Twentieth Century Fox
Way back in 2009, Ryan Reynolds was first introduced to the world as the comic book character Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Except, the filmmakers took the motor-mouthed anti-superhero and did the unforgivable by taking away the one thing that made him unique in the Marvel Comics universe — his mouth. The character’s nickname isn’t The Merc With the Mouth for nothing.
After that debacle, Reynolds moved over to the DC Comics universe to take on the role of Green Lantern in what was supposed to be the launch of a new franchise. It wasn’t. Then one day out of nowhere, someone “leaked” some alleged test footage of Reynolds once again taking on the role of Deadpool, but this time in all of his profane glory. The internet went nuts and not long after, 20th Century Fox announced they would go ahead with a feature film. It all happened to fast and furious that one has to wonder if the studio hadn’t already been shooting the film prior to the “leak.”
And now Deadpool has arrived and it’s safe to say it does not disappoint. Full disclosure: I have no nostalic connection to the comic book character and knew very little about him prior to the film, so any analysis here is based purely on the film. Your mileage may vary if you adhere to the comic canon.
When we first meet Wade Wilson, he’s a mercenary who takes on some very odd jobs like scaring a teen-aged boy away from his client, a teen-aged girl. Well, let’s back that up a bit. When we first meet Wade as Deadpool, he’s in the middle of a high-speed car chase that quickly escalates into chaos, all while being humorously narrated by Deadpool. The film then rewinds to the scaring the boy, and then introduced us properly to Wade at a merc dive bar, where he then meets Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), a woman men pay good money to spend an evening with. But the two find a real connection and try to make a normal lives for themselves until …
Wade is diagnosed with cancer. With little hope of survival. Vanessa tells him she wants to ride this out with him, but he eventually sneaks off in the middle of the night without a word, leaving her heartbroken. Meanwhile, he is approached by a mysterious man who makes him an offer of a cure. Wade takes some time to think about it, but finally takes the plunge only to learn the cure comes with some consequences (disfigurement, immortality) and a catch — he’s going to be sold into slavery as someone’s supervillain henchman. Wade escapes the lab after a fight with the man responsible for his transformation, Ajax (Ed Skrein), and spends the rest of the movie trying to atone for his sins and to get revenge on the people who made him into a monster.
Twentieth Century Fox
This sounds like a pretty straight-forward superhero movie, but it is far from straight-forward. As we see right from the start, the film is never going to take itself seriously, and will quite often break the fourth wall to let the audience know they are watching a movie as Deadpool will address the viewers directly on many occasions. The film also pokes fun at (more like brutally stabs) 20th Century Fox for what they did to Deadpool the first time around, as well as making references to his ill-fated Green Lantern series, and scattering a ton of pop culture references throughout the movie (and keep an eye out late in the film for what looks to be the helicarrier from Captain America: The Winter Soldier). There are also plenty of references to Reynolds himself, Hugh Jackman and the X-Men films (as Deadpool is firmly set in the X-Men cinematic universe … although a sort of low-budget version).
Reynolds has proven himself adept at comedy and physical action in films like Blade: Trinity, Van Wilder, and Just Friends and showed off his dramatic chops in Buried and The Amityville Horror (he was even on a season three episode of The X-Files). Playing Deadpool has finally given him the chance to take everything he’s ever done, mashed it all together with his own persona, and put it all up on screen in the role he was born to play (think of it as a live action Bugs Bunny movie with cursing and extreme violence). He’s got the snark and the action down pat, and he really makes you feel for Wade as he’s dealing with possibly losing his life and the love of his life. The really is no one else who could play this part.
Everyone in the cast does a terrific job of bringing their characters to life, from Baccarin to T.J. Miller to a surprising Leslie Uggams as Blind Al (I seriously had no idea that was Leslie Uggams). Deadpool also has one of the best opening credits sequence of any film I’ve ever seen, with very snarky ways to list the cast (A British Villain instead of Ed Skrein, for example) and crew (Directed by An Overpaid Hack). It’s visually stunning as the camera weaves through the frozen carnage of the opening scene and laugh-out-loud funny with the on screen text. Be sure to stay for the equally funny end credits and post-credit stinger.
I can’t really do the film justice by attempting to review or describe it since it is a very unique creature unto itself. I can say I had a helluva good time watching it, laughing at the comedy, appreciating the breaking of the fourth wall, hanging on to the edge of my seat during the action, and really feeling the emotion of Wade and Vanessa’s relationship. The hard R rating (for language, violence and brief nudity) may be a turn-off for some moviegoers — and please, please, please do not bring young children to this movie — and fans of the comics may have minor issues with the film, but overall Deadpool totally achieves what it set out to do, and audiences should be very happy with the results.
Deadpool has a run time of 1 hour 48 minutes, and is rated R for strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity.
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