Stargate

I would say I'm pretty well versed in a lot of science fiction properties. I'm not going to many conventions and I wouldn't say I'm going to be the MVP at any one property beyond Star Wars trivia night any time soon, but I do love a lot of different science fiction properties. Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, the works.

However, one franchise that has alluded me has been the Stargate franchise. I remember watching the spinoff TV shows when I was younger and having no idea what the premise really was or what it was based off. For a short amount of time, I was interested in figuring it out, but then I lost that interest. I can't really say I've regained it, but I did notice that the original movie was on Amazon Prime and I thought I'd give it a shot and actually try and understand the cultural phenomena.

Stargate stars James Spader as Daniel Jackson, an archeologist and linguist who is brought into a secret military project to decipher some ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics on what he later figures out is the Stargate.

Jackson is your stereotypical nerd and not a lot is known about him besides the fact that he is a nerd. And you can tell because this movie was made in the 90s and he has glasses. In fact the first 30-40 minutes of this movie is just him drawing on whiteboards to explain things as well as carrying around large rolled up pieces of paper... because its the 90s.

But Jackson begins working and starts to make some progress on the hieroglyphics that this military project is working on. So much progress that they show him, the Stargate.

The Stargate is a large ancient circle device that all the hieroglyphics are on and when they select the correct symbols, the gate opens to another world across the galaxy.

Eventually, Jackson is sent with a small military team, led by Colonel Jack O'Neil (played by Kurt Russell) into the portal to simply figure out whats on the other side. Jackson's purpose of going is to reopen the portal to give them a way home.

On the other end of the Stargate, they find a massive desert, a pyramid, and a native culture that does not speak their language and who worship the Egyptian god Ra. The team needs to find the symbols required to reopen the portal and escape the foreign land before a strange group dedicated to the Egyptian God Ra ends up destroying them.

 So the plot is pretty simple. They go into the gate, they need to find a way home. But with a simple plot like that you really need to depend on the characters to make it more interesting. Unfortunately, Spader and Russell, two actors I really, REALLY like, don't do much for this movie. It's not that their acting is bad, it's just that they're not given much as far as a script goes. Not a whole lot happens in this movie and the things that do happen are really quite boring. I'd say it's going more for a Star Trek approach where it's supposed to be more of a thinking man's movie, not so much a shoot em up, but that's not really true. Half the characters in this movie are hardened military people who are ready to shoot things up any time now. Besides the idea of trying to communicate with a race of people who don't speak english, there aren't that many big ideas in this movie. It really is, guys are stuck on one side of the gate, they need to get home... that's it.

The most unsurprising thing you'll probably ever hear in your entire life is that Kurt Russell is the best part of this movie. He plays Jack O'Neil, this hardened Air Force Colonel reeling from the death of his son. He's so your typical military character that I half expected his character to turn evil suddenly like these characters always do, but that never really happens. He just keeps on being the GI Joe of the group and absolutely refuses to carry any weapon with more than one hand.

Unfortunately, even he is pretty boring at times because while he is your stereotypical military character, he doesn't have too much of a personality, otherwise he'd be forced to be the bad guy of the film. Instead he just kind of stares, sticks up for Jackson from time to time, and then at the end, when the shooting starts, he gets a badass one-liner and an awesome scene where he winks at a bad guy before blowing him away with his one handed sub machine gun antics.

The villain in this movie is super boring.

I don't really know what else to really say because the villain is just so boring. I almost wish that Kurt Russell would have had a turn and just been the ultimate bad guy but the truth is they go with evil alien enslaving a native people and the heroic white dudes are off to the rescue. And that's not to say that storyline can't be good, there are plenty of movies that say otherwise and it's that exact point that makes it worth mentioning that this story has been done before, it's been done since, and in both cases it's been done better.

The best example of this, and this will pertain to millennials like me who know this story from a different movie that did it a lot better. It took me a little bit but when I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.This movie's plot is really ripped off by Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

The similarities are too many to count, but you've got your stereotypical nerd with his large circular glasses who spreads theories that make him the laughing stock of the scientific community, until an older person comes and brings him into a scientific project that he alone has the knowledge of surrounding symbols and language. He's surrounded by a crew of people that don't respect him and make fun of him (because its the 90s/early 2000s and nerds were lovable goof balls, not arrogant assholes who probably end up being the bad guy, but also probably played by James Spader). They meet the native population and our nerd main character falls in love with the daughter of a chief or something. But there's a military person on the exploration team with an ulterior motive besides exploration and getting home. Shenanigans, shenanigans, they get into a couple of scrapes, and the movie ends with the crew respecting the nerd and him staying behind with his new native love. Oh also they both have a special pendent that helps them.

I basically described beat for beat the plot of Stargate and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Feel free to skip Stargate and go straight for the failed animated Disney flick, it does this story better.

Apart of me really wants nothing to do with Stargate after watching this boring movie, but another part of me wants to delve a little bit into the television series that came after this because they seemed to be at least a little bit successful.

Like I said, I used to catch episodes of this show when I was younger and had no idea what it was about. It just looked cool. I had no idea that these were the same characters as the movie just with Richard Dean Anderson as Jack O'Neal and Michael Shanks as Daniel Jackson. There is clearly a larger world that this movie could uncover and maybe it was just a property that worked better as a television series rather than a movie. There's talk of a new though probably unlikely Stargate reboot.

Overall, it's just not a property I'm interested in. Even after watching the movie, I still am not totally sure what the whole deal behind Stargate is and I'm still not sure. Maybe I'll check out the TV show when I'm really bored and have nothing else to look into, but with no concrete future for the franchise, maybe it's best to leave it at the fact that this movie was really boring with one or two great moments from Kurt Russell kind of phoning it in. But hey... at least we got Independence Day from this movie right?

But those are my thoughts on Stargate. If you're a huge Stargate fan, please explain to me the appeal in this movie or TV series. I don't mean to be condescending but I can't help but be overall incredibly indifferent to the franchise. Explain to me what I'm missing. Otherwise, send me your thoughts on the movie and let me know what else is on your mind in the comment section below. You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks, I'll see you next time.

Coco

I'm not really sure why I didn't see Coco in theaters. 2017 was a year where I went to a lot of movies on my own, I just didn't (and still really don't) have a lot of people that want to go see movies with me. Now depending on the movie, that doesn't matter. I will go see any Star Wars movie or a superhero movie with or without anybody. I was so pumped for IT that it didn't matter that I went alone, I really had a lot of fun. But Coco was a little bit different because it's a Pixar movie. I absolutely love Pixar films and now that Pixar's new shtick is to make movies that will open up the emotional floodgates and relieve you of those tears of nostalgia and childhood dreams you've been keeping dammed up, I wasn't wild about going to this movie when I was far from home without going to it with somebody.

The funny part was, I did watch this movie alone when it came on Netflix, but I was much closer to family and I could go give my mom a hug after the film.

Coco follows the story of a young boy named Miguel (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez). His family hates music and forbids it in their household. But Miguel wants to play the guitar and be a musician.

 The story is set up very well and it is charming as hell. I don't know what it is about the animation, on top of the music, and the story itself but you instantly fall in love with these characters and their conflict is instantly felt.

Dia De Los Muertos is coming up quickly and Miguel wants to perform in the local talent show. So he goes to the grave of Ernesto De La Cruz, the great musician (later voiced by Benjamin Bratt, it'll make sense in a second), who Miguel figures out is his great great grandfather who abandoned the family and caused his family to hate music so much.

But when Miguel takes the guitar he is transported to the world of the dead. Suddenly he's surrounded by his deceased relatives and they take him over to the other side in a world populated by the dead. Something I'll note of is that the cast is almost exclusively voiced by Mexican actors. To the point where the only name I really recognized in the cast was Benjamin Bratt. This is fantastic because the cast is so well done and it's a Mexican culture driven story that it seems appropriate that the cast is driven by Mexican actors. I can't really say on any authority if the movie is culturally appropriate or correct on the traditions and cultures and I'm going to be honest, I don't have the time to research that. All I know is that it was a well written story and they do a lot of creative things with the idea of the dead coming to the world of the living during Dia De Los Muertos. I can't say if its correct in its ideas or if its offensive, all I can say is I enjoyed it but would love to hear the opinions of those that this means more to.

Miguel wants to get back to the land of the living but the only way to do that is get the blessing of a family member. He has a lot of family who are deceased but they will not give him their blessing without him swearing that he will never play music again. Miguel refuses because he believes that being a musician is his destiny and he must do it.

Miguel decides the only way to get back to the land of the living and continue his dream is to find his great great grandfather Ernesto De La Cruz, and get him to give him his blessing. The problem is that De La Cruz is the most popular musician in both the living and the land of the dead. Miguel finds the help of a charming con man by the name of Hector (voiced by Gael Garcia Bernal) to help him find his great great grandfather, get his blessing, and get back to the land of the living where he can play music.

And oh boy, you are in for a very emotional ride. This movie has a lot of comedy, it has a lot of action and adventure as the world of the dead is super creative like I said before, but at the end of it all, you're probably going to end up crying at the end of this movie. I cry in a lot more movies that I probably think I do, but usually its like a single tear. This movie had me weeping because of how much I cared for these characters and how it just hits you in the heart strings.

And the main reason this movie is so powerful, and the reason I'm really glad I waited until I was closer to family or to people I love was because this movie was ultimately about family

This movie has a really honest look at the ups and downs of family, who can be your family, the memory of family even after they've passed away, it hits a lot of notes and the way they utilize the characters in this movie and how they evolve is really well done.

I don't want to give too much away, but the way they handle who the antagonist is in this movie is really well done. If you have seen the movie you know what I'm talking about and it's just a solid family film at the end of the day. Oddly enough, this movie is probably more of a movie directed at kids than other Pixar movies (minus Cars) have been in the past. Inside Out brought us a lot of psychology that while kids will enjoy that movie, it seemed like a lot of the content it in it was more directed at adults. And while this has a lot of adult themes and me, as an adult (at least that's what people call me sometimes), was crying like a baby by the end of this movie, I do think it is directed more at kids than Inside Out and Toy Story 3 were. Now that's not a bad thing and I would actually put this up there with movies like Inside Out and Toy Story 3, that's how good this movie is because it can hit both notes for adults while still feel like a kids movie.

Overall, I will need to watch Coco a few more times to really get a sense of where it falls in the ranking of Pixar movies, but I'm worried that if I watch it again, I'm just going to end up crying my eyes out again and I need to be emotionally prepared to do that. We'll see.

But this movie is solid and if you have Netflix and haven't watched it yet, what are you waiting for?

But those are my thoughts on Coco? What did you think? How does it stack up with previous Pixar movies? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks, I'll see you next time.

The Disaster Artist

The Disaster Artist is a perfect example of a movie that gets a lot of praise and people were calling it the best movie of 2017. I think the theater that I lived by played this movie for a very short time and I never got the time to go and see it, but it was on my list of movies from 2017 that I really wanted to see. But I think the praise and hype that other people created around this movie, created an expectation that I was going to be absolutely blown away by this movie.

And don't get me wrong, it's well done. I can't say it's the best movie of 2017 because the truth is I didn't see a lot of movies in 2017 so I'm still figuring that out. But I think the impressions I got from other people saying this movie was beyond amazing put my expectations very, VERY high for it and usually when that happens, it rarely meets those expectations.

The Disaster Artist chronicles the true story of the making of what is considered the worst movie of all time, The Room and the weird circumstances that it was made, mainly following the two leads, Tommy Wiseau (played by James Franco) and Mark Sestero (played by Dave Franco).

If you haven't seen The Room, you don't need to watch it for this movie but it is kind of helpful and you get some of the context because I have watched The Room, and it is WEIRD.

It is that terrible, and it is that strange, and Tommy Wiseau continues to just be a weird figure to this day. I mean he recently(ish) did an audition tape for "The Joker". Now this audition tape mainly seemed like a publicity thing for The Disaster Artist and a bit of a joke, but it also seems oddly serious and that's the weird thing about The Room in general.

The story mainly follows Mark Sestero as he strives to become an actor, but he doesn't have a lot of confidence. Then he meets Tommy who has all the confidence in the world. Sure he has a weird accent and people aren't wild about his choices, but he goes all out and just tries to act his heart out.

The two become fast friends and move out to Hollywood, despite Mark being 19 at the time and no one really knowing where Tommy is actually from, how old he is, and also how he has what seems like a bottomless well of money or where it comes from. I'll get back to those questions in a little bit because they are important to the movie.

This movie is based off a book written by Mark Sestero and it does tell a little bit more about him than Tommy. While he wasn't very successful, Mark assimilated better to life in Los Angeles than Tommy did. He got an agent, he got a girlfriend (played by Allison Brie), and he started really trying to make it. While Mark didn't have much luck himself, Tommy had even worse luck.

Eventually the two get so frustrated that they think up the idea to make their own movie. Tommy writes, directs, produces, and stars in the now infamous The Room, a strange story about a man named Tommy who's girlfriend cheats on him with his best friend and... well the rest is really confusing, again, if you have some extra alcohol and some free time, I highly recommend watching The Room because it is a weird ride.

And that's the basic premise of the film. Tommy and Mark make this movie, they hire a whole crew and cast for this film that are played by a lot of really funny and talented actors like Seth Rogen, Paul Scheer, Zac Efron, Josh Hutcherson, Nathan Fielder, and so on.

While the cast of this movie is really star studded and talented, the real meat and potatoes of the movie comes in the relationship between Tommy and Mark. I really like the Francos working together and they play off each other pretty well. But I also like the fact that this seemed to be a personal project for James Franco and he included everyone he seems to love in it. Allison Brie is married to Dave Franco. Seth Rogen and James Franco have seemed to be friends for years. While it seems like a case of just casting your friends and having some fun, that's also been the style of Seth Rogen and Franco's work in the past. They hire their friends and just get super passionate about their work.

And furthermore, the story does have a really good message on acting as a profession. A lot of the actors involved with this project were not very well known actors and they really haven't been in anything since, but they focus a lot of the heart and soul of the movie on these people just going out there and working for what their passionate about. At the end of the day, that's what Tommy Wiseau wanted to do. He wanted to be the leading man and act in movies because that's what he was passionate about. However, this moral does kind of delve into the problem I think I had with this movie and why I may have had higher expectations for it than I wanted to and it all has to do with Tommy Wiseau as a person.

A lot of the praise I heard about this movie was that while it is sometimes a comedy, it also brings a lot of heart to a strange guy like Tommy Wiseau. There was a bit of a Wiseau fever after this film and even the movie itself kind of gives Wiseau a lot more credit than I think he really deserves.

The movie starts with successful actors talking about how "revolutionary" the movie is and no matter the quality of it, the fact of the matter is, Tommy put himself out there and followed his dream no matter what some jerk producer in a restaurant played by Judd Apatow says. The movie delves into the heart of a guy who is pretty strange, but at the end of the day is a good guy who just wants to follow his dream...

Except here's the problem with that.

The movie itself doesn't exactly portray Tommy as a really good guy. Sure he's got a dream but there are a lot of moments where he's an asshole in this movie for really no reason. Part of the intrigue of the movie and the book was just describing how much of a shit show it was on that set and how strange it was working under this guy.

There are parts in the movie where Paul Scheer and Seth Rogen get pissed at the way Tommy is doing things and while they say some mean things about Tommy, they're also not wrong that he's an asshole sometimes.

And they make a big deal of asking the question of where Tommy is actually from, how old he is, and how he gets all his money, and I'm sorry if I'm spoiling something, but the movie never answers those questions. There are still a lot of questions about Tommy Wiseau and maybe at the end of the day none of that matters, but people aren't wrong to question that kind of stuff, especially if they're being mistreated by a strange dude like Tommy.

And the other thing that was kind of weird about this movie and the aftermath of it was that suddenly there was a small window of time where people were like, WE NEED TO CAST TOMMY WISEAU IN THINGS, and WE NEED TO GIVE HIM MORE MONEY AND LET HIM MAKE MOVIES AGAIN! Now we have yet to see if Wiseau has really profited off this movie but I have no doubt he has and will continue to in one way or another. But the problem I have with that is that the truth is, he's not talented.

Maybe I'm the jerk that this movie is warning against but no matter how much heart this movie can inject into a character like this (which I'm skeptical about in itself), the truth is he is still an objectively bad actor. And I would be more sympathetic to him if he didn't have a bunch of money like the movie says he does or if he was honest about himself, but they're not. And you may say at the end of the day that's not important, but it kind of is because when people praise him about following his dreams no matter what people said about him, I can say for a fact we wouldn't be talking about him if he didn't have a bank account upwards of 6 million dollars to make a passion project. I have a little bit of a hard time connecting to a character like that when real actors with actual talent don't get anywhere near the notoriety he has because they're broke.

I hope that makes sense and I don't want to attack the guy personally beyond the parts where he's portrayed as a jerk in the movie, I just think that a lot of people set the expectation that I was going to fall in love with this character and I didn't. I liked Franco's acting the same way I thought everyone did a great job in the film.

Don't get me wrong, at the end of the day, this is a really well made movie, the performances are good and it does say some good things about actors and their profession. But if I'm being honest, I think this movie was overhyped just a little bit. I intend to eventually do a re-watch and maybe without the hype in my mind a second time around I'll think it's a lot better. But for now, I can really say it was a well made, pretty good movie. Not the best of 2017, but good. Maybe a little too gratuitous to a strange guy who really only became famous because he had an extra 6 million dollars laying around to make a movie, but overall a really creative film with some good performances.

But those are my thoughts on The Disaster Artist. What did you think? Have you seen The Room? Is the movie better after watching that? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks, I'll see you next time.

Deadpool 2

It’s a little bit refreshing watching a movie that doesn’t try to be part of a larger universe or connect to future films. Not that that can’t be done well, but I feel like a lot of movies these days focus more on the bigger universe instead of developing existing characters into the most interesting and fleshed out character they can be. Deadpool 2 belongs to the 20^th Century Fox family of superhero films to include movies like the X-men and the Fantastic Four, but at no point during this movie like I was supposed to be paying attention to certain details that would perhaps show up in a future movie like I was studying for a test. Again, I’m not saying that isn’t bad, but Deadpool is in fact the purest form of that and I love it.

Deadpool 2 centered on the merc with the mouth from the first movie, Deadpool (played by Ryan Reynolds). The first movie centered on Deadpool, or Wade Wilson, as he develops super healing powers after pursuing a cure for his aggressive cancer. It ends with him beating the bad guy and getting the girl (played by Morena Bacarrin).

Deadpool 2 is a continuation of that story with Deadpool continuing his job as an “antihero” and more just a hero with no problem gunning down bad guys. The really interesting thing about this movie was that it defined Deadpool as a straight up hero who will shoot first ask questions later, especially if he knows something bad is happening. I think one of the strengths of this movie right off the bat was that it took a character like Wade Wilson, someone who was already a sympathetic character despite his raunchy and morally grey actions, and delved more into making him a character you really care about. Yeah he is the funniest character in the movie by far, but he’s written in a way that for every 10 jokes, there are at least 2 or 3 really great emotional moments that make you really care about him as a person.

The movie mainly centers on Deadpool coming across a kid by the name of Russell (played by Julian Dennison). The introduction of Russell also comes with the eventual introduction of the time traveler Cable (played by Josh Brolin). Cable arrives from the future with a mission to kill Russell in order to prevent future tragedies. Deadpool begrudgingly must work to protect Russell and prevent the dangerous Cable from killing a kid, all the while breaking the fourth wall, delivering hilarious quips, and being super meta the entire time.

There’s a lot I left out because a lot happens in this movie. I’m thinking about potentially doing a spoiler review but I really only do those when they movie will affect a larger universe. While the plot points from Deadpool 2 are important and impactful, nothing about this movie seems like it’s going to make an impact on the X-men movies or any Fox Marvel superhero movies to come out in the future. And that’s a good thing. Like I said in the beginning, it is refreshing to see a superhero movie that is just on it’s own. It makes mention of other superhero movies in hilarious fashion, but at no point do I feel like this movie will affect the Dark Phoenix movie that may or may not ever come out. Deadpool’s actions are not going to have ripple effects on any future Fantastic Four movie and that’s good.

But a lot happens in this movie that is really impactful and it does really shape the narrative and the characters in a really cool way. Again, as much as this is a comedy, it is a solid film with a lot of heart too.

Now, one thing that I will say with this movie is that there are a lot of notes, plot points, and comedic factors that were reused from the first movie. A lot of them are running gags and serve more as a call back to the time you laughed at that joke in the first movie, but there are elements of this film that feel like they are rehashed from the first one instead of making new jokes and situations. While this isn’t a huge deal for this film, I’m worried that these films will start to get formulaic and by the time we get to the third film, that I almost have no doubt will actually happen, it’s going to start to feel lazy. I compare it to The Hangover. I saw The Hangover 2 and the reality is, it’s very much the same movie as The Hangover 1. I feel like if I had been a bigger fan of the first Hangover film I would have really enjoyed the second one but still been pretty bored when the third one did the same exact thing again. Now I don’t think Deadpool is Hangover-style retreading, but there are a lot of familiar beats and jokes that if I see them in a third movie I’m going to get bored.

Some performances that were note worth are of course started off by Ryan Reynolds returning as Wade Wilson. This is the role that Reynolds was destined for and he continues to just crush it. Like I said, not only does he give a really funny performance, but you care about his character and a lot of that is due to the fact that Reynolds plays that balancing game very well. The movie knows when to be serious and it knows when to be funny. There were a couple of serious moments that I thought they were going to pull off a really obvious or low hanging joke and instead they opted not to and I have to respect that.

I do think we are in the Brolin-ssance because Josh Brolin is just in everything and seems to be giving a great performance everywhere he goes. He of course just recently was in Infinity War and gave a solid surprisingly touching performance as Thanos in Infinity War, but one of the trailers for this movie was Sicario 2 and I remembered that Brolin is in that too and he did a great job in the first one and will probably do that same great job in the second one. This movie does a great job at creating a character that needed to both be ruthless and sympathetic. Cable is not traditionally a total bad guy but he’s also not a straight good guy and this movie nails that dynamic really well.

Some of the other performances to note are Morena Baccarin returning as Vanessa, Stefan Kapicic and Brianna Hildebrand return in their roles as Collassus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead respectively, and Leslie Uggams and Karan Soni return as Al and Dopinder from the first movie as well. TJ Miller also returns as Weasel. It’s been reported that if there is a Deadpool 3 Miller won’t be returning due to allegations of assault that have been going around about him. Honestly, Miller is a funny guy and he’s entertaining in this movie, but Deadpool will be just fine without him.

Probably one of funnier parts of the movie is when Deadpool assembles the X-Force (it’s in the trailer so it’s not a spoiler). Deadpool needs help taking on Cable so he recruits a team of mutants with lots of intriguing powers including Terry Crews as Bedlam, Bill Skarsgard as Zeitgeist, Zazie Beetz as Domino, and of course Rob Delaney as Peter, a guy with a mustache, no powers, who was a joke this movie could have definitely used more of.

Domino has a pretty big role in this movie and she’s definitely worth noting. She has the power of luck and yes, they do mention how silly an idea that is, but surprisingly there are a lot of really cool moments with her that make her a welcome part of the universe.

I don’t want to get too much into spoilers because the truth is, you should really go see this movie. There are fun cameos in this movie, really funny inside jokes if you’re a fan of other superhero films or just pop culture in general, and overall you get a really great comedy that has a lot more heart in it than you think there’s going to be.

I think this movie is going to have to be given some time and a couple of extra viewings for me to decide definitively if I like it more than the first one. My initial thoughts are that they were able to take what the first movie set down and build on it to make it better. But at the same time I look at all the notes that they hit that are pretty much direct copies of the first movie and I can’t help but feel like this movie really just met the expectations of the first one. Don’t get me wrong, those were high expectations in the first place, but it will take some more time and comparisons for me to really decide if this one is better than the first.

Either way, that doesn’t really say anything bad about this movie. Ryan Reynolds and the team that work with him on this movie really are doing a great job with this character and if there continues to be Deadpool movies, I don’t want him integrated with other superhero characters, at least not fully.

There are rumors that Marvel might be working out a deal to try and get the film rights of their superheroes they sold off to 20^th Century Fox back and eventually the X-men and the characters of that universe might end up in the Marvel cinematic universe. This is a larger topic that I have some opinions on. In short, while I’m excited for the prospect of seeing X-men characters interact with Iron Man or the characters from the Avengers in the same movie, I haven’t minded keeping those worlds separate. I think spreading out the rights to different studios allow us to see more types of movies and more movies in general. Disney has a slate for these Marvel movies where they can really only get 3 out in a year, which is a huge accomplishment in itself. I could see Marvel getting four out if they wanted to, but even if they did, we’d still get the same old Marvel style of films that work but I personally think are more formulaic and not exactly original. Sure, 20^th Century Fox has made some X-men movies that weren’t very good (X-men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men Apocalypse, etc), but regardless of whether or not those movies are good or not, they have provided a different style of film than the MCU. I want that variety.

But even if the X-men don’t go back to Marvel, keeping Deadpool in its own pocket universe where you get cameos and nods to the larger universe but never real interaction seems to be working really well. It allows the character of Wade Wilson to be developed and someone we really care about. He interacts with new people like The X-Force but he’s always center stage. Furthermore, we can take our time and come out with sequels to Deadpool at the necessary pace it takes to create a good movie. We’re not bound by larger franchise rules, they just come out when they feel like we need a good time with a superhero who knows he’s in a movie.

I could definitely see people getting tired of Deadpool, but let’s work to avoid that and just continuing to make heartfelt movies that use the character and his humor well.

But those are my thoughts on Deadpool 2. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks, see you next time.