I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a film that is so at odds with the things I hold valuable in cinema, or art and entertainment in general, as Deadpool & Wolverine. The latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to have been made by people who care less about the quality of the finished product and are more focused on cost-cutting and production efficiency.

In their effort to maximize the ratio of cameos to the film’s running time, the filmmakers seem to have forgotten every other aspect of filmmaking. Every corner has been cut where possible, shots are not edited so much as thrown together in a vaguely sequential manner, and the visual effects are overused and completely unconvincing.

The film’s aesthetic was a huge disappointment, to say the least. While I’ll probably never be able to confirm this from the director, I’m assuming the lighting budget was completely slashed to ensure Chris Evans gets a paycheck, because every scene is lit as if it’s taking place in a Walmart. The composition is unimaginative and the colors are dull. Even the title characters’ bright red and yellow costumes look washed out.

The few times director Shawn Levy tries to make images that are more expressive than close-ups are laughable. From what I’ve seen, Levy simply seems to be adopting the style of superior filmmakers who have used the same techniques more effectively and in better films. What Levy produces just feels hollow coming from him. None of the choices Levy has made add value to the material, and they feel out of place and disconnected from the rest of the film.

Characters like Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Dafne Keen’s X-23, and Wesley Snipes’ Blade seem not just lifeless, but dead. These recurring characters seem more like intellectual property than people, defined not by emotions but by their status as familiar products being resold to an eager audience.

Aside from the three previously mentioned, every character reintroduced in Deadpool & Wolverine hails from some reviled relic of the early 2000s, before the MCU superhero craze. Even though this is a Deadpool movie — which of course means there are some jabs at the characters’ historical irrelevance — these scathing moments are overshadowed by the film’s attempts to elevate them and turn previously failed characters into gods.

Deadpool & Wolverine is, above all, an insult. It’s a film that assumes its audience doesn’t care that it fails to meet the most basic standards of competence we should expect from a film so long as it feeds us an endless stream of recognizable things.

Perhaps the craziest part is that the film would be infinitely better if the filmmakers had put even a modicum of care or respect into the film. Rather than evoking emotion and entertainment through well-crafted cinematography and clever writing, Deadpool & Wolverine takes the easier, dumber route, overwhelming the viewer with a barrage of content until we are forced into submission.