6 Reasons Why Deadpool Doesn’t Top Marvel’s Best

There's a lot to love about Deadpool. As original and anarchic as an R-rated comic book movie about a fourth wall-breaking superhero can be, the film is in many ways the antithesis of the standard superhero flick. Director Tim Miller and producer-star Ryan Reynolds' film tops the MCU in several ways. Its very originality and off-the-wall dedication to breaking convention lends it an invigorating energy that arguably no other modern superhero film can match. It is the comic book movie for adults who never really grew up, but that still want their fill of sex, gore and profanity. That doesn't mean Deadpool is perfect, though. The film, like any comic book feature, has flaws. Cut as it is from Marvel cloth, it's easy to make qualitative comparisons between Miller's Deadpool movie and what the cinematic arm of Marvel has been doing these past few years. And though Deadpool beats Marvel in a lot of ways, here are six ways that the studio's MCU films still come out on top. 6) The Special Effects Can Be Average At Best Since starting out with the relatively minor sum of $140 million for the first Iron Man movie, Marvel Studios now regularly shells out upwards of $200 million on its latest projects; Age of Ultron comes in it at the highest-costing so far, at $280 million. Deadpool, meanwhile, was the recipient of funds from Fox totaling $58 million. As expected, that doesn't leave the film much room to be an epic on the level of the MCU's biggest and flashiest. Mostly, Deadpool doesn't suffer as a result of its lower budget, turning as it does many of its limitations into strengths. The film is, however, noticeably weaker on special effects than any film Marvel has churned out. The character of Colossus for one has a near-cartoonish look, while action scenes that rely heavily upon CGI to work - the highway fight, the final showdown - already appear dated by their rough, video game-y computer work. 5) The Untested Director Isn't A Match For Marvel's More Experienced Filmmakers Marvel Studios chooses its directors carefully. It plucks filmmakers from both the indie and blockbuster fields based on what they've already proven they can bring to entertainments big and small. Some of the choices at first might seem downright bizarre - violent buddy movie maker Shane Black for Iron Man 3? Multi-Oscar-nominated Shakespeare director Kenneth Branagh for Thor? - but they almost always work out, in pleasantly unexpected ways. It's not Tim Miller's fault that he's an untested director, coming to Deadpool on a gamble by 20th Century Fox. Neither does he do a particularly bad job. But it's the collective strength of the characters, the ideas and especially the screenwriters that do the heavy lifting in the film. Miller, directing for the first time, brings the basic skills expected of a neophyte filmmaker, never reaching the height of those more experienced Marvel helmers. To boot, visually Deadpool just isn't massively interesting to look at. 4) The Cast Is TV Movie-esque Deadpool has the perfect star in Ryan Reynolds, smartly cast in the lead role of a fast-talking, charismatic yet vaguely irritating 'hero,' a character type he's pretty much built his entire career upon. Look at the rest of the cast list, though, and you begin to plummet down the rankings - from a major Hollywood lead, to a roster of TV actors and C-list movie stars. It's not all bad - TJ Miller is funnier and less annoying here than usual - but mostly, the Deadpool cast is not a patch on what the MCU's been offering from the start. Marvel has Josh Brolin and Tom Hiddleston as two of its key villains; in Deadpool, you get Ed Skrein and Gina Carano. Love interests in the MCU have been played by the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Natalie Portman, both Oscar winners; Deadpool has Morena Baccarin. It's really no contest. 3) The Action Isn't Up To The MCU's Best There's a lot about Deadpool that's truly memorable - the offbeat one-liners, the retro pop soundtrack, the multiple tongue-in-cheek references to Hugh Jackman - but its action sequences don't pass muster in nearly the same way. The film is refreshingly focused on the main character, so the action mostly takes a back seat to more dramatic or comedic scenes. But when the action does come, it is - like Miller's directing on the whole - fairly unremarkable. The highway shootout is imaginatively conceived, with Deadpool forced to take out multiple enemies with just a handful of bullets, but the execution is less cinematic, more direct-to-video. The climax in particular wouldn't look out of place in a generic beat-'em-up. Marvel has produced plenty of original action scenes - just last year it gave us the rip-roaring Ultron opening smackdown, and Ant-Man's train-set tussle - that make Deadpool's appear lesser in comparison. 2) There's A Noticeable Lack Of Depth Hardcore cinephiles would probably argue otherwise, but comic book movies can be deeply emotional and thematically rich pieces of work. Marvel certainly endeavors to make its films more than just set-pieces and the occasional catchphrase - just look at something like Thor or The Winter Soldier, movies which ponder toxic familial dynamics and the threat of government over-surveillance in a post-Snowden world, respectively. While Marvel's movies are entertainment that generally try and make a point about life or the wider world, Deadpool isn't burdened by such intentions. The film is, rather, too busy having fun to ask itself questions regarding mankind and the state of things. It doesn't make the movie any less enjoyable, but Deadpool is absolutely less concerned about making you feel or think. The MCU has the edge in that it might actually leave you talking after the screening. 1) That Finale The MCU has a finale problem. For some reason, Marvel almost always concludes its movies with epic set-pieces designed to dwarf everything previously seen in the film. It's rarely ever an organic development, and tramples over any subtlety the film might have had. Deadpool is as guilty as any Marvel movie of falling into this trap of believing going big for the climax is the only way to go. Only with Deadpool it seems an even more egregious mistake. In the Marvel movies a giant, explosive finale is at least more in keeping with the more bombastic overall approach. In Deadpool, ending with a generic, special effects-laden set-piece and turning the tone momentarily serious doesn't feel natural, it feels tacked-on and studio mandated. Deadpool's finale is really its most major glaring weakness, a self-consciously Big moment that doesn't fit with the intimate comedy style of the rest of the movie.