MovieMan Movie Reviews "Deadpool"

DEADPOOL
Nominated for 8 MTV Movie Awards = Best Movie, Best Male Performance (Ryan Reynolds), Best Female Performance (Morena Baccarin), Best Comedic Performance (Ryan Reynolds), Best Female Performance (Morena Baccarat & Ryan Reynolds), Best Villain (Ed Skrein), Best Action Performance (Ryan Reynolds), Best Fight (Ryan Reynolds vs. Ed Skrein)

Running time: 108 minutes

Rated: R (for strong violence and language throughout; sexual content and graphic nudity)

Distributed by: 20th Century Fox/Marvel Entertainment

Release Date: February 12, 2016

After years in the making, the Marvel comic property “Deadpool” finally graces the big screen in all its fantastic glory. However it is a unique take on the superhero genre for two reasons: 1) it’s an action comedy and 2) unlike most superhero flicks nowadays that garner a PG-13 rating (ahem, looking at you Disney), this one delivers a hard R that does deliver when it comes to foul language and plenty of gore. It gains an edge because, like it’s comic counterpart, it lampoons the already tired (but still enjoyable) genre and delivers on it’s promise by having the character break the fourth-wall throughout it’s 108 minute running time, either critiquing the film’s tiresome formulaic plot structure or badmouthing the characters and their dire situations, and is widely known by the comic’s nickname of “The Merc with a Mouth”.

The “Merc with the Mouth” in the movie version is played to perfection by Ryan Reynolds, who not only redeems himself after a string of comic-book misfires, but also resurrects the character after a failed brief (but very amusing) cameo appearance in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”. Reynolds plays Wade Wilson, a retired wise-cracking mercenary who turns into the masked vigilante Deadpool to get revenge against mutants Ajax (Ed Skreig) and Angel Dust (Gina Carano). The movie’s first half parodies the origin story angle that superhero movies set up: Wade finds out he is diagnosed with late-stage terminal cancer, and a mysterious recruiter offers him a choice that will ultimately save his life. The end result wipes away the cancer and also gives him the mutant power of regeneration, but also leaves him horribly disfigured in the process. He spends the next year training as Deadpool and working his way up the chain in order to confront Ajax. It’s a pretty good way to open a movie, and it does provide a unique twist on the superhero angle by having a main action sequence and Deadpool showing the audience the events that led him “here” (to which he refers to as the beginning of the film/major action sequence.) The film loses steam during the second half, in which Wade’s stripper girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarat) gets kidnapped by the villains. 

I’ve never read the “Deadpool” comics, but the comics itself was sort-of revolutionary when introduced in the early 1990s by parodying certain comic book techniques. The traditional fourth-wall bending is part of the character’s off-key brand of humor, and that is what made the character so popular and stand out from the rest. Now that it’s taken him this long for a proper adaptation for the character, it’s long overdue as it is a little unnecessary at the same time. However, this is to say I loved this a little more than the “wanna-be” superhero action-comedy “Kick-Ass” a while back. The jokes seem to work for a while, but when it’s used at the right time it proves to be a laugh-out loud hilarity. Deadpool even throws some jokes at the expense of two of the X-Men: the cool name sounding Colossus (a motion-capture performance by Stefan Kapcic) and the even cooler-name sounding Nagasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), who show up here to try and intervene but end up joining out hero on his quest for justice.

First-time director Tim Miller does a highly-effective job when it comes to the energetic action sequences and the comic delivering. The cast does a great job, and all settle into their characters with ease: both Reynolds and Hildebrand nail it with their deadpan portrayals, one that plays to its advantage when they both bounce their quirky insults off of each other, and Colossus is a CGI character that Fox finally gets right after their failed attempts with the character in previous “X-Men” movies. While the movie itself may fulfill to every die-hard comic movie lover’s dream, it somehow falls a little flat during the film’s final act as it follows the “superhero playbook” while at the same time lampooning the genre itself. Still, it’s fun and energetic as superhero films go.