good either? That would be Black Panther. Its 97%/79% score on RT should be telling. Critics loved it, the audience, not so much. It’s more overrated than Doctor Strange (89%/86% on RT), but in terms of being “just OK/kind of meh”, they are in the same ballpark.

Which would be Kung Fury then? That would be the two Deadpool trailers: the one with the hilarious Wet On Wet segment, and the other with Cable’s unfinished CGI arm. Which brings me to my biggest fear. That I would end up liking these hilarious trailers more than the actual Deadpool movie. If that happens, I’d probably be like: WHAT in the actual ASS?