- DB
Movie Review | Deadpool
Movie Summary: A fast-talking mercenary with a morbid sense of humour is subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers and a quest for revenge. (IMDb)
This film may take multiple viewings to appreciate completely, not because it’s an all-time classic, but rather because me, my friends and the rest of the audience were laughing so hard at some of the jokes that follow-up lines and other dialogue went completely unheard when watching this in the cinema.
Seriously, Deadpool is so consistently - although often immaturely - funny that you will actually have trouble quoting the film because the gags come with such regularity, more often extremely funny than not, that you’ll have trouble taking them all in because you’ll be laughing at the next line you hear.
Yes, the humour is often puerile and juvenile, as well as foul-mouthed, but that only really fits the tone of the rest of the film. If you go into Deadpool expecting a serious film on any level then you’ll leave disappointed as it’s more akin to a live-action cartoon than anything else.
This is thanks to Deadpool’s ability to heal ridiculously fast, including re-growing self-removed limbs (two of the funniest scenes in the film – both the removal and return of the limb) meaning that he can take inhuman levels of punishment and still keep going, much like his mouth which is delivering jokes non-stop.
The action is pretty good too and, although extremely bloody, it’s again the cartoon-like nature of the title character that makes it all seem not that bad. There are some slight dips in the CGI quality in some of the scenes and a couple of times it’s quite noticeable when Deadpool has been digitally replaced, but it doesn’t really detract from the intended chaos and lunacy of those scenes.
As other reviews have said though, it’s the relationship between Wade Wilson (Deadpool) and Vanessa (not Copycat from the comics sadly) that makes the film really work. You genuinely believe these two are as much of a perfect match for each other as the characters do, so even when the film finally falls into more familiar superhero film territory at the end, you’re still pulling for the central couple to make it through okay.
Special mention also has to go to the use of the X-Man, Colossus, and his ‘trainee’, Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Before I saw the film, I thought they’d maybe be bit-parts and only appear in the scene most often shown in the trailers, but they have proper supporting roles and used to maximum effect.
Unfortunately, one major downside is that, even though this film was made by Fox, Deadpool came a little too close to aping one of the issues the Marvel Cinematic Universe also had at the the time with underwhelming villains: Ajax aka Francis aka ‘a British villain’ (as the title credits call him) and his companion, Angel Dust. Both are very thinly-drawn and entirely forgettable.
When it comes right down to it, the only real thing that will determine whether you like Deadpool is if you think you can put up with a non-stop stream of profanity-laden jokes and bloody violence as that makes up the majority of the running time outside of a still-funny montage of sex scenes and an extended depiction of the torture Ajax puts Wade through to turn him into Deadpool.
If you think you can, then you’ll also get to see the funniest Stan Lee cameo ever in a Marvel film, the main character regularly talking to audience and complaining about the studio and/or Hugh Jackman/Wolverine, and much more that will make you laugh so much you’ll be grateful for the slower scenes just to give you a chance to catch your breath.
Fortunately, the success of Deadpool looks like it lead to a much-increased budget for the sequel – teased in a post-credits stinger here – and more screen time for the Merc with a Mouth that is Wade Wilson. He’s definitely earned it on this showing.
