The Dream of the 90’s is alive in Hollywood. With Deadpool breaking box office records, moviegoers are ready to accept their new pop culture overlord. But does this new film do justice to one of comics’ most famous characters? Check out our spoiler-free review below to find out.
A lot of people are talking about Deadpool, especially about how it’s breaking ground for R-rated superhero films, the X-Men franchise and just movies in general. In some respects, they’re not totally right. At its core, Deadpool is every action movie you’ve ever seen. Guy loves girlfriend, bad things happen, guy gets girlfriend back from hot British villain. In that respect, Deadpool isn’t exactly charting new territory. And yet, the confidence and style with which Deadpool carries itself is enough to forgive the movie’s cliches and enjoy what might be one of the better interpretations of Marvel’s Merc with a Mouth.
Right from the start, Deadpool shows that it’s not afraid to poke fun at itself. The opening credits forgo actually naming this film’s stars in favor of listing titles like “British Villian” and “CGI Character.” This kind of self-effacing energy is present throughout the whole movie as Deadpool not only openly makes fun of star Ryan Reynolds’ role in Green Lantern and the mouthless character named Deadpool who showed up in Wolverine Origins, but at the rest of the current X-Men franchise. “McAvoy or Stewart?” He asks Colossus, “This timelines are confusing.” Deadpool even pokes fun at his own film’s development, asking why there only ever seems to be two mutants at Xavier’s Mansion before realizing it probably had something to do with the film’s budget.
Thankfully, Deadpool’s fourth-wall breaking never gets obnoxious. Okay, it gets a little annoying but there’s a maniacal energy in the film’s atmosphere and cast that gives a wonderful sense of danger to the film. Deadpool never feels lazy in the way other parodies do where they kind of just sit back and make fun of films that are better than theirs, especially since this movie’s general plot is pretty by the books. Wade Wilson’s a bad man who finds a bad woman to love him, he gets cancer and leaves to get cured, and ends up with powers, a thirst for revenge, and a fiancee to save. That’s the kind of story that sounds like a parody from Regular Show, but Deadpool‘s focus on character and visuals saves the whole thing and allows it to make the jokes that would just highlight another movie’s problems.
For one, Deadpool’s love interest Vanessa, played by Morena Baccarat feels like a real person, more than other “I’m-Not-A-Damsel-In-Distress-Because-Said-So-But-For-Real-I’m-Just-Here-To-Get-Saved” characters do. The relationship she builds with Deadpool in the movie’s flashbacks feel like the genuine sparks of a relationship. And the sequence where Wade and Vanessa’s relationship grows over the course of the year might be my favorite moment of this film. If only because we’re at a place in 2016 where a major superhero movie can feature the main character getting pegged. That’s progress. Even when the film’s supporting cast aren’t giving it to Ol’ Wade, they’re strong characters in their own right. TJ Miller’s Weasel is a perfect sidekick who makes it clear how far his allegiances lie. And Leslie Uggams’ Blind Al steals all five minutes her cocaine loving self shows up in.
Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the film’s more super powered cast. Colossus makes for a fun Russian bear character (even if he should have been played by WWE’s Rusev) and Brianna Hildebrand’s Negasonic Teenage Warhead is a wonderful unattached foil to Deadpool’s manic ravings. Unfortunately, they feel more like foils for Deadpool, a contrast between Deadpool’s “fun” movie and whatever the X-Men are now. Likewise, the main villains, Ed Skrein‘s Ajax and Gian Carano’s Angel Dust, are just kind of there to make faces and kidnap Deadpool’s loved ones. Like the X-Men, they’re less characters and more means to an end: pushing Deadpool enough to the edge that he stops being the clown charger and becomes the sort of compelling antihero that you could build a franchise around.
Continued belowGood news: they accomplished that. Ryan Reynolds has basically spent the past decade petitioning for anyone to let him be in a real Deadpool movie and I’m so glad his plan worked out. Reynolds’ Deadpool has everything you would expect: the violence, the gags, the chimichangas. But he’s also a completely broken human which works so god damn well for Deadpool. Like the film itself, Deadpool isn’t some Bugs Bunny character who’s above everyone. He’s a crazy dude who was driven so insane that he thinks he’s a comic book character. Okay, that last part is true, but Wade came upon that due to being tortured for days on end, not because being self-aware would be really funny. Still, Wade Wilson feels more human than he’s been regularly portrayed, closer to the guy trying to pull his life together in the current comic run than any other version. While Deadpool does a poor job setting up its villains as anything other than villains, it does a wonderful job in using them to establish Wade Wilson as a three-dimensional character that’s more than his cock-centric humor.
Okay, Deadpool is pretty cock-centric, with all the masturbation scenes you could expect from a character who once spent an entire issue spanking it off-panel. If you’re not a big fan of potty humor, then you might be turned off by Deadpool’s constant ball fondling. Even then, the speed of the script’s one-liners, and the viciousness the cast spits them out with, is nothing if not admirable.
If you’re more squeamish when it comes to blood and guts though, you might want to bring a blindfold for Deadpool’s fights. Deadpool milks its R-rating for all its worth when it comes to slaughtering goons, British bad guys, and Deadpool himself. Aside from him getting mutilated, burnt to a crisp, and breaking all the bones in his limbs, there’s tons of gunshot wounds and gratuitous stabbings. The action scenes are all cleverly shot, with plenty of movement that lets you follow the action without feeling completely lost.
Unfortunately, Deadpool‘s action loses its pace when it comes to its flashbacks to Deadpool’s origins. The script smartly cuts between the highway scene you’ve spotted in every trailer and Wade’s transformation into Deadpool. It’s better than just speeding through Wade’s background and much better than stretching it out to cover the entire film, giving enough time for Wade and his supporting unit to develop as characters, but it causes all the scenes at the highway to feel like filler until the script catches up to the present day. Still, a little slowdown is worth it for the montage of Deadpool tracking down his rival’s whereabouts. You know that bit from Austin Powers with the guy about to get run over by the slow cement roller? Deadpool outdoes it. By a lot.
Final Verdict: 8.8 – Deadpool follows a lot of cliches, sure, but does so to really dig deep into everything that makes Deadpool’s character work. It’s not a perfect movie, but an incredibly fun and violent romp that highlights everything good about the Merc with a Mouth. Also, I added a full number onto this score because Deadpool makes a Notting Hill reference which, along with pegging, is what super hero movies need more of.
