Plot: Wade Wilson (Reynolds) is a sarcastic mercenary in love with a woman (Baccarin) whose crazy matches his crazy. He gets cancer and leaves the woman to try and get better with an experimental procedure. This procedure saves his life but leaves him deformed. He then goes to hunt down the man who deformed him.
Thoughts:
I'm not sure how this movie exists or how Ryan Reynolds got to play the role this time. I don't know much about the character in the comics. Reynolds sounded like perfect casting though...in 2009, when he was cast in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. That was an awful movie and normally would've scorched the Earth for Reynolds to ever play him again. Then Reynolds missed again as a super hero in Green Lantern a couple years later. Against all Hollywood logic, this Deadpool movie was still greenlit, still had Reynolds in the role, and kept the R-rating that was required to do it right.
It's a good thing too. Deadpool is the most unique superhero movie since Ang Lee's Hulk. This is a violent, foul-mouthed, filthy mess of a movie. It delightfully goes against every rule of superhero movies. Reynolds constantly breaks the fourth wall. The movie is filled with meta jokes about everything from People's Sexiest Man Alive to the casting of the movie to the fact that the movie is a studio afterthought. This is a “no comprimises” approach to the movie that I respect the hell out of.
There isn't a lot to the story. It's purposely lean. Deadpool isn't saving the world or even trying to be a good person. All he's trying to do is find the guy who ruined his looks and reunite with his finance. In a world of Avengers and X-Men movies with huge things at stake, it's nice to see movies like Ant-Man and Deadpool telling much smaller scale stories. Deadpool runs through his origin story and Wade's relationship with Vanessa (Bacarrin) between action set pieces. It hits all the points it must and leaves a lot of breathing room.
Deadpool is a comedy movie, first and foremost. Reynolds is absolutely perfect in the lead role: a master of sarcasm played by a master of sarcasm. Everyone else understands exactly what they're there for. This is the most I've like Baccarin in anything. She's like a Manic Pixie Dream Girl who's been through a lot of rough shit. It's a strange balance. Stefan Kapicic takes a cool character like Colossus and plays him like a Boy Scout. Brianna Hildebrand is just a disinterested teen with superpowers and nails it. T.J. Miller is literally just there to throw in jokes whenever the movie feels like it.
The only thing that I'll say against the movie is that it wore me down by the end. The fun of the movie is the excess. The danger with that is that it has to keep finding new things to shock the audience with. Even when done well, it gets exhausting.
Elephant in the Room: How much does it earn the R-rating? At some point, someone from Fox must've gone up to Tim Miller, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and company and told them “Ok, if we allow you to have an R-rating, you better earn it”. Earn it they did. It's like if Tarantino and Scorsese made a Marvel movie.
To Sum Things Up:
Deadpool is the Marvel movie for anyone who is getting tired of Marvel movies. It's a comedy-first that still delivers action of the expected quality for Marvel. It's even legitimately romantic at times.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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