Marvel Studios/Disney

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After thoroughly enjoying Deadpool and Deadpool 2 I was quite looking forward to Deadpool and Wolverine. Friday night I sacrificed a couple of hours of sleep by attending a late screening of the film at my local AMC and with the seat fully reclined laid back to enjoy the show.

I would have been happier with the sleep.

I can say with all honesty that the screening of Deadpool and Wolverine elicited just one emotion from me: boredom.

The credits list five writers for the screenplay and man oh man does it show. The film is wildly inconsistent lacking in any unifying vision, theme, or structure. It is almost as disrespectful to the Deadpool stories that preceded it as Alien 3 was to Aliens.

Characters exist within the context of the relationships if you break the relationships, you break the character. Deadpool and Wolverine shatters the relationships between Wade Wilson and the previous characters of the franchise.

The nature of Wade’s relationships with the various secondary characters is a crucial element in Wade’s own character. Mind you all these characters are present in the film, in a group scene that has all the emotion of a checklist.

The character disrespected the most, whose transformation is so at odds with their earlier incarnation is beggars belief to accept them as the same character is of course Vanessa.

Introduced in the first film Deadpool’s love interest Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) became an instant favorite for many people. Her sex worker character was neither tragic nor possessed of the trite and cliche ‘heart of gold’ but rather a suitable and equal foil for Wade Wilson’s massive presence. She had the vitality and sprit to occupy the screen and hold her own. The second film’s ending was reshot to satisfy audiences who were unwilling to accept such a dynamic character’s death for mere protagonist motivation points.

In Deadpool and Wolverine Vanessa now an office worker and manager has had all of that fire extinguished. The changes to her character is presented as the reason for the changes to Wade’s but are so totally at odds with what has been established as to make it all utterly meaningless.

Without the loving and interesting character relationships, Deadpool and Wolverine is simply meta references, gags, and pointless combat lacking in all tension.