After years of waiting the fans can finally stand up and lose their minds: Deadpool has arrived. The disfigured and mentally unstable mercenary with a superhuman healing factor, the “Merc with a Mouth” as he is called, has been let loose. He’s ridiculous, rude, funny, loud, tends to break the fourth wall and talk to viewers a lot, and pretty much will shoot anything. Add in some Ryan Reynolds, a few X-Men and you have the next big thing on your hands.
The tone of the movie is really strange but so is the tone of the book. So by that rationality the filmmakers were successful. The movie bounces back and forth between being an R-rated action flick to a Hard R comedy. There’s no middle ground. It’s an insane movie about an insane character. Overall it’s a fun superhero genre flick, but only for adults. Leave the kiddies at home, unless you’re an unfit parent. Which there were lots of in the theater. Get a sitter, or you will have to explain what “pegging” is and no parent should have to do that to a seven year old.
What works well in the movie is the great action, fun lines, and that Ryan Reynolds really knows this character well, what with sort of being him already in that terrible X-Men Origins: Wolverine from 2009. Here Reynolds is allowed to become the Deadpool fans have been waiting for. Ever since we saw that little concept animatic of what filmmakers wanted to do, fans have been yelling for this flick. So for them, their prayers have been answered.
The special effects are good and the combo of Deadpool’s real eyes/mouth to the CGI ones is seamless and never once feels odd. Everything about him in the suit works and never once seems out of place. Even him riding in a cab with normal people didn’t seem odd, just funny. We watch him monologuing his way though the whole movie, which in certain scenes helps, because he likes to explain why he’s there, never leaving it up to the viewer to wonder. Which is good, because at times this movie is all over the place, but in a fun way.
Let’s not forget that the X-Men are a part of this universe. Deadpool talks trash about Wolverine several times during the film, letting the audience know this is part of the X-Men franchise by the same studio, which is kind of fun because we get some inside jokes about the X-Men that the Internet has made.
So why choose Colossus? It’s never made clear why that character but it seems to work for the flick. The CGI of Colossus is really good at certain points and just awful in others. Almost like the A- animation team was given the good close-up shots and the C-Team had less important shots to animate. As a Colossus fan it was nice to see him get some redemption in the film, being that the few times he was used in the X-Men movies he spoke twice and was more or less background. So to see him walk, talk in a Russian accent and be awesome was a fan treat. But at one point in the movie he’s at home eating cereal all metaled up. That is absolutely ridiculous. Why? Yes, it’s funny but way stupid. Even for this movie it seemed out of place.
A few of the Colossus scenes with Deadpool don’t work quite as well either. They are from two different movies mashed together for no real reason other than just to do it. And it feels that way. Deadpool is killing people, brutally, saying all the C-Words and touching Colossus inappropriately. Things that never happen in an X-Men movie are happening now and it seems obligatory. It’s funny but very odd in tone.
The rest of the cast works great with Reynolds and keeps up with him as he bounces from scene to scene eating up the entire set. Morena Baccarin is beautiful and her character Vanessa is just as crazy as Deadpool, so their love is believable. She has some great one liners and stand out jokes, but there are also lines she says that seem forced, like a “joke” from the Big Bang Theory. Someone had her say something nerdy just to make sure the filmmakers hit some quota on the nerd meter. Same can be said for funnyman T.J. Miller. He’s just there to say amusing things, bounce some ideas off Deadpool and then go back to being a bartender/friend. He great in the movie, but he’s all exposition and not much else.
Ed Skrein as Ajax is fine as the English villain, which is now required for all comic book movies it seems. He’s evil just for evil’s sake and not given much else to do. His over all plan is meh and his explanation of it is even worse. The same goes for Gina Carano as Angel Dust. She’s there just as muscle and to have a fight with Colossus. They’re both fine actors doing a great job with what they were given: two terrible third-stringing-90’s villains with no real direction.
It’s like watching a live action R-rated Wile E. Coyote run around screwing and killing. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but to try to force this into the X-Men universe seems a little out of place, when it clearly doesn’t belong. Just like the Stan Lee cameo in this. Look, I love Stan, and all respect to him. But don’t have him cameo just because it seems mandatory to have Stan in a Marvel movie, no matter if he has anything to do with the character or not. And what they have him do in this is just….no.
The only other real flaw would be that three quarters of the movie is that pre-visualization fight scene that was leaked online and ultimately ended up helping the movie get made, thanks to the positive reception. But it also ended up being one of the main fight scenes of the film and the centerpiece of the story. And because they keep putting out more and more trailers you do feel as if you’ve already seen half the flick, and you have. Deadpool tries so hard not to be a standard comic book movie because of its R-rating and dirtiness, but at the end of the day it’s just like all the others no matter how much it is different.
Over all this is a fun, funny movie and is just like reading the Deadpool comic, which is what the filmmakers needed to do. Deadpool fans should love this, and if you like R-rated comedies or action flicks there’s lots for you too. So leave the kids at home, go out and enjoy Deadpool.