Review by Gavin Bard
"Whatever they did to me made me totally indestructible... and completely unfuckable."
Like a lot of people, I have to qualify my enjoyment of Deadpool as a comic book - and now movie - hero. Even as a snotty preteen I knew to tune out of superhero comics almost entirely during the Dark N Gritty 90s, but one of the few titles that I kept track of ended up being Cable & Deadpool. Where as every other comic was trying to one up each other with these joyless super serious violence parties, Deadpool was pointing out how awful they all were and pinning absurdity to the tropes that dominated the era and was one of the only things in the entire Marvel roster that could be considered fun at the time. Because of that I always had a soft spot for what eventually became a character with one of the most annoying groups of fanboys in comics.
I always understood why so many of Deadpool's fans were the comic book fan equivalent of an anonymous internet commenter calling someone a feminazi slut at the top of their internet lungs, Deadpool's humor turns the thin line between amusingly sophomoric and unbearably frat boy into barely visible fishing wire. So he ends up attracting just as many people who think Dirty Grandpa only failed because of THE PC POLICE as he does people who want to read a subversive super hero story. That tight rope walk is also why Deadpool's comics can be so hit or miss depending on the team helming them.
So what I'm getting at here is that, as a highfalutin intellectual fan of a medium of entertainment originally created to sell X-Ray Specs to 10 year olds, I like Deadpool despite completely acknowledging the validity of every reason that I shouldn't. I know I should hate him because a chunk of his fans have large collections of Guy Fieri flame shirts, I know I should hate him because the quality of his comics is up and down more than a dirty gas station toilet seat, I know I should hate him for being the lelsorandum meme superhero that was practically begging for product oversaturation between the Minecraft and Grumpy Cat shit at Hot Topic, but despite all that when Deadpool works it is one of the most entertaining aspects of the Marvel universe.
Surprise, the movie is no different.
Everything everybody said about why Deadpool isn't a true shock to the superhero movie formula is right. The general plot of Deadpool - in which he must exact revenge against the people who made him and rescue his girlfriend - is what you would expect from an origin story, although at least it is told in a slightly more narratively unique way for the genre. The comedy is one long dick joke and Deadpool's literally constant riffing means just as many jokes fall flat as land. The X-Men plot line exists only to tie Deadpool back into the Fox franchise and, by doing so, lessens the impact of the movie's own winking and nudging about the nature of the superhero film. All of this is true.
Yet it is still such a fun watch. I'm sure you could attribute that to Ryan Reynolds' destiny to embody the character, but you could say the same thing about Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and that wasn't enough to make Wolverine Origins not awful. Robert Downey's pitch perfect Tony Stark couldn't save Iron Man 2 from borderline mediocrity. Great casting isn't enough to carry a movie so it wasn't the sole reason that Deadpool ends up being the greater sum of its seemingly lesser parts.
I think the reason this ends up being so enjoyable is simply because it represents something different in this genre even if it doesn't take as many chances narratively as it should. Plus it is easy to ignore the shortcomings in a plot when it involves the perpetually underrated Negasonic Teenage Warhead and much deserved open mockery of the Marvel/Fox comic universe. Sure, the X-Men stuff is a little tacked on, but picking the forever moping Negasonic Teenage Warhead and the forever Russian Boy Scout Collosus to be Deadpool's foils from the group. It also doesn't hurt that the action is probably as splatterrific as we are ever going to get in a mainstream superhero movie now that the Punisher is kicking around on Netflix. Hell, it was almost worth the price of admission just to see the look on all the parents who thought it was a good idea to bring their kids when the gratuitous sex scene kicked in
The question is if any of that is enough for you. This isn't a parody or a piece of satire as much as it is just a regular Marvel flick with its constantly regenerating tongue placed right up against its hideously deformed cheek. It is a completely smug movie, but Deadpool knows you know it knows its being smug. As long as you know that Deadpool knows that you know it knows this is some of the most fun you are going to have in a Marvel movie this side of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 or a Great Lakes Avengers film.
WATCH if you want to see a snuff film for fourth walls. DON'T WATCH if you just want to wait for the inevitably better sequel.
"Whatever they did to me made me totally indestructible... and completely unfuckable."
Like a lot of people, I have to qualify my enjoyment of Deadpool as a comic book - and now movie - hero. Even as a snotty preteen I knew to tune out of superhero comics almost entirely during the Dark N Gritty 90s, but one of the few titles that I kept track of ended up being Cable & Deadpool. Where as every other comic was trying to one up each other with these joyless super serious violence parties, Deadpool was pointing out how awful they all were and pinning absurdity to the tropes that dominated the era and was one of the only things in the entire Marvel roster that could be considered fun at the time. Because of that I always had a soft spot for what eventually became a character with one of the most annoying groups of fanboys in comics.
I always understood why so many of Deadpool's fans were the comic book fan equivalent of an anonymous internet commenter calling someone a feminazi slut at the top of their internet lungs, Deadpool's humor turns the thin line between amusingly sophomoric and unbearably frat boy into barely visible fishing wire. So he ends up attracting just as many people who think Dirty Grandpa only failed because of THE PC POLICE as he does people who want to read a subversive super hero story. That tight rope walk is also why Deadpool's comics can be so hit or miss depending on the team helming them.
So what I'm getting at here is that, as a highfalutin intellectual fan of a medium of entertainment originally created to sell X-Ray Specs to 10 year olds, I like Deadpool despite completely acknowledging the validity of every reason that I shouldn't. I know I should hate him because a chunk of his fans have large collections of Guy Fieri flame shirts, I know I should hate him because the quality of his comics is up and down more than a dirty gas station toilet seat, I know I should hate him for being the lelsorandum meme superhero that was practically begging for product oversaturation between the Minecraft and Grumpy Cat shit at Hot Topic, but despite all that when Deadpool works it is one of the most entertaining aspects of the Marvel universe.
Surprise, the movie is no different.
Everything everybody said about why Deadpool isn't a true shock to the superhero movie formula is right. The general plot of Deadpool - in which he must exact revenge against the people who made him and rescue his girlfriend - is what you would expect from an origin story, although at least it is told in a slightly more narratively unique way for the genre. The comedy is one long dick joke and Deadpool's literally constant riffing means just as many jokes fall flat as land. The X-Men plot line exists only to tie Deadpool back into the Fox franchise and, by doing so, lessens the impact of the movie's own winking and nudging about the nature of the superhero film. All of this is true.
Yet it is still such a fun watch. I'm sure you could attribute that to Ryan Reynolds' destiny to embody the character, but you could say the same thing about Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and that wasn't enough to make Wolverine Origins not awful. Robert Downey's pitch perfect Tony Stark couldn't save Iron Man 2 from borderline mediocrity. Great casting isn't enough to carry a movie so it wasn't the sole reason that Deadpool ends up being the greater sum of its seemingly lesser parts.
I think the reason this ends up being so enjoyable is simply because it represents something different in this genre even if it doesn't take as many chances narratively as it should. Plus it is easy to ignore the shortcomings in a plot when it involves the perpetually underrated Negasonic Teenage Warhead and much deserved open mockery of the Marvel/Fox comic universe. Sure, the X-Men stuff is a little tacked on, but picking the forever moping Negasonic Teenage Warhead and the forever Russian Boy Scout Collosus to be Deadpool's foils from the group. It also doesn't hurt that the action is probably as splatterrific as we are ever going to get in a mainstream superhero movie now that the Punisher is kicking around on Netflix. Hell, it was almost worth the price of admission just to see the look on all the parents who thought it was a good idea to bring their kids when the gratuitous sex scene kicked in
The question is if any of that is enough for you. This isn't a parody or a piece of satire as much as it is just a regular Marvel flick with its constantly regenerating tongue placed right up against its hideously deformed cheek. It is a completely smug movie, but Deadpool knows you know it knows its being smug. As long as you know that Deadpool knows that you know it knows this is some of the most fun you are going to have in a Marvel movie this side of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 or a Great Lakes Avengers film.
WATCH if you want to see a snuff film for fourth walls. DON'T WATCH if you just want to wait for the inevitably better sequel.
Gavin Bard
Light Fantastic
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