“Deadpool” is one of those “once in a blue moon” R-rated superhero movies in a sea of PG-13 connected universe films.
“Deadpool” is the first R-rated comic book movie set within an established universe (“X-Men” film universe), and after having its first draft and test footage leaked online, the film is finally out in theaters.
Ryan Reynolds’ comic book movie career is similar to that of a major league batter’s. He gets two strikes from being in starring roles in “Green Lantern” and “R.I.P.D.” before he hits a homerun with “Deadpool,”where his quick witticisms and charm fits as the Merc with the Mouth.
Deadpool goes into a vengeance-fueled killing spree as he searches for Ajax (Ed Skrein), the bad guy-archetype who turned Deadpool’s face into a mix of mashed potatoes and feces. While “X-Men”’s Weapon X program is briefly mentioned in the beginning, the film doesn’t waste time on any of that franchise’s mutant rights and instead focuses more on Deadpool’s origin story and his desire for placing a bullet between Ajax’s eyes.
However, unlike the “X-Men” films, the villains don’t pose a huge threat against Deadpool and instead the film falls back into the uninspired trope of kidnapping the love interest, Vanessa (“Firefly”’s Morena Baccarin).
Even then, the relationship between Deadpool and Vanessa is more than just a tacked-on Hollywood romance. Both Deadpool and Vanessa grew up in harsh households, and their relationship becomes more endearing, especially as it progresses from a montage of various sexual activities to a depressing scene where Deadpool has to figure out how to cure his life-threatening cancer.
The film shines with its jokes — and Deadpool isn’t the only one spouting them. Almost all of Deadpool’s allies, such as his bar attendant friend Weasel (“Silicon Valley”s T.J. Miller) and elderly cocaine-addicted blind roommate Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) all have nonsensical jokes with their own hilarious personalities that complement Deadpool’s.
Though some of these jokes aren’t important to the plot, such as Blind Al having to build an IKEA furniture set or Deadpool convincing his Indian love-struck taxi driver to murder his rival, but jokes like that fit perfectly within the nonsensical film.
It’s a movie designed to enhance the superhero genre with a lot of in-jokes, staying true to the character comic book geeks would love. In true Deadpool fashion, it’s self-aware enough that in the opening credits, it stars “a British villain” and was written by “the true heroes.” Deadpool also spouts out various pop-culture references, breaks the fourth wall (and breaking the fourth wall within the fourth wall, which he calls breaking the sixteenth wall), references past “X-Men” films and jokes about Reynolds and his embarrassing role as the Green Lantern.
Like other Marvel movies, the protagonists kill people. However, unlike those Marvel movies, Deadpool’s swords and guns inflict more mayhem and gore than Wolverine’s claws. The film doesn’t skirt around the issue of having the anti-hero kill people.
“X-Men’”s Colossus returns from previous “X-Men” films, but this time, he’s fully metallic, seemingly unbreakable, and is always CG. However, none of the other X-Men cast returns as the story is dedicated to Deadpool. Compared to Deadpool, Colossus is his antithesis, as he prefers to convince Deadpool to join the team of not causing a ton of mayhem (despite past “X-Men” films).
The film had a budget of $58 million, which is considerably lower than all past “X-Men” films, but first-time director Tim Miller makes use of his limited budget by not going into wide-scale destruction (with the exception of an aircraft carrier in a junkyard) and instead focusing on smaller action scenes, which fits perfectly with the film’s junky tone.
While “Deadpool” isn’t as good as Bryan Singer’s “X-Men” films (anything is better than “X-Men: The Last Stand”), it does overtake “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “The Wolverine” as focusing purely on fun comic book action and not reusing “X-Men’”s tiring mutant rights and Wolverine’s self discovery plotlines.
It’s a simple uninspiring plot with boring villains, but the smaller action and humor help to carry the character into his own movie. There was a lot of risk when attempting to make an R-rated anti-hero film set within the “X-Men” film series, but the resulting fanfare from its two successful leaks prove it can be a stellar hit.