Deadpool (2015) - Review
Originally published September 2016Deadpool is a popular Marvel comic-book character who has endured his fair share of poor licensed products and bad interpretations of his character. He's not really one I ever paid much attention to when I was interested in comics, but there are plenty of reasons that I can see as to why he's so popular. So, it's somewhat of a surprise as to why it took a surprising amount of time and effort for his own movie to come into existence. It was even more surprising that the teams responsible for it did such a faithful job of it.
Considering how scattershot the quality of superhero movies tends to be these days, I'm surprised people don't have lower expectations going into them—maybe we need a few more Suicide Squads before that happens. Deadpool, leading up to its release, was getting a lot of attention from movie-goers unfamiliar with his character in addition to fans. When it was finally released, fans applauded the film for getting his character (mostly) right, and the unfamiliar at least said it wasn't bad. Having finally seen it myself, I am inclined to agree.
Image: Twentieth Century Fox
Pros
Fight choreography is great, though subject to shaky-cam at times
Despite all odds, some of the jokes are genuinely funny and not just vulgar adult/referential comic book humor that only fans would get
Ryan Reynolds was always a good casting choice for the role and it's good that he finally was allowed to be the character and not some deformed weird rendition in a Wolverine movie
While referential humor is certainly Deadpool's schtick, the references don't get too overbearing
Very R-rated, allowing for a broad range of action and jokes
Cons
The origin story takes up a lot of the movie and really drags down the pacing
Despite the origin story taking up so much time, the skills of Deadpool are never quite explained beyond "he's a merc"
Only two big action sequences; one was mostly shown in the trailers
Villains are rather uninteresting with goals that were mostly discarded and forgotten by the end
A lot of the humor will be irrelevant and out-of-date in a few years
Deadpool never seems "crazy" to me the way they kept saying he was, nor like how crazy he's supposed to be according to the comics; seems like a missed opportunity
Can we please never use that DMX song again?
Plot & Thoughts
Deadpool is a character that mostly resided in the X-Men side of the Marvel universe until his popularity allowed him to start crossing into different franchises. He's a mutant who wasn't actually born with any mutations, unlike the typical mutants of that world who started to change during adolescence. Instead, he was a victim of cancer and went through some experimental processes to remove the disease, which leads to his mutation. It also leads to extreme physical disfigurement, psychological damage, schizophrenia with a small helping of split-personality disorder, and a propensity for not dying. I couldn't tell you how much of this the movie got right, because I've never read much about Deadpool as a character. What I will say is that they try to play up all of those negative side-effects to his mutation process in the dialogue, while the reality of it is: it's not that bad.
Everyone keeps talking about how deformed he is, how psychologically screwed up he is, or how crazy he's become when none of that is truly shown. Maybe it's the flaws of the make-up, but his disfigurement is pretty mild. His "craziness" is also mentioned by other characters, but I rarely ever see much of the split-personality, voices-in-his-head Deadpool I'm supposed to see. It mostly just seems like the same smart-ass Ryan Reynolds character from the origin story who's a little more anxious and struggling with ADHD. Not to mention, when he's such a cocky SOB with regenerative abilities that make him near-immortal, it's difficult for him to show much psychological distress. At least, he's still the 4th-wall-breaking chatterbox of an asshole that Deadpool is supposed to be.
The main strength the film has is from embracing the quirkiness of Deadpool's personality and the violence that follows the character. I would argue that the movie is mostly a comedy with some well-choreographed action scenes. Some of the jokes are legitimately funny using both dialogue and physical humor to generate laughs. Reynolds also does a decent job with the role providing the snarky wit and character-appropriate delivery of the jokes, though, I wouldn't say this is really stretching his acting abilities much. That being said, Deadpool isn't nearly as laugh-out-loud funny as some other R-rated comedies, like The Hangover. However, the humor definitely helps break up the tedium of a very bland and boring plot.
Image: Twentieth Century Fox
I say "plot," but there's barely one present. It's mostly just about Deadpool dating a girl when he's human, getting cancer, getting tortured, and becoming the murderous psychopath he is, and thus seeking revenge against his torturers. The villains have some sort of operation going on, but it also doesn't really make much sense or matter in the grand scheme of things. It's a very thin plot and the motivations seem somewhat contrived. In fact, there's so little to the plot that the opening action sequence which was spoiled in the trailers over and over again, is stretched out for more than half the movie, interchanged with flashbacks to Deadpool's origins. The editing was meant to play off of Deadpool's penchant for breaking the 4th wall, but the film would have been better off going in chronological order. In terms of the plot's progression, so much time is spent bouncing between the opening action scene and the past that, when things finally feel like they're moving forward, the movie is almost over. It really disrupts the pace of the film and makes me feel like very little has been accomplished.
Aside from the plot, Deadpool's other big flaw is the referential nature of the humor. It's something of a necessary evil, considering the fact that Deadpool is a character all about referential humor, but some of the jokes he makes in the movie will be irrelevant before you know it. Even more surprising is the choices of music for the soundtrack. While the jokes made were all accurate for the past few years, the music is all rather old. A lot of the songs are certainly recognizable to people who would be old enough to see the film in theaters, but young enough to like the Deadpool character. However, that means most of those songs were released more than a decade ago. This includes the stupid DMX song X Gon' Give it to Ya, which I have never liked. It has an annoyingly repetitive sound and it is one of the most overused songs for trailers of films and video games. So many trailers have used it to showcase action in films or video games where "shit's 'bout to go down," it's become a cliché. Plus, it's rare that you hear anything more of the song than the main chorus over and over. Deadpool managed to reinvigorate my hatred of the track due to its abundant use in its own trailer, in the Blu-Ray disc menu, and in the film itself. The only time it was appropriate to use this song was in the film it debuted, Cradle to the Grave, which starred DMX alongside Steven Seagal. If I never heard the song again for the rest of my life, I might die with a smile on my face.
Image: Twentieth Century Fox
TL;DR (Conclusion)
Considering how I've fallen behind in the superhero movie barrage that has taken place over the past few years—and I don't really care enough to catch up—I was fine with how Deadpool turned out. Fine. It's not a great movie, it's not a bad one either. I had fun for what it was, but I hope they don't make another one. I don't think the people involved had enough ideas to make another movie about the character that would be very compelling and I don't think they can get away with making the same movie twice. My recommendation would be to do what Deadpool does best, and just let him appear in other Marvel movies as a side character. (spoilers: Deadpool 2 confirmed in production)