Deadpool is the first super-hero movie up in what is shaping up to be the biggest year for super-hero movies. There are currently seven super-hero movies scheduled this year and Deadpool was one of the top three I was looking forward to right behind X-Men: Apocalypse and Suicide Squad. I was hoping Deadpool would be a nice violent R-Rated alternative to what we usually get from super-hero movies and overall I don’t think it quite delivered on that. It is certainly violent and R-Rated, but it is not as original or as clever as I wanted it to be.
Deadpool is about a guy named Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) who is a wise ass mercenary. He has a great relationship with his girlfriend Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin) and both find comfort in each other after having hard upbringings. Unfortunately their world comes crashing down when Wilson finds out he has inoperable cancer. He reluctantly leaves Vanessa in the middle of the night to get experimental surgery to cure his cancer. Instead he is injected with a special serum by Ajax (Ed Skrein) and tortured for days. His whole body is mutilated and he is left looking hideous. He figures out a way to escape and instead of going back to Vanessa he decides to get revenge on Ajax.
Deadpool looks like it is Ryan Reynolds last hope at starring in a successful super-hero franchise. He originally played Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and he also played the main role in Green Lantern (2011). Neither of his performances were received very well and this Deadpool movie looks to be his apology. I can’t say that I dislike him as the snarky wisecracking Deadpool, but the character does kind of grate on me a bit. I honestly liked Reynolds more earlier in the movie before he put the red suit on. He is funny, but there also seems to be something more human about him. With the entire costume on I get a cartoonish Jim Carrey in The Mask (1994) vibe which isn’t good. I like most of the jokes and the Reynolds gives it his all. I can’t fault him for trying and although I wasn’t blown away by his performance I felt he did a pretty decent job overall.
As a character the thing I liked most about Wade Wilson AKA Deadpool is his relationship with Vanessa Carlysle. I felt the movie did a very good job at showing their relationship grow and you get a sense that the characters really care about each other. Two other big characters in the movie were Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. These characters are fun and I like their interaction with Deadpool although I don’t like how they are introduced in the movie. The plot kind of does them a disservice by not introducing them properly.
In fact the biggest problem I had with this movie was the plot. The narrative is told in a disjointed way and jumps back and forth for a good portion of the movie. I really dislike it when movies do this especially when there is no real reason to do it. I get that they wanted to open the movie with a big Deadpool action scene, but I think choosing to go this route ultimately hurt the plot. I’m also kind of disappointed by how unoriginal the plot is. I was hoping this Deadpool movie would be something unique and different, but unfortunately we really just got a basic plot origin story which was decent, but it certainly didn’t meet my expectations for what I think this movie could have been. I like how Deadpool breaks the fourth wall and some of those moments are pretty funny and clever, but I just don’t feel that the filmmakers reached their full potential with that concept.
One of my favorite unconventional super-hero movies is Kick-Ass (2010). It is fun, has a decent plot and a ton of heart. Deadpool in comparison has a very mediocre revenge plot and I felt it just wasn’t quite as fun. Another unconventional super-hero movie is Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) which I thought was great and extremely funny. I was hoping with the humor that Deadpool had in it could have been sort of an R-Rated version of what Guardians of the Galaxy. Guardians of the Galaxy was extremely unique and added some more depth to the super-hero movie genre and I saw Deadpool potentially doing the same thing and it just doesn’t. Deadpool is a decent watch, but it doesn’t even come close to living up to the hype.
Dave’s Rating- ★★★(3) out of ★★★★★(5)
