Deadpool Review

Written by: Andy Scott

108 min  |  Action, Adventure, Comedy

Release Date: February 12th, 2016

Director: Tim Miller

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T.J. Miller

I had the pleasure of checking out a screening of Deadpool over Valetine's Day weekend with an old budddy of mine while my wife and her sister worked on wedding decorations.  I was more than happy to get out of the house.  While I have introduced my wife to superhero movies and she loves the Avengers, this would not have been a movie she would have enjoyed.  And that's just fine with me.  She isn't a huge fan of extreme violence, crude humor or adult language.  Well that describes the character of Deadpool to a tee and the movie actually delivers what it claimed it would: an R-rated no holds barred all out violent dark humor fourth wall breaking Deadpool flick!

Deadpool is a very fast, tight story filled with all the action, violence, and adult humor one could ask for.  Starring Ryan Reynolds as the merc with the mouth, Wade Wilson.   Reynolds reprises his role as the same character, at least the introduction part, from X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Fan's have been demanding the return of Reynolds ever since 2009 when Origins bombed miserably.  After the extreme alterations to the character the fans wanted a proper Deadpool movie.  And the filmmakers were actually listening for a change.

The story at it's simplest is an origin tale mixed with a revenge story.  Wade Wilson (Reynolds) is a smart assed mercenary-for-hire who becomes diagnosed with cancer.  Not able to accept what this will do to his girlfriend (Morena Baccarin), he enrolls in a special mutant medial procedure in order to cure himself of his deadly disease.  In the process he aquires his accelerated healing ability but at a price, his entire body become horribly disfigured.  Tricked and tortured, Wade takes on the name Deadpool and goes after the man (Ed Skrein) who subjected him to the procedures, believing he is his only hope to fix the physically crippling side effect of his powers.  The story is tight and simple and it works.  We have seen enough origin tales but the backstory of the character takes place in flashbacks which oddly enough doesn't drag down the main story.  There are supporting X-Men characters involved to frame this movie in the X-Men universe and also I suspect to set up future Deadpool sequels.

Wade is not your typical good guy, ok he doesn't even want you to like him, but you just can't help but smile at his charm and cheer him on. This is obviously Reynolds's movie to shine and does he ever!  He is fantastically sharp, dark and edgy as our main anti-hero.  Reynolds's has receieved a lot of credit for his role here and it is well deserved.   Morena Baccarin does her job well, playing Wade's girlfriend Vanessa.  She isn't your typical dense damsel-in-distress and her character works well alongside Wade.  T.J. Miller stars as Weasel, Wade's seemingly only friend.  Miller does what he does best playing the funny sidekick buddy and it gives the film a lot of funny banter.  Ed Skrein plays the main villain Ajax.  While not particularly interesting of a character, Skrein still did a fine job with the script and played himself as the all business up-to-no-good bad guy.

Visually the movie is very intense, action-packed and lots of quick cuts.  The action is solid, violent and over-the-top (just not as far as a Tarantino flick)  I heard they made this with a small budget but I have to say that it really doesn't show.  Even one of the supporting characters is entirely CGI but the effects were pretty good considering you're watching a giant Capri Sun man kick some ass.

What Works:

The merc with the mouth is back and finally in the Deadpool movie we deserve!  The movie is fast-paced, fun, violent, and smart.  Deadpool was made for superhero comic and film fans.  There is a constant barrage of very twisted and funny inside jokes and references that you will only get if you have been keeping up with many of the superhero films in the last twenty years.  We are talking X-Men jokes, Marvel pokes, DC snides and everything in-between.  Deadpool is a character who is very much aware of the fact he is inside a superhero movie and as a result he is constantly breaking the fourth wall and critiquing the whole movie he knows he's starring in.  The result is a refreshing spin on the superhero genre. 

What Doesn't Work: 

The main antagonist of the film, Ajax (Skrein) is not that interesting of a super villain.  While there is a lot of good opportunity at comedy relief between him and Wade, Ajax just isn't that menacing, threatening or even exciting to me.  Also the film falls into one of my biggest complaints of many superhero movies; the super villians possess very similar super abilities as the super heros.  While a balance of power makes sense thematically, cinematically it's just kind of boring.  What ends of happening often is the good guy fights the bad guy for awhile, constantly getting into a standstill until the good guy gets lucky and is able to win the fight. 

Final Thoughts:

Deadpool isn't the number one movie in the box office for no reason.  If you're a fan of superhero movies and/or comics you're going to want to check this out.  Being able to make an R-rated movie, the filmmakers were able to give proper justice to the character.  Deadpool is a fun superhero film for adults; it's as simple as that.  While I was in the movie I clearly remember thinking that this movie was made for me.  And it was completely tailored for the fans.  It will be interesting to see how this becomes a game changer to the genre and hopefully we see more adult-themed superhero movies in the near future.

Final Score: 4 / 5