Written by: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller
Violence, foul language, sex and puerile humour, Deadpool has everything someone fatigued of Marvel's soft and candy-coloured films could want. At the same time, it falls into a lot of the same storytelling traps that those very same movies fall in to.
*Warning: Spoilers Ahead*
The film follows Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), a mercenary who falls in love, gets afflicted with cancer, and undergoes experimental treatment in a secret facility in order to try and get cured. It turns out that the people performing the experiments are evil and are just trying to bring out Wade's latent mutant super powers so that they can to turn him into a super-powered slave. Wade manages to break out, burn the place down, and unlock his super powers in the process, which allow him to essentially regenerate from any injury, but also leave him extremely scarred all over his face and body. Unable to present himself in this state to his love Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), Wade sets out to find Francis (Ed Skrein), the man responsible for Wade's current state, so that Wade can reverse what has happened to him.
While the movie tries to comment on super hero tropes and dish out meta humour mixed with dick jokes, the story itself is unfortunately cliche and easily the weakest aspect of the film. The film's central conflict is only a conflict because Wade believes he is worthless to Vanessa without his good looks, when the first third of the movie is spent building up the idea that their relationship is much deeper than that. In addition to this, Francis is never a compelling villain; he's simply bad for the sake of being bad, and his powers are never fully explained so there's little reason to fear for Wade or even Vanessa.
That said, there's plenty of good to talk about here. Ryan Reynolds is absolutely perfect as Wade, always giving his absolute best to every scene; the humour didn't always hit for me, but it never seemed forced when coming from Reynolds because it suited the character. Baccarin is also great as Vanessa; her chemistry with Reynolds is undeniable, and whenever the two are on the screen the film is a joy to watch, blending romance, drama and immature laughs seamlessly.
The violence is also exceedingly well done. With an R-rating, the film gets away with a lot more than most, with plenty of head slicing, high-impact splatters, dismembering, that sort of thing. The action sequences have far fewer cuts than your average modern action movie, and take the time to actually show the audience what is happening. It seems a little unnecessarily gratuitous at times, only there to hammer home that this movie is for adults only, but it's well done enough to be forgiven.
*Warning: Spoilers Ahead*
The film follows Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), a mercenary who falls in love, gets afflicted with cancer, and undergoes experimental treatment in a secret facility in order to try and get cured. It turns out that the people performing the experiments are evil and are just trying to bring out Wade's latent mutant super powers so that they can to turn him into a super-powered slave. Wade manages to break out, burn the place down, and unlock his super powers in the process, which allow him to essentially regenerate from any injury, but also leave him extremely scarred all over his face and body. Unable to present himself in this state to his love Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), Wade sets out to find Francis (Ed Skrein), the man responsible for Wade's current state, so that Wade can reverse what has happened to him.
While the movie tries to comment on super hero tropes and dish out meta humour mixed with dick jokes, the story itself is unfortunately cliche and easily the weakest aspect of the film. The film's central conflict is only a conflict because Wade believes he is worthless to Vanessa without his good looks, when the first third of the movie is spent building up the idea that their relationship is much deeper than that. In addition to this, Francis is never a compelling villain; he's simply bad for the sake of being bad, and his powers are never fully explained so there's little reason to fear for Wade or even Vanessa.
That said, there's plenty of good to talk about here. Ryan Reynolds is absolutely perfect as Wade, always giving his absolute best to every scene; the humour didn't always hit for me, but it never seemed forced when coming from Reynolds because it suited the character. Baccarin is also great as Vanessa; her chemistry with Reynolds is undeniable, and whenever the two are on the screen the film is a joy to watch, blending romance, drama and immature laughs seamlessly.
The violence is also exceedingly well done. With an R-rating, the film gets away with a lot more than most, with plenty of head slicing, high-impact splatters, dismembering, that sort of thing. The action sequences have far fewer cuts than your average modern action movie, and take the time to actually show the audience what is happening. It seems a little unnecessarily gratuitous at times, only there to hammer home that this movie is for adults only, but it's well done enough to be forgiven.
The Verdict: Deadpool is a movie that came out at the best possible time. The movie contains a lot of the same familiar beats as Marvel's films, but adds just enough of a dark and humorous twist that it stops the film from being stale . While some may be bored or offended by the film's more immature and tasteless moments (humour is subjective, after all), I believe that most adults who have been exposed to Marvel's constant cavalcade will be able to appreciate what Deadpool is trying to do.
Rating: 7/10
Published August 27th, 2016
Published August 27th, 2016
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