Trying to find a way to break to my partner that I don’t like Marvel films.
I don’t have a problem with hero & action films in general but the marvel franchise panders to an audience so much it’s ridiculous. “Ahhh put in some cool explosions and have a character say ‘uproarious’ after” but let’s not have a good plot or character development or any sort of human authenticity whatsoever.
I watched the first Deadpool film for the first time the other day and it was AWFUL. Nothing the character said or did was genuinely funny. His character had such a sad backstory and that was really good and it would have made such a beautiful superhero tradegy story but then they went and made the character wise cracking but never really gave an explanation as to why he was like that?? And it just read as Marvel being too afraid to make a film you can actually take seriously so they just covered everything up with meaningless quips and fourth wall breaks that the movie never earned. God. Okay I’m done.
For what it's worth, Deadpool is a "Marvel" film, not a Marvel film, in that the character's movie rights are owned by Fox (or Marvel Entertainment, who seem to produce the movies typically credited to Fox?) and not Marvel Studios, so Marvel Studios (who do most of the other films) don't really have as much input in it.
And I guess a lot of the rest of what you say about Deadpool is kind of a case of "if you don't already know the character you miss the context"? Basically Deadpool as a character was driven insane by the experiments at the start of the film (or comics) and as such somehow becomes aware of the fact that he is the character in a film (or comic), so he plays up to that with all the wise cracking and fourth wall breaking. He's aware of the narrator, he's aware that his speech/thoughts appear in bubbles, he acknowledges the issue he last saw a character in, etc.
I also think it's unfair to say that Marvel films in general don't have good character development or human authenticity, because a lot of characters have really good story arcs across the films (I could maybe accept that inside the films it's less pronounced, but I'd argue it's absolutely there in each film). A good example being Iron Man, who after the events of The Avengers becomes obsessed with trying to save Earth before it happens, leading to the Ultron incident, and then seeing the effect that has on him in Captain America: Civil War, or how he treats Spider-Man in Spider-Man Homecoming.
It's fair to dislike Deadpool because I can accept his film is a pretty specific type of humour and (especially if you don't get the context of the fact he's medium aware, which admittedly they should have touched on more in the film since it's kind of If You Know You Know) perhaps doesn't seem to take itself serious enough, but it's a pretty big departure from the majority of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is the stuff by Marvel Studios that people typically think of when they say "Marvel Films") which is pretty (at least what I've seen) universally enjoyed.
Other examples of "Marvel" films that aren't really Marvel are: the Fantastic Four films, all the Spider-Man films prior to Spider-Man Homecoming, all the X-Men films, the upcoming Venom film.
(also sorry if this seems like DON'T DISLIKE WHAT I LIKE :@)