REVIEW: Deadpool
From the studio that seems to master re-doing things, Deadpool finally arrived and beared all of its…glory. And I mean that in every way. It couldn’t possibly measure up to the stacks of superhero team-up films with twice the budget for more than five characters, but you’ll be sure to remember the film long after Civil War. So may your theater be cleared of any kids below eight and enjoy the review for Deadpool.
Deadpool at its core is still also an origin story, or reboot depending on the universe, so that requires a backstory. Wade Wilson is a mercenary, who after 41 confirmed kills, now makes his living threatening creeps away from teenaged girls. At a bar, he meets the stripper Vanessa, and the two bond over their generally shitty lives and love of sex. After a while, they finally decide to tie the knot only to have Wilson succumb to life-threatening cancer.
A shady man offers Wilson a chance to live by working on a secret project to mutate his body (fun comic fact: Deadpool’s not technically a mutant but a mutate, so he doesn’t have his powers until this movie). After being endlessly tortured and disfigured by project leader Ajax AKA Francis, Wilson emerges with his new abilities but feels as though he could never return to Vanessa after leaving her and coming back looking like Freddy Krueger had sex with the topographical map of Utah (fun line, not gonna lie). Because of that, he now plans to hunt down Francis in an effort to hopefully find a cure for his treatment all while under a new costume and mantle of Deadpool.
If that sounds like some kind of rom-com superhero origin story nonsense, it is. I won’t go around that that’s probably the biggest flaw in Deadpool, but it’s a flaw that’s existed since the dawn of time…in 2002 when Spider-Man made them things again. It’s somewhat a shame seeing as throughout the movie, Weasel and Vanessa are the only real characters who seem to hold their own against Wilson as characters rather than casual straight men with their own twisted sense of humor. Because of that, the movie’s still far away from being a problem, and the action and humor far make up for the opening.
It wouldn’t be Deadpool without its humor, and Deadpool’s humor ranges from the crude, the violent, the fourth-wall breaking, and the sixteenth-wall breaking. It’s that intense when you remember the fact that Marvel superhero films were never lacking in humor in the first place and still call Deadpool the funniest. I wouldn’t be doing justice to spoiling the material or even trying to say them, but there is one involving a regenerating baby hand and what to do with it. That is basically the epitome of the movie.
To be sure, Deadpool definitely knows it’s a movie, one that was years in the making and suffered a bit at the hands of a guy whose name rhymes with Pulverine. It’s also just as confused at the alternate X-Men timelines and wishes it had the same budget for more than two admittedly eye-catching Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. While they weren’t the best mutants I’ve seen portrayed on screen, it’s nice how the movie at least opens itself to a world of new mutants, down to the costumes and superpowers.
One thing is for sure, Ryan Reynolds is now Deadpool. In every scene, costume or not, he embodies the character to perfection much like the Hugh Jackmans and Robert Downey Jrs of the universe, and it will be almost impossible to replace him in the future. He’s a living speech bubble to the iconic character and clearly has fun doing it. For me, it’s one thing to watch an actor who’s good in his role, but it’s another to clearly tell that the project’s a blast. It makes the film even more enjoyable without any guilt or regret, even in spite of its R-rated baseness.
While Deadpool is probably not the most exciting Marvel film to come out over the decade, it manages to somehow create a stable story for Deadpool to revel in himself. I have briefly had concern over what a film would have beyond Deadpool simply being Deadpool for 100 minutes, but there is a good bit of plot that can at least push Wilson into the story for the rest to occur. It’s sort of like a video game except the filmmakers clearly have a heart on for the jokes and visible bullet wounds. While they were still a bit restricted in setting up the origin story, that leaves even more promise for the sequel where even weirder things could happen like the time-travelling, square-jawed mutant Cable who has been promised to appear.
Deadpool’s a fantastic new movie which gives me some hope for the new league of mutants to follow the X-Men. It’s also not a half-bad rom-com superhero origin story. Taking a date to that will be a lot better than the chocolate you see on sale at Walgreens. Have a fantastic Valentine’s Day with the one you love most…Ryan Reynolds in tight red leather.
