What to Expect in Deadpool
Guess what’s coming on the 12th? The anniversary of the beginning of the construction of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, that’s what. Unfortunately, I couldn’t write a review or preview article about that, so we’re going to talk about Deadpool instead. While this won’t include any facts about 1960’s architecture, this will look into the rare sight of an R-rated Marvel movie based on the fourth-wall-breaking, merc-mouthing mutant himself Deadpool. Deadpool doesn’t need a plot, but for some movie-purists, I’ll at least provide a semblance of what’s happening.
For those of you who weren’t subjected to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, or those of you who were for that matter, here’s a recap of the character. Former special forces operative Wade Wilson is diagnosed with the life-threatening movie cancer and enters into the memorable Weapon X program in order to have a chance to survive. While the process horribly scars his body and loses his lady love, it also grants him a regenerative healing ability and apparently the ability to break the fourth wall. With his powers, he plans to take revenge out on the people responsible for his treatment and find his future baby mama with all the gratuitous violence.
Along this way, he crosses paths with some of the X-Men, mostly a re-casted but until-now-ignored Colossus and New Mutant (and I mean New Mutant) Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Of course, there are still other mutants to deal with such as the baddie responsible Ajax, his right-hand lady Angel Dust, and even Wade’s girl Vanessa AKA the mutant Copycat. Even the humans of Deadpool have some kind of weird attachment such as Blind Al and Weasel. I guess being in Deadpool also requires you to have some kind of odd nickname, even for the X-Men.
As far as predictions for what could happen in the movie go, I can’t say. This is Deadpool, after all. I’m half-expecting them to go down the it-was-all-a-dream route just to see the reaction. Or at least something that could change the entire last twenty-five minutes of the movie. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it really puts a damper on this article. The only thing really guaranteed is a Stan Lee cameo, and that’s just something that not even the power of Deadpool could change.
The most significant thing about this movie besides the first decent live-action adaptation of the character is the additional extension of the X-Men cinematic universe. Granted, this isn’t the exact same Colossus from the original trilogy, and I doubt that any significant X-Men who’s threatened to die in Apocalypse will deign to show themselves here. From what Wolverine did to Deadpool, I doubt he even deserves that. All I’m saying is that I doubt we’ll see any familiar mutants.
Seeing Deadpool somewhere else, however, isn’t impossible. Apocalypse is a big movie, the Infinity War of the X-Men world it looks like, and one literal wink to the audience wouldn’t be that hard to do in a world that had Scott and Jean inexplicably return in Days of Future Past. Plus, come on, we all know Deadpool will make it out of this film alive, even if he’s beheaded again. They wouldn’t even reference that happening before, but couldn’t you imagine that? Either way, Deadpool’s part of the X-Men world now. It would be a nice time to act like it.
If we’re talking sequels now, after the obligatory “we’ll-see-what-happens” talk, there are a few ways they could go. Of course, it would still go the standard meta, ultra-violent attitude that Deadpool works with (we’ll see how that works at 100 minutes), but there are other angles in the Deadpool mythology to try. The biggest one, the one this writer wants, is ultimately the introduction of Cable whose rugged seriousness perfectly complements Deadpool’s stuff. This would also perfectly set-up the introduction to the X-Force which would have to happen to try something after the end of the world in Apocalypse. It would actually depend on how this movie ends to determine what Cable and Deadpool would be up to, but that’s the next obvious step for the character and the X-Men.
Deadpool might not be the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, but it’s a balls-to-the-wall R-rated Marvel movie. That’s even rarer. It’s great to have a change from the regular, though impressive, standard of the MCU, or even the hit-or-miss of the Fox/X-Men movies. Maybe this could be the start of the new X-Men as we know it. Maybe it could suck. It’s already accomplished something by being banned in China. That’s already promotion for the sequel. Coming to a theater near you…except in China.
