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.