Alternate Character Interpretation: Kayla, is she a Consummate Liar who used her mutant abilities to trick Logan into loving her, did she end up Becoming the Mask and sincerely fall in love with a man she possibly mind-controlled into loving her? Do her powers even work on Logan, and is it all sincere?
Character Rerailment: In the comics, Gambit's characterization had been changed to a self-loathingAtoner desperate to punish himself for his (morally blameless) role in the Morlock Massacre. This movie, however, reaches back to the character's roots and shows him as a competent, charming, handsome, and relatively low-angst card-sharp who won a Cool Plane in a poker game.
Contested Sequel: For many, it is a Narm-fest which flies in the face of the other movies' continuity (particularly rewriting a lot of back story from X2: X-Men United, the franchise's peak until X-Men: Days of Future Past), ruins both Gambit and Deadpool among other characters, allows a lot of characters to make stupid decisions in the name of advancing the plot, and all for the sake of making another movie centered on Wolverine when the first three were essentially his show, anyway. There are also a number of fans who felt that the film was simply a poor rendering of Wolverine's origins that did not capture the true horror and brutality of what the Weapon X program did to him. For others, the continuity wasn't all that important, Sabretooth was finally given his due with some decent character development, the incorporation of some new mutants was interesting, and the whole thing is a fun action film.
Continuity Lockout: The film could have used footnotes to explain the significance of its story elements. Since the Weapon X scene was so brief, it could have said "To learn more, please read Weapon X by Barry Windsor-Smith."
Wade Wilson, pre-experiment. Critics and fans pretty much unanimously praised Ryan Reynolds as Wade, and it was what gained Reynolds a shot in the character's solofilms which were not only Truer to the Text regarding the character, but also smash hits with audiences and critics alike.
Despite his short amount of screentime and differences with the character, Taylor Kitsch's portrayal of Gambit was well received. Kitsch himself requested on countless occasions to be cast again in any other X-Men film, but he wasn't brought back for the oncoming movies.
Evil Is Cool: Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth, even amongst people who didn't like the film. He maintains a menacing tone and sells the "psychopath immortal" really well. Some even go as far as to say that he's the ONLY reason to watch the movie.
Foe Yay Shipping: Wolverine and Sabretooth have always had a fair amount of Foe Romantic Subtext that's attracted the eye of shippers, because of the intense, obsessive, vitriolic and ultimately unhealthy rivalry they share. The two mutants being portrayed as brothers in this film didn't put a damper on the pre-existing Logan / Victor ship. In fact, Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber's macho, tough guy portrayals of the rival, feral mutants actually increased it.
Harsher in Hindsight: Agent Zero's spiteful taunt towards Wolverine ("It's funny how good, innocent people tend to die around you!") ends up being a rather depressing summation of the movie Logan.
Wade Wilson is placed as Weapon XI in this film, the successor to Wolverine. Recently released comic book Wolverine & Captain America: Weapon Plus #1 reveals that, in fact, comic Deadpool is Weapon IX, the precursor to Wolverine.
During the opening "war" montage, the credit for Danny Huston appears during the World War I portion. Huston would go on to play the villain in Wonder Woman (2017), which is set during the same War.
Plenty of reviews claim that basically, the only reason to watch the film is because it has Wolverine kicking ass and a decent Sabretooth.
Many viewers were looking forward to the movie just for having the first live-action version of Deadpool. They... changed their mind when the movie came out. Though Ryan Reynolds as pre-transformation Wade Wilson is unanimously considered a highlight of the film, which eventually resulted inmuch better things.
A retroactive example. For those who loved the Deadpool movies would like to make fun of it by watching it.
"Revenge Painting", referring to an incident involving former Fox CEO Tom Rothman re-painting a set behind director Gavin Hood's back, is a term used to describe the copious amounts of Executive Meddling that went into the film.
Patrick Stewart’s cameo near the end elicited applause from some theater audiences.
Practically everyone agrees on the sheer awesomeness of the opening credits scene featuring Logan and Victor fighting throughout the wars.
Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: The film is mostly about a heterosexual relationship, but the relationship between Wolverine and Sabretooth is too strong to be unintentional. While both characters repeatedly talk about how they're 'brothers', the constant Something Else Also Rises, playful flirting, eyeing each other, phallic symbolism, and grappling each other while yelling "Feels good, doesn't it?" kind of ruins the 'brothers' vibe. It's worth noting that the comic-book version of Wolverine's childhood featured a significant redhead named Rose as his first love interest. The first scenes in the movie are copied almost directly from the comic, except with a young Sabretooth in Rose's place.
Questionable Casting: Downplayed with Liev Schreiber, who's five inches shorter than Tyler Mane, as Victor Creed. He's excellent in the role and pretty intimidating, but it's still a tad jarring. Meanwhile Danny Huston, the actor playing the young Stryker, is five inches taller than Brian Cox, who played Stryker in X2: X-Men United. Even barring height, Cox and Huston look nothing alike.
The Scrappy: Wade Wilson after he becomes Weapon XI, primarily since the Merc with a Mouth gets his sewn shut. This, coupled with the In Name Only handling of the character, did not sit well with fans, even though his fight with Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Gambit isn't terrible. The ''Deadpool'' movies seem to agree wholeheartedly with this. Oddly enough, this is one of the few cases where a character is The Scrappy and an Ensemble Dark Horse in the same work, as Wade is considered the highlight of the movie before he's transformed.
Wade Wilson defeating a room full of mooks with just his swords. This scene would later be spoofed by the character himself in Deadpool 2.
Wolverine lighting a trail of fuel with his claws and blowing up the helicopter. Shots of him walking away from the explosion are prominently featured in trailers.
The effect used to depict Emma Frost's diamond form pops out for its low quality, looking more like little paper flakes than actual diamonds.
Though Wolverine's bone claws are well done, his adamantium claws, particularly in the bathroom scene, inspired much derisive audience laughter. You'd think in a movie explicitly about a mutant with metallic claws, that would get more CGI attention than anything, especially when incarnations in previous films (by the same FX studio, even!) were pretty good quality.
Much of the Wolverine vs. Weapon XI fight is quite obviously shot on a green screen in many shots.
In stark contrast to the effects used to make Patrick Stewart look younger in The Last Stand, which are still impressive even today, the comparable effects here look incredibly rushed and overdone, making him look more like a half-finished waxwork model. It's also very obvious that Stewart's scenes were filmed separately from those of the mutants that Xavier rescues, thanks to the unconvincing composite shot that depicts them together.
Squick: Wade Wilson's mouth being sewn shut, effectively rendering him the Merc with No Mouth. It's just as unnerving to look at as one might think.
Wade Wilson/Deadpool. After getting the chance to display a weary snarky persona, he's taken out of the film until the climax, where we see that Stryker has basically turned him into an Humanoid Abomination. His mouth being sewn shut essentially robbing him of the sole trait he had in the movie. Luckily, he wouldn't stay wasted forever...
Speaking of which, in regards to Weapon XI, while it's almost a universal opinion that he's possibly the worst adaptation of a comic character to date, a fair few fans thought he could have been interesting if he was an entirely original character without the name "Deadpool" slapped onto him.
One thing that could have saved Barakapool is if Wade still tried to speak with his mouth sewn shut in a muffled voice. It would have been pretty funny and in-character for Deadpool.
Comic fans had been calling for Gambit to show up in the movies since the first X-Men film. When he finally does here he's little more than a built-up throwaway gag.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: So we have the opening scene, which establishes that Logan is indeed older than he appears to be, having been born in the 1800s. So no doubt the movie will take advantage of this immortality-based storytelling device and make the movie about Logan's life leading up to the implantation of his adamantium skeleton, right? Nah, let's just relegate that potentially interesting story into a three minute opening credit sequence in favor of a plot that will ultimately become irrelevant due to the inevitable amnesia Logan will suffer from!
To expand, in the opening scene we're shown Wolverine and Sabertooth fighting side-by-side in the American Civil War, World Wars I & II, and Vietnam. Any of those would have made interesting movies and they're relegated to a 10 minutes sequence.
Took the Bad Film Seriously: Just about everyone did this. Ryan Reynolds and Liev Schreiber in particular stand out, making the most of their roles as Wade Wilson and Sabretooth respectively. Reynolds's performance even got him his own, much better-received spinoff franchise.
The game
Complete Monster (PlayStation 2 & Wii version): Colonel William Stryker is a high-ranking officer within the US Army and the head of the Weapon X project. Having assembled the team of mutants in the past, Stryker uses them to complete his own personal operations, at one point ordering them to massacre a militia within an African village, and then tries to torture information from innocent civilians there about the adamantium that located within the area. When Logan rebelled against him, Stryker knocked him out and then tried to obliterate the village with a nuke. In the present, manipulating Logan to become his subject in the Weapon X program, Stryker experiments on countless humans, transforming them into his mindless brutes who suffer so much that they thank Logan for killing them.
Narm Charm: Wolverine's classic comic suits are wearable. Naturally, the yellow spandex and pointy cowl look absolutely ridiculous in a gritty, ultra-violent game like this. But given just how classic the suits are, not to mention that it was technically Hugh Jackman's only time showing up in the classic yellow suit until 2024, it instead becomes completely awesome.
No Problem with Licensed Games: While not a brilliant game, the video game is a fun, gory hack-and-slash with well-working gameplay mechanics, plenty of fanservice, and expanded plot points. In fact, the game seems to be more well-received than the movie it's based on (as the developers worked on the also-very-well-received X-Men Legends, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, the two most recent titles in the Star Wars Dark Forces Saga and Star Trek: Elite Force, this may not actually be surprising)! Ironically, the story of the game works rather well when it's not trying to follow the plot of the movie. Interestingly, it also ends on a cliffhanger/possible sequel hook that is completely unrelated to the film's plot. Ironically, though, it sets up X-Men: Days of Future Past fairly well except for the future Continuity Snarl that is Trask.
That One Boss: The bonus levels where you fight in Wolverine his various costumes. He's got all the same moves and healing ability as you do, not to mention he has some the player either hasn't unlocked, upgraded or gotten the hang of yet if the challenges are attempted too early. Granted, they get progressively easier as the player progresses and levels up, but the final X-Force Wolverine is tough, even for a fully upgraded player.
Sabretooth, the first time around. Likewise, Victor's also got the exact same abilities as Logan and more, given that the first fight only takes place on the second level, though any player that's replaying the mission after completing the game finds it to be a Curb-Stomp Battle in their favor.
Deadpool, given that he's got decent melee attacks, can counter a lot of Logan's moves, can't take environmental damage and has the extra abilities of teleportation and optic blasts, which he uses to snipe at Logan with from the other side of the final arena.
That One Level: The levels in the Weapon X facility where Logan's healing factor is shut down. Attacks that are minor inconveniences any other time become near fatal, and obviously don't heal anywhere as effectively, forcing the player to get by using stealth and by solving various puzzles.
Vindicated by History: James Mangold loved the game so much that he used the grittiness and goriness in Logan, which is considered to be one of the best superhero drama films of all time.
