Movie Review: Deadpool

A one-time Success Story

Deadpool (2016): A former Special Forces operative turned mercenary is subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopting the alter ego Deadpool.

Look. I'm not gonna lie. I'm getting a little burned out with superhero movies. I mean they're fun movies, no doubt, but none of them try and differentiate themselves from the rest. They just star whatever charismatic actor they cast, they play a character that's essentially the same as every other superhero, and the film makes boatloads of money because Hollywood executives know that's what Millennials want right now. However, that is not the case with Deadpool. Deadpool defies all the norms we've grown to expect from the superhero genre, and delivers a great breath of fresh air to this extremely bloated genre. But, as much as Hollywood execs will try and reproduce the success of Deadpool, it's never going to happen. It won't even happen in Deadpool 2. Hopefully in this review I will be able to explain why I believe this to be the case. So let's go!

I'll make this an unconventional review. After all, that's what Deadpool does, right? I really have to commend the writing staff. They did not hold back with the jokes in Deadpool. They swung for the fences, and while in my opinion a few of the jokes were a little over the top, for the most part they hit it out of the ballpark. But, more importantly than that I think, is how the writing staff/newbie director Tim Miller tried to use a wide variety of jokes. From the opening captions to visual humor to self referential humor, this film had it all. This film really felt like an Edgar Wright film at times, and that is by far the highest compliment I can give a comedy in this day and age. About the only thing it was missing was Simon Pegg. However Ryan Reynolds was a more than capable lead, playing the Deadpool people had been clamoring for ever since he was butchered in X-Men Origins. Another thing that factored into the one-time success was the budget. 20th Century Fox only gave this film a $60 million budget (in comparison Avengers: Infinity War has a rumored budget of $1 BILLION) and the writers were smart enough to make a parody of this fact. They also made the great move of not spending that money on big-name actors: other than Ryan Reynolds, there are no high profile actors on this list. I mean Morena Baccarin and TJ Miller might be familiar to some, they are by no means A-list actors. Even Ant-Man couldn't help but cast Michael Douglas in their movie. And with Cable being the announced villain of Deadpool 2, odds are Fox will follow this trend and cast some big-name actor in this role, completely missing one of the key ingredients of the success of Deadpool: it feels like a B movie that invested all its money into its lead making A-level movie money. Another thing that adds to the novelty of Deadpool is the blood. This will no doubt be adopted in other superhero movies: since Deadpool has shown that you can make money with a film that reaches for that "R" rating and doesn't settle for the stupid (and frankly, should not exist) PG-13 rating, Hollywood execs will not hesitate to incorporate blood into future superhero movies. Heck, Warner Brothers is probably asking if they can add lots of blood in Batman v. Superman right now. Disney likely is too for Captain America: Civil War. We'll definitely see it by Suicide Squad and Doctor Strange. Point is, by the time Deadpool 2 rolls around this novelty will be gone, also removing some of the "perfect storm" mix that we got here in Deadpool.

I'm sorry I sound so cynical, it's just hard for me to get excited about this genre nowadays. There's so much corporate goo behind the scenes that it really makes me sad. I'm terrified this is what will become of me with my beloved Star Wars franchise, but right now we are in the Iron Man 1 days of that series. I'll be quite sad when Episode IX rolls around and Disney announces 6 more Star Wars movies. Anyway, I think another thing that was novel in this film that we won't see again is how it made fun of the fact that it was in the X-Men cinematic universe. The jokes revolving this were absolutely some of the best of the film, and I'm sure next time around Fox will invest all this money in bringing in several members of the X-Men franchise to have cameos in Deadpool 2. Not even Ant-Man could help itself from having a big name Marvel cameo, which I couldn't help but look at as Marvel just circle-jerking itself.

I think I'm just gonna stop now. Ultimately, Deadpool is a blast no doubt. The movie is just mindless fun, but it takes mindless fun to a whole new level, which is a good thing! Mindless fun needed a bit of a shakeup. However, it is by no means a perfect film. The visuals are bland, the acting around Ryan Reynolds is just ok, and the love story between Reynolds and Baccarin was just fine. I'm definitely not as big on that love story as others are, but it's definitely the best love story I've seen in a superhero movie. Course that's basically damning with feint praise but you know......

Anywho, that's all I got. Go ahead and hate me for not thinking Deadpool is the greatest film ever created. It's a good film, but nothing more. Go ahead and hate me for being cynical in the superhero genre. But it's all true, and you hate me because you know I'm right. Let's move on and not think about superhero movies for an entire month.

​The Critique: A perfect storm of novelty and no-holds-barred humor, Deadpool is a fun and exciting addition to a genre that desperately needed something to shake things up.

The Recommendation: DO NOT TAKE YOUR KIDS TO SEE THIS MOVIE. That's all I'm gonna say here because everyone in the world has already seen this, but DO NOT TAKE YOUR KIDS TO SEE THIS MOVIE. It is a HARD R.

Rewatchability: High

The Verdict: 7/10 Good.
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Image Credit
​https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8QZmuba7OQQ/maxresdefault.jpg