Movie Review: DEADPOOL (2016)

Last year saw some pretty massive Fan films; movies made for fans, by filmmakers who grew up on the source material. Be it Director Ryan Coogler’s take on a new story with a new character set in the same universe as ‘Rocky‘ with ‘Creed‘, or Director J. J. Abrams reboot/sequel of one of the most beloved franchises in cinematic history with ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’.

But one of the more impressive stories about a movie being made by fans of its source material, can be found in ‘Deadpool‘. Read on for my Spoiler free, but fun fact filled Movie Review below. Explicit content warning.

Rating:

Listen to ‘Deadpool’s Original Movie Soundtrack on iTunes

While I rarely give background into the making of a movie prior to reviewing it, it’s relevant here as the loyalty and dedication of the makers can be seen in the final product.

Deadpool is a Marvel comics character with a twisted sense of humour and fucked up perception of reality. It’s one of Marvel’s most popular comic book characters, also because he is quite possibly the only, if not one of very few comic book characters, who knows that he is so, and often makes references to the same. Known as ‘breaking the 4th wall’, it’s when a fictional character directly engages and addresses the audience.

Coming back to the movie, ‘Deadpool‘ has been in the making for around 10 years now, being kept alive by superstar Ryan Reynolds and director Tim Miller. With many ups and downs in developmental hell, a ‘leaked’ test footage in 2014 reinvigorated the excitement for the film from the internet, resulting in the eventual release of this movie. If not for the ardent and passionate perserverance of Reynolds and Miller, ‘Deadpool‘ may have never been made.

The film itself has a very simple story. A former special forces operative turned mercenary named Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) falls in love and proceed to have sexual and emotional bliss, only to be diagnosed with cancer. In order to be there for his love, Wilson agrees to an experiment program, offered by shady people, to cure him and maybe even give him powers. The program itself, led by Ajax (Ed Skrein) sees Wilson tortured until he is forced to manifest a healing factor, but not before he is permanently disfigured from head to toe. Escaping from the facility, Wilson takes on the alias of Deadpool, and vows to seek out Ajax and get him to fix his face, while pining for his love, fearing she won’t accept him the way he is now.

love… crazy pegging love.

It’s not the strongest story, but that matters shit all to this film. ‘Deadpool‘ is a gigantic, screaming orgasm to the character itself, and is his massive introduction to the world. The story of the film is Plot B, while Plot A is all about bringing this character to life, and making the audience hold his hand as we take a long 108 minute walk along the beach at sunset and get to know Deadpool better.

But let’s not take away from the story written by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick. The film has heart. So much so that the only other genre you could use to describe ‘Deadpool‘ other than a superhero movie, is a romantic-comedy.

Morena Baccaran (‘Firefly‘) plays Vanessa, Wilson’s lover who is the only one who can equally match his wits and fuckery. Their chemistry is undeniable, and even in an R-rated dick joke filled movie, their relationship is sweet and endearing. It’s the spine of the story, and the earlier moments of the movie do an amazing job of setting it up, through an amazing fuck filled montage of banging.

Reynolds is born (maybe quite literally) to play Wilson, and the line of where the character begins and the actor ends is completely blurred. While this is nothing different than roles that Reynolds has played countless times, it is now in context to this character, who, despite being created decades ago, shares the exact same personality. Baccarin is just stunning in a brief role, but holds her own against Reynolds.

The more humourous counterparts to Deadpool’s shenanigns comes from the completely CGI Colossus, an X-Men comics character whose inclusion in the movie weaves in elements of universe building by that other Marvel franchise that Fox owns the rights to.

‘ I can become a member of what superhero team?! ‘

Keep in mind, you shouldn’t expect epic dramatic storytelling from this movie. ‘Deadpool’ is the kind of movie that improves upon the usual vulgar comedy, masked as an amazing superhero film, with a secret romantic identity. The movie pushes the limits of what is acceptable within the framework of a movie in this superhero-laden industry. With meta references to other movies, and critisizing the studio that made the movie, ‘Deadpool‘ is a dark horse, made on small budget, (relative to Hollywood movies these days) that is everything that an R-rated superhero movie about an anti-hero asshole should and needs to be. While still maintaining an emotional undertone that adds to the loose screwball comedy aspects of the story.

Experiencing ‘Deadpool‘ is almost like going to a live comedy roast, but with insane action, shit blowing up and a lot less people getting fucked.

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Do you think other studios imitating ‘Deadpool’s R-Rated success is a good or bad thing?

Let me know below or Twitter @theshahshahid.