Review #1,018: 'Deadpool' (2016)

It is evident for around 5 minutes of Gavin Hood's disastrous X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) that Fox were onto something with their casting of Ryan Reynolds as the gobby mercenary Wade Wilson aka Deadpool. That was until he had his mouth sown together and turned into a super weapon before he could resemble anything like the character who had garnered a legion of loyal readers in Marvel's comic-book world. Talks of a reboot were in the air even since, and despite Reynolds' public support of the movie and obvious fan anticipation, it felt like it would never happen.

With Fox now piecing their beloved and highly lucrative franchise back together following Days of Future Past's re-setting of the timeline (deleting Hood's movie and Brett Ratner atrocious X-Men: The Last Stand in the process), the 'Merc with a Mouth' finally arrived to glowing reviews, fan adoration, and a box-office taking that was beyond anyone's expectations. The early trailers teased that the character would be at his foul-mouthed, sarcastic best, and although Deadpool is set firmly within the same universe as Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, it certainly doesn't follow the same rules.

Deadpool is all about Deadpool, and so the plot can be summed up within the same sentence. The climax essentially plays out throughout the entire movie, with Ryan Reynolds' already-suited-up hero ambushing a gang of bad guys on a freeway and taking them out in various gruesome ways. We flash back to his time working as muscle-for-hire in New York, where he meets escort Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) at a bar and the two fall in love. Wade soon learns he has aggressive cancer, and, without Vanessa's knowledge, volunteers for an experimental treatment that he soon learns consists of torture at the hands of Ajax (Ed Skrein), who hopes to awaken latent mutant genes in his subjects. He escapes the lab with the ability to heal but permanently disfigured, with a plan to take revenge and win back Vanessa.

A lot of Deadpool's success has been put down to its R rating, and the film certainly flaunts its freedom to make dick jokes and kill its characters in a variety of gruesome ways. While this may be the case to some degree, it seems that people forget Deadpool is, most importantly, offering something different in an already-overcrowded superhero market. While the filthy sense of humour does grate at times, especially whenever Wade's friend Weasel (T.J. Miller) is on screen, Deadpool is anything but the traditional brooding superhero with the weight of the world on their shoulders, he is selfish and self-absorbed yet motivated by his love for Vanessa, repeatedly breaking the fourth wall and informing us that he is fully aware of his role in the movie. When he is dragged by X-Men Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) to Professor X's mansion, he wonders whether it will be Patrick Stewart or James McAvoy awaiting him.

But the low-key approach, although refreshing, also shrinks the movie. The fragmented narrative offers a slightly new take on the origin movie, but take this away and the film still falls into the same genre trappings. There's the love interest, the life-changing experiment, the forgettable bad guy - all tropes covered in a hundred films before it. So without an enticing plot to sink the teeth into, a lot falls on the charisma of Reynolds as a character intended to provoke a strong reaction. Thankfully, Reynolds gives his best performance, a role worthy of his natural screen presence and slightly idiosyncratic delivery. Whether the humour is for you or not (it certainly made me laugh out loud throughout), you have to admire director Tim Miller's belief in such a risky project, and it will hopefully open the gates to the possibility of more adult superhero movies in a genre always in need of fresh input.


Directed by: Tim Miller
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Ed Skrein, Gina Carano, Stefan Kapicic, Brianna Hildebrand
Country: USA/Canada

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie