With comic book movies becoming the mainstream standard for entertaining action movies, it was only a matter of time before the fourth-wall breaking, obscene and graphic ‘merc with a mouth’ made the transition to the silver screen. The result? A thick stew of obscenities that is one of the most prominent examples of style over substance.
Told in inconsistent flashbacks, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is shown to be a gun-for-hire with a heart of gold. He meets a girl just as crazy as he is, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and they live happily together until Wade is diagnosed with incurable cancers. To give himself a chance, Wade signs up for a program that could not only cure him, but give him superpowers. However, the program is run by the sadistic Francis (Ed Skrein) who sees more value in super slaves than superheroes. He subjects Wade to incessant torture with his henchwoman Angel (Gina Carano) and unlocks Wade’s superpower; the ability to completely regenerate and heal from any injury. The process also melts away Wade’s skin, making it impossible for him to return to Vanessa after his subsequent escape. Thus begins Wade’s transformation into the anti-hero Deadpool in a violent and gory quest to track down Francis, get a cure for his ugliness, and avoid being an actual hero at all costs. Along for the ride are his housemate, an old blind woman (Leslie Uggams); his apathetic and heat-packing friend Weasel (T.J. Miller); and the two X-Men the studio could afford (Stefan Kapicic and Brianna Hildebrand).
In a sense, this is one of the most accurate superhero movies as it really does capture the lighthearted yet graphic nature of the Deadpool character. The constant fourth-wall breaks, the reveling in his own invincibility, and his hilarious reactions and demeanor are things that both fans and Ryan Reynolds have been waiting years to see and the film delivers while also serving fantastic and bloody action sequences. But while it fully captures what people love about this character, the film has one of the most predictable stories I’ve seen in a good long while. Every plot point can be seen in advance, which not only removes any semblance of tension, but also cheapens some of the jokes around which the movie makes its identity.
The actors are almost all over the board in the film. Reynolds has been wanting to return to the role ever since the character was written to ruin in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine and his passion is self-evident as he yuks it up to his fullest. Baccarin is fun as the loving girlfriend, but she looks as bored at being the damsel in distress as we are in seeing such a trope. Skrein and Carano make for passable villains and both deliver some very funny and cruel lines, but they don’t throw anything at us that we haven’t seen before. Kapicic unleashes the funniest accent since Borat as the CGI Colossus and actually plays around with some very heartfelt lines that make for hilarious moments when juxtaposed with the chaos surrounding him. Hildebrand steals more than a few scenes as a sullen teenage hero with a badass name, badass powers, and a devil-may-care attitude.
Overall, Deadpool is a decent action movie that focuses on a fan-favorite superhero. There’s nothing particularly special about it aside from its R rating and graphic humor, and those might be enough to drive some away. The story is so by the numbers that the opening credits list the primary characters with anecdotes such as “A Hot Chick” and “A British Villain.” But it does give due respect to its admittedly ridiculous main character, a technique that will always (I repeat: always) make for a movie worth seeing. 3/5
