I'm giving this anthology 2.5 stars because I only enjoyed 2.5 segments (counting the intro)...but the Miller and Dante segments were fun enough to outweigh the others and earn the whole thing a gentleman's Like.
...Also, it IS fucking wild that they decided to edit around the real-life deaths of three human beings instead of just cutting Landis' segment entirely.
I thought it would be a bit more surreal and dreamlike, but that was pretty much limited to the first act. Most of the movie is about *reactions* to the disappearance, rather than the disappearance itself. Not precisely what I expected, but still very affecting, and beautifully filmed.
If Endgame was a meta-movie doing a victory lap of all of the previous MCU films and rewarding audiences for emotionally investing in the project, then Deadpool 3 is a META-meta-movie unpacking all the drama the Marvel IP has gone through over the last 25 years and rewarding audiences for paying attention to copyright/licensing issues and the machinations of the studio system.
A fitting--occasionally even tender--sendoff for Fox's X-Men universe, and a perfectly enjoyable popcorn flick.
Broadly speaking, it's a competently made but not groundbreaking horror short. Structurally and thematically nothing special, and IMO the creature design is a little uninspired.
But it's hard to complain about that, because the short primarily functions as a showcase for a simple but *very* effective visual/spatial concept, realized just about perfectly and achieved with mostly practical techniques. Worth it just for that.
