Movie Discussion: Deadpool and Deadpool 2 (Spoilers)

Here I'll keep my thoughts, opinions, and predictions for the X-Men (or maybe it's just a Deadpool) universe based on the newest film. Obviously, lots of spoilers, but I do encourage feedback, both agreeable and contrary.

I greatly enjoyed the film, but my biggest complaint of it was the plot. Sure, in a lot of ways it stays true to its source material but it also plays it safe, which seems strange. Lots of people die in Deadpool comics, and more than just the obvious bad guy mooks. There seemed to be plenty of good guy characters that were easily disposable.

Most immediately that comes to mind is Weasel. He's completely comic relief, has good emotional relation to the 'hero,' and his death doesn't affect the plot really at all. or, knowing Deadpool lore, I fully expected Vanessa to die. Deadpool fans know that the personification of Death is his main squeeze, meaning she'd be easily replaceable (considering how much time and depth the audience is given to her, it seemed she was ripe for the killing floor). I guess I was just expecting more than that one guy that died when Deadpool escaped.

The film's plot is almost entirely too similar to any other superhero origin story. Sure, Deadpool is quite distinct from people like Spiderman or Batman, but he goes through a crisis, dons a mask, fights a villain, villain kidnaps love interest, good guy and bad guy fight to save girl. With a Rated R flick, I guess I expected more emotional trauma or investment.

Going into the film, I wasn't very well versed on the character of Copycat (of which Vanessa is based in the comics). knowing that she was a prostitute before meeting Wade Wilson and as a mutant was able to duplicate another person's appearance (like Mystique) only she could copy their powers too. It makes sense not to make another Mystique-like character (especially since Jennifer Lawrence is a central face to the current X-Men trilogy).

However, I couldn't help but think that Vanessa in the film originally was the little girl known as Megan. Wilson threatens her stalker, she calls him her hero, and he retires to a bar only to have a woman proposition to him before they begin an intense relationship right off the bat. It made sense to me that a mutant girl really liked Wilson's Macklemore style and went after him. There's nothing really to disprove this theory but there's absolutely nothing to really support it either.

Since Vanessa didn't die, it's possible the writers considered this plotline and may be saving its reveal in the second film. Who knows? Finding out she was originally Megan would make her immensely more interesting to me (since I failed to find much depth to her that existed outside of Wade Wilson).

The biggest question Deadpool left us with (if you stayed and watched the after-credits) is the character of Cable, and who would be playing him in the next film. There's quite a few contenders. This buzz existed as soon as the first Deadpool footage was leaked.

Maybe you don't know who Cable is. Well, be forewarned as comics are weird, and the X-Men territory of comics is a bit weirder than normal. Cable's real name is Nathan Summers, the child of Scott Summers (Cyclops) and a clone of Jean Grey who is involved in a lot of time travel. As a baby, Cable was infected by Apocalypse (the big bad of the upcoming X-Men movie) by a virus, sent into the future, cloned, and then came back into the past to try to kill Apocalypse before he gained power, only to be the one that gave Apocalypse his big start.

What does this have to do with Deadpool? Absolutely nothing. Writers have seen fit to put super-serious Cable with the insane Deadpool time and time again, proving them to be a winning combination. While the Deadpool corner of the X-Men universe seems rather secluded (and we don't even know what timeline we're following), does including Cable mean they'd become more entwined? That might be weird, considering Apocalypse, both the cause and effect of Cable, will be appearing much earlier than this new character.

My vote is for Stephen Lang, but the actor's chemistry with Reynold's Deadpool is more important than anything.

In Marvel comics (as well as a score of other franchises), the force of Death is personified by a character. In Deadpool's origin story, he sees Death and falls in love with her just before his healing factor kicks in. Because of his incredible healing, it's nearly impossible for him to die which only makes Death love him more (that, and he's one of the only living individuals that can converse with her). These two make up most of the awkward love triangle with Thanos (as pictured above) who worships and loves Death as well.

Now, here's my question. Deadpool is definitely owned by Fox, as Thanos is by Marvel Studios. Who owns Death? Does Marvel have her, and that's why the Deadpool movie didn't feature her at all? On the other hand, if they share said character, there might be something more substantially significant regarding Vanessa's winged skull ring on her hand when she kisses Wade Wilson towards the end of the film. Also, I kinda like the idea of the old black woman whom Wade Wilson is living with may also be a potential mask of Death, although her character is quite amusing on her own.

I don't believe the character of Death to be integral to a cinematic Deadpool universe, so I won't shed tears if Marvel uses her character right in Infinity War.

Deadpool has had incredibly success. In five days (since this is written five days after the film was released), it's earned over $135 million in the box office, which breaks the previous Rated R film the Matrix Reloaded. But how will other movie making industries view this?

Will we see the rise of some of the rauncher superheroes make it to the big screen in other Rated R flicks, or would we see some of the more tame characters spout out some less tamed-lines here and there? There have been other rated r superhero films before (like the Punisher, the Watchmen, and so on) but never have they reached this amount of success. Perhaps studios will feel that they need to ride the momentum.

Still, Deadpool's character and his humor is more than just crude jokes every five minutes. Not only that, but the character of Deadpool could be said to be a kind of 'hero' already on the Internet. There was a staggering fandom for Deadpool long before the film was a reality, and let's not even talk about the all-encompassing advertisement wave that preceded this film.

I can see studios trying to replicate this formula but doubt it will truly catch fire or overturn the current ways of superhero films (DC movies will still be dark and moody and Marvel will continue creating a branching universe). Deadpool will continue being Deadpool, and no one will really come close to just how on-point Ryan Reynolds' performance was.

With such a wonderful rush of support for Deadpool, X-Force seems a certainty. What is X-Force you ask? It's basically a darker X-Men series, taking on some more of the members designed for killing and doing things in the dark. Where the X-Men are the public face of healthy mutant relations, X-Force gets the stuff done away from the public eye. They usually have darker costumes too. If you will, think the Suicide Squad filled with (mostly) hero types instead of villains.

Opening up X-Force allows Fox more venues with which to use their huge roster of characters. Some characters from Days of Future Past could be included as well, such as Bishop and Warpath. Since we still don't know when Deadpool takes place in the X-Men universe, this could be designed to best formulate a plan where other characters can join in. Colossus implies an older cast, meaning it could favor DoFP characters (all those people who were included just to die again and again), but then again X-Force and Deadpool could take place in the younger years with young Xavier and Magneto.

Those are just some of the theories I've gleaned, modified, or created myself that I particuarly like, or the thoughts that I've had. Do you agree, disagree?

I'd love to hear some of your thoughts in the comments below. Tell me something I've missed or haven't considered, or tell me why one of my thoughts is wrong. I want to talk about it so feel free to discuss it here.

Also, have another suggestion for Cable? Let me know below.