The most recent Hollywood action movie I have watched was Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). I have provided a screen grab above. Marvel movies are known for containing high amounts of action, intense fight scenes and striking visuals. The Deadpool franchise, on the other hand, is known for its unfiltered humour and brutal action. The Deadpool movies are aimed at an older audience compared to most other Marvel movies rated R by the MPA (Motion Picture Rating) compared to most other Marvel movies rated PG-13.
In this scene, Deadpool (Wade Wilson) digs up the decomposing body of his universes Wolverine (Logan) to which Wade is dissatisfied to see that Logan is actually dead. After calming down Wade proceeds to have a conversation with the body of Logan when the TVA (Time Variance Authority) comes and yells at Wade for digging up Logan’s body and tells him to surrender. At which point Wade tells them no and starts to break off various bones from Logan’s adamantium skeleton and fight off the TVA agents with them to the 2000 song Bye Bye Bye by NSYNC.
The scene lasts for around 5 minutes and has about 92 edits, making the scene average one cut for every 4 and a half seconds. The editing matches the different moments in the scene, having the camera pan slightly slower during the slower moments and then kicking it up to jump cuts and more dynamic camera movements as the action builds. The shots in the scene alternate from close-up shots of Wade fighting, medium shots of Wade fighting, medium shots of Wade dancing and wide shots of Wade’s movements and the carnage of the fight. The choice of camera work is used well to make sure that the viewers can see the full extent of the scene and the action and the pacing of the camera movement work to complement what the viewer is seeing. For example, the camera moves to slowly pan out while Wade is digging up Logan’s body and while Wade is talking to
Logan’s body. However, during the heat of the fight scene the camera movements the camera cuts from Wade fighting with the bones of Logan’s body with some slow-motion to highlight the brutality and the rapid cuts to show Wade fighting multiple TVA agents.
It is easy to notice the quick edits because of the changes in camera angles and area of the scene. In one instance in the scene where it switches from Wade swinging Logan’s adamantium spine around to knock around TVA agents to a bird eye view of the forest clearing as Wade kicks Logan’s skull into the air like a soccer ball. The entire fight itself is relatively fast-paced but not intense as Wade easily finds ways to use Logan’s skeleton to take care of the TVA agents. The TVA agents are for the most part all taken out in different ways and are more than less simple cannon fodder and aside from the one TVA agent that engages with Wade in conversation have no character development or further story involvement as individuals.
Deadpool & Wolverine breaks away from the traditional action film of showing strong male characters following societal expectations of masculinity going against the “hegemonic masculinity” that shows men as aggressive and in control. Wade is simply trying to get back to being able to live a semi-normal life with his friends. Showing what Dolby (2019), states that masculinities are fluid and slide between hypermasculine qualities and lighter tones of masculinities such as comedy and emotion. This aligns with thesis’ definition and reading of hypomasculinity, a form of masculinity which is a duality of strength and sensitivity.
Deadpool & Wolverine did quite well at the box office managing to make around $636 million worldwide putting it at the number 1 spot for Top Lifetime Grosses by MPA Rating – R. Now there is no doubt that the movie did well as is mostly expected by Marvel movies nowadays. However, movies of this type can have real effects on those who continue to engage with content like this regularly. Exposure to content or media that can be deemed aggressive or violent can build “aggressive scripts” in people’s minds. This can cause them to consider acts of violence similar to those they have seen in media as relatively normal and this can lead to them becoming more okay with violence and a more aggressive person. According to Anderon and Bushman (2001), a person becoming more aggressive can lead to their relationships with parents and peers to change or in the worst case lead to them being avoided or excluded by others which could lead them to be outcast often with other people who are more aggressive.
Deadpool & Wolverine delivers a distinct and dynamic movie experience mixing Marvel’s iconic action sequences with Deadpool’s signature humour. The film stands out by mixing brutal action with humour and moments of vulnerability. The movie challenges the typical depiction of male heroes, offering a more fluid portrayal of masculinity. While raising a deeper question of how consuming violent media can affect a person.
Bibliography:
Anderson, Craig A., and Brad J. Bushman. “Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature.” Psychological Science 12, no. 5 (2001): 353–359. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00366
Dolby, Aidan. Hollywood Masculinities: Themes, Bodies and Ideologies in 1980s Hybrid Action Cinema. Master’s thesis, York St John University, 2019. https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/4477/
Box Office Mojo. (n.d.). Deadpool & Wolverine. Box Office Mojo by IMDbPro. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt6263850/rankings/?ref_=bo_tt_tab#tabs
Screen grab from:
YouTube. Bye Bye Bye Opening Scene | DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE (2024) Movie CLIP HD, YouTube video, 4:41. Posted by JoBlo Movie Clips, Nov 12, 2024. https://youtu.be/VHAK-gU9gi0
Brook Harrington
I will be reviewing this analysis on the most recent Deadpool movie, with the focus on the first scene of the movie where Deadpool digs up Wolverine’s body, and then fights TVA agents using Wolverine’s skeleton. Overall, this analysis was very good, and covers several important details.
There are mentions of how the box office performance did well, and the writer talks about how Deadpool movies differ from the traditional Marvel movies by focusing on crude humor and brutal violence. I also like how they broke down the scene by looking at how long the scene was and how many edits there were. Both works cited in this analysis bring up important topics about the identity of the characters, and also the potential effect on identity in reality. The first reference is used to explain how masculinity is fluid and this aligns well with Wade Wilson’s goals and priorities in the film. While it is not shown in this particular scene, it shows why Wilson is violent, as his goal is to protect his timeline and his friends. Then, the second reference mentioning the potential psychological impact on the audience is something very important to include. When watching media, we often forget that it can have an emotional or psychological impact, such as getting scared by a horror movie. By including a study that shows evidence of people’s attitudes changing as a result of the media they consume can cause us to be more mindful and aware of our own media consumption.
There are only a couple of critiques I have with the writing. For one, some sentences lack proper punctuation, and this made it slightly hard to read. Then, when describing the movie, the writer mentions that Deadpool dug up Wolverine, also known as Logan. This can be slightly confusing, as the writer was attempting to show that this is the same Wolverine from the 2017 movie “Logan”. However, Wolverine also commonly goes by the name Logan, so perhaps adding some more clarification that they are talking about the movie instead.
Overall, this was a very strong analysis of the movie that discussed many relevant topics from this course.