REVIEW: DEADPOOL
What a way to ring in the cinematic new year. Last year the box-office phenomenon was American Sniper, which became the biggest domestic movie of 2014 (did you know that?! I didn't know that!!), won an Oscar, caused loads of controversy and beat every single Marvel movie that came out that year in the U.S.: that's right, The Winter Soldier, Days of Future Past and Guardians of the Galaxy couldn't top Chris Kyle's biography. Well, as a little slice of revenge, here's a Marvel movie that's posed to not only beat American Sniper, but to beat Jesus himself. Here's Deadpool.
That last comment wasn't irreverent sacrilege: Deadpool is poised to dethrone The Passion of the Christ as the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time. Since 2004 that's made sense: naturally that film reaches an enormous built-in fan base. But a movie about sarcastic, antihero Deadpool, a relatively new comic book character (as opposed to say Batman and Superman, both 70-80 years old)? If I was a kid, the image of Deadpool himself would terrify me: a seemingly mouthless, red and black killer with no pupils visible in his mask. So how is this such a gargantuan phenomenon, already at about half a billion worldwide as of this post? Because it's not aimed at little 7 year old Travis. Adults will probably bring younger kids to the forthcoming Batman v. Superman, just because it's been marketed everywhere. But Deadpool has that too, in fact some of the craftiest marking of a movie of all time. It knows exactly what it is, and it fearlessly delivers.
It's in the IMDb top 250 and people are giving it titles like "the best superhero movie transition from comic to screen of all time," but that will either fade or an immediate backlash will come like The Force Awakens received (See: "This needs to get nominated for Best Picture!" vs. "This is just a rehash of A New Hope"). Instead of holding it up on this pedestal, let's take it for what it is, because that's what the filmmakers have done. After two nightmares of mouthless Deadpool and a poor Green Lantern movie, Reynolds has finally found comfort in his own superhero skin. This project has always been highly important to him, and his devotion and dedication to sarcastic mercenary Wade Wilson shows off tremendously here. Supported by him are his love interest (at the core of a Deadpool movie is a love story, isn't that odd?) Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). Their meet-cute is definitely not so traditionally cute, and I'll talk about that later. Then there's T.J. Miller's Weasel. T.J. Miller is like Seth Rogen in that he always seems to play the same character but we all never seem to mind. Holding up the rear is Colossus, in the best form you've ever seen him, and Brianna Hildebrand's Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Such a bizarre motley crew of characters until the merc with the mouth himself tells you that these are the only two X-Men Fox could afford. Classic.
So here's the only beef I have with Deadpool: it knows the movie it is, but sometimes it skips out on the most basic details. Deadpool's origin story of evolving from hideously scarred smart alec to red and black-clad antihero is so quick it's like the filmmakers knew you didn't want to see it. But I didn't know that much about Deadpool, and I would've liked to've seen the moments. Additionally, not every joke lands, but there's an upside to this. Deadpool is middle school bus ride jerk humor, and when it lands, boy it lands. But when it falls: yikes. The audience was very responsive and there were jokes in there no one even cracked a smile on. When you're dishing them out left and right however, there's going to be a certain success rate. I respect what they tried, but some were just offensive misfires.
But that really is just nitpicking. Even though the formula is clearly "superhero origin" and the British bad guy which they joke about in the opening credits isn't highly memorable, Tim Miller's Deadpool delivers exactly what the fans wanted, and I pity whoever makes the sequel because know it's going to have Dark Knight Rises syndrome: what do you do when people are calling your predecessor perfect? Let's just enjoy the very funny, raucously violent and extremely profane film we have in theaters now. I'm glad Reynolds finally became comfortable with the superhero skin he was in. I can't wait to see him don it again.
Rating: 3/4 stars
That last comment wasn't irreverent sacrilege: Deadpool is poised to dethrone The Passion of the Christ as the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time. Since 2004 that's made sense: naturally that film reaches an enormous built-in fan base. But a movie about sarcastic, antihero Deadpool, a relatively new comic book character (as opposed to say Batman and Superman, both 70-80 years old)? If I was a kid, the image of Deadpool himself would terrify me: a seemingly mouthless, red and black killer with no pupils visible in his mask. So how is this such a gargantuan phenomenon, already at about half a billion worldwide as of this post? Because it's not aimed at little 7 year old Travis. Adults will probably bring younger kids to the forthcoming Batman v. Superman, just because it's been marketed everywhere. But Deadpool has that too, in fact some of the craftiest marking of a movie of all time. It knows exactly what it is, and it fearlessly delivers.
It's in the IMDb top 250 and people are giving it titles like "the best superhero movie transition from comic to screen of all time," but that will either fade or an immediate backlash will come like The Force Awakens received (See: "This needs to get nominated for Best Picture!" vs. "This is just a rehash of A New Hope"). Instead of holding it up on this pedestal, let's take it for what it is, because that's what the filmmakers have done. After two nightmares of mouthless Deadpool and a poor Green Lantern movie, Reynolds has finally found comfort in his own superhero skin. This project has always been highly important to him, and his devotion and dedication to sarcastic mercenary Wade Wilson shows off tremendously here. Supported by him are his love interest (at the core of a Deadpool movie is a love story, isn't that odd?) Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). Their meet-cute is definitely not so traditionally cute, and I'll talk about that later. Then there's T.J. Miller's Weasel. T.J. Miller is like Seth Rogen in that he always seems to play the same character but we all never seem to mind. Holding up the rear is Colossus, in the best form you've ever seen him, and Brianna Hildebrand's Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Such a bizarre motley crew of characters until the merc with the mouth himself tells you that these are the only two X-Men Fox could afford. Classic.So here's the only beef I have with Deadpool: it knows the movie it is, but sometimes it skips out on the most basic details. Deadpool's origin story of evolving from hideously scarred smart alec to red and black-clad antihero is so quick it's like the filmmakers knew you didn't want to see it. But I didn't know that much about Deadpool, and I would've liked to've seen the moments. Additionally, not every joke lands, but there's an upside to this. Deadpool is middle school bus ride jerk humor, and when it lands, boy it lands. But when it falls: yikes. The audience was very responsive and there were jokes in there no one even cracked a smile on. When you're dishing them out left and right however, there's going to be a certain success rate. I respect what they tried, but some were just offensive misfires.
But that really is just nitpicking. Even though the formula is clearly "superhero origin" and the British bad guy which they joke about in the opening credits isn't highly memorable, Tim Miller's Deadpool delivers exactly what the fans wanted, and I pity whoever makes the sequel because know it's going to have Dark Knight Rises syndrome: what do you do when people are calling your predecessor perfect? Let's just enjoy the very funny, raucously violent and extremely profane film we have in theaters now. I'm glad Reynolds finally became comfortable with the superhero skin he was in. I can't wait to see him don it again.
Rating: 3/4 stars
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