"Deadpool" Review

Deadpool is a superhero comedy film directed by Tim Miller (in his directorial debut) and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. It is the origin story of the Marvel Comics anti-hero Deadpool. Deadpool's secret identity is Wade Wilson, a wisecracking jackass who starts off getting rid of stalkers for teenage girls for money, and later joins a group of vigilante assassins. He soon meets an unbelievably hot woman named Vanessa (played by the unbelievably hot Morena Baccarin) and the two get engaged, only to find out that Wade has been diagnosed with multiple forms of cancer. In an effort to cure himself, Wade visits a shady facility run by the evil psychopath Ajax (played by Ed Skrein), and escapes with the ability to rapidly heal himself, although he is pretty unforgivably ugly. In an effort to exact revenge on Ajax and take back his girlfriend after she's kidnapped, Wade assumes the role of Deadpool to beat tons of bad guys' asses. Deadpool is played by Ryan Reynolds, who also serves as producer on the film. This film has been in development for years, and Reynolds has always been at the center of it all, so this film is something of a labor of love for him. After nearly a decade of negotiating and budget constraints, 20th Century Fox has brought us Deadpool, in all its R-rated swear-filled gory glory.

I guess I should address the fact that the Internet fucking loves this movie. At the time of writing this (very belated) review, it currently has an 8.6/10 rating on IMDb from 130,000 votes, putting it in the top 50 highest voted films on the website. Even given the general trend of IMDb voters tending to over-praise a film in its opening weeks, that is pretty crazy. And I can absolutely see the appeal, and definitely liked the movie, though I will say I think this film's fans are giving it a little bit more credit than it may deserve. Regardless, let me start off with the (many) things this movie does well.

The film's main selling point is its sense of humor, and for fans of the Deadpool character, the writers absolutely nailed this aspect. Wade is crass, unapologetic, and continuously breaks the fourth wall, as does the movie in general. If you're not into somewhat childish jokes about dicks, fucking, and severed limbs and heads, then Deadpool will most likely leave you either annoyed or ambivalent, as will the in-jokes regarding comic book lore and the X-Men. The fourth wall breaks and constant jabs at superhero movie tropes are clever and silly, although curiously most of the audience I saw it with didn't seem to find them too funny. I'll get to that part of the movie toward the end though.

I should also go out of my way to say that if there's anything that absolutely sells this movie for all its faults, it's Ryan Reynolds, in undoubtedly the performance of his career. Reynolds is to Deadpool as Robert Downey, Jr. is to Iron Man - it almost feels as if the character was made to be played by him. The emotional core of Deadpool as a character (which I only know about through very brief research, as I never read the comics) is only explored briefly and with the same level of irreverence as the rest of the movie's story, but I'm assuming this will be expounded upon in the forthcoming sequels, and what I think matters more is that the film sold Deadpool's sense of humor and demeanor to an audience mostly unaware of his existence - and the film does this splendidly, mostly to the credit of Reynolds.

Morena Baccarin even turns out a solid performance as Wade's girlfriend Vanessa in one of the best romances in a superhero movie I've ever seen. I think the strength of the romance (and really, most of the movie) is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Vanessa is a smart-ass and matches perfectly with Wade, but is her own unique character, and their romance is actually quite believable because of how non-hammed up it is amid all the goofiness of the rest of the movie. In a weird way, wading through the face-sitting jokes and sex scenes, their relationship is actually kind of sweet. As always, the movie favors profanity over profundity, but Wade and Vanessa's relationship is appropriately the most grounded aspect of the movie.

The action sequences in Deadpool are fantastically put together. The entire movie is very fast, frenetic, and doesn't waste a second. The action scenes are fun, clever, slickly edited, and surprisingly mostly in-camera in terms of effects. They never reach the beautifully gory goofiness of something like Hot Fuzz, but are still gleefully silly, bloody fun. Due to budgetary constraints (this movie actually had a way smaller budget than I imagined), the CGI in the film is, while used sparingly, kind of distracting at times and doesn't always look pixel perfect, though I'd argue this sort of adds to the film's scrappy, irreverent charm. Deadpool really was a passion project of a few people led by Reynolds, and it shows. Tom Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL), the composer behind the brilliant score for Mad Max: Fury Road last year, also supplies a great 80's throwback soundtrack underscoring these awesome action scenes.

For all the technical prowess behind the construction of the film's action sequences, though, the scenes in between are fairly run-of-the-mill, even in terms of writing, really. The characters say funny lines, but the scenes are disappointingly procedural, moving the plot forward but presenting everything in shot-reverse shot conversations. A lot of other superhero/action movies have this quality, but in a movie whose action scenes are so uncommonly well put together, I was hoping the more dialogue-reliant scenes would be equally creative. I'm guessing this has something to do with the fact that this is Tim Miller's directorial debut. I can't help but think that a more seasoned and talented director would've kept the film's unique kinetic energy going throughout it in its entirety.

Going back to the film's sense of humor and specifically its fourth wall breaking and satirizing of superhero movie tropes, like I said earlier, I do think some fans of the movie online are praising this point a little too much. I've heard the fun that Deadpool pokes at superhero movies unironically called "brilliant" and "subversive", and while I think it works really well, I don't think either of those words are apt descriptions. Deadpool's humor is not an example of razor-sharp wit, and really it's a pretty standard superhero origin film as far as story progression and characters go (other than the fun editing choice of going back and forth between the opening action sequence and explanations as to the details of Deadpool's uprising). The film's saving grace, though, is that it is extremely self-aware and consistently points out that, yes, this is a pretty standard superhero movie, and you're gonna watch it anyway (this is perhaps most evident in the film's opening credits more than anything). I'd hardly call this "brilliant" or "subversive", as Deadpool seems to simply be aware of and joke about its adherence to superhero tropes, but not actually subvert them or offer any insight or critique of those tropes. The film prefers to simply give the audience a fun movie while making fun of itself. And I'm cool with that.

Overall, Deadpool is a really, really fun superhero action film that absolutely feels like a passion project of Ryan Reynolds and the crew he's assembled. It sports some great action scenes, lots of silly humor that really embrace its R rating but won't be for everyone, and a cast of fun characters. I think the Internet has oversold its brilliance a bit, but it's a movie that's self-aware, funny, fast, and a great time at the movies. I'm excited to see where they take things with the sequels.

Grade: B+