When Van Wilder graduated Coolidge, looks like he became a superhero, sort of. Deadpool is fun, crazy entertainment; it is also extremely profane and snarky, giving some much needed levity to a self-important superhero genre. Ryan Reynolds finally found his perfect starring role, and he gets to hook up with Morena Baccarin in the process, lucky bastard.
Before he became Deadpool, Wade Wilson (Reynolds) was a thug for hire helping sad people fend off sadder skeevers and pervs. His life gets a jolt of awesome when he meets Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), the nerd wet dream incarnate. As soon as they fall in love, he gets cancer, and runs away to get treatment from a man who calls himself Ajax (Ed Skrein). The treatment turns Wilson into a hideous mutant, but as he tries to confront Ajax, Deadpool’s creator kidnaps Vanessa for insurance, leading to a final fight between an asshole, the love interest, and a British villain, with supporting characters.
Deadpool’s style resembles Kick-Ass on steroids meets Arrested Development. Not only is Ryan Reynolds winking at the audience, he grabs the camera and points and cheers at what cool things he did. The movie opens with him mocking his own persona and box office failings, debricking the 4th wall consistently (particularly amusing are the jabs at the X-Men actors). In the comics, this snarkiness is who Deadpool is, but the writers also tap into multiple sources for evisceration. Reynolds had tried to get Deadpool made for over a decade, with the Fox studios standing in the way. Fatefully, this studio battle fits Deadpool like the final piece to a puzzle, giving the movie’s attitude the bite of a pit bull, creating buckets of laughter in the process.
As much as superhero movies are really fun, the connected universe aspects leave the viewers exhausted from reference catch up and tired storytelling, like origin stories, final battles, and moral ambiguity. Deadpool distorts these normal prisms enough to make this particular superhero more enjoyable than normal. While Deadpool is an origin story, the twisted outlook morphs the creation into almost an afterthought with the winking and shots of a hot Morena Baccarin. The haughty superhero is openly morally indifferent (even encouraging one character to kill another for extremely petty reasons), and rebuffs condescendingly any support given by the X-Men. Most importantly, Deadpool just wants to live his comfy life, and only fight for the continuance of it. As such the stakes are cosmically low; the final battle is solely for revenge, and has no Earth endangering effects whatsoever. With such low stakes there are no lingering questions of support (except why the police aren’t more involved) from other ably powered people, so you can just strap in and enjoy yourself.
Ryan Reynolds has been accused as a superhero box office poison for his presence in films with pathetic material like Green Lantern, Blade: Trinity (though he was good in it), and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The fundamental mistake was timing: Reynolds is not the stoic everyman, but an emotionally stunted man boy. Deadpool finds his sweet spot perfectly; his “I’m a bad wittle boy” delivery hits hard and often. Casting directors should take note, this is who Reynolds can play to make you the big money. Morena Baccarin worked with this material before on Firefly, where she was also a prostitute, coincidentally. She’s at home as well, carrying enough heart for people to get close only to push them away with a great comeback. TJ Miller easily fits in as the “gay sidekick,” Brianna Hildebrand makes the most of her “studio mandated tie-in,” and Leslie Uggams is great as the “old, but crippled, mentor.” The weak spot here is the 2 bad guys; Gina Carano is a fighter that only Steven Soderbergh could make look great, and Ed Skrein is sufficiently British, and that’s it.
Deadpool’s essence is preserved all the way through to the end credits, where there’s a great 80’s spoof perfectly fitting the character. The latest superhero to enter the ring would be content to just wander around the outside and get the quick pin and get out. A word of caution, DO NOT BRING KIDS TO SEE THIS MOVIE, they will be emotionally, mentally, and sexually scarred by Deadpool.
there was a 2 year old on a mom’s lap in my theater… poor kid