By Thomas Cottingham
Staff Writer
The superhero movie genre is not going away anytime soon. In fact, the genre is improving. With violence, sex and crude humor throughout the film, “Deadpool” follows a simple superhero plot that portrays the main character exactly like in the comics.
Ryan Reynolds gets the role he was born to play: a twisted, sword-wielding anti-hero with a filthy sense of humor. The story follows hitman Wade Wilson who gains healing powers after things go wrong during a mutation. He then becomes the red and black, larger-than-life anti-hero known as Deadpool.
This is Marvel’s first “R”-rated movie since “The Punisher” in 2004, and director Tim Miller makes sure you’re seeing an adult movie. During fight scenes, Deadpool graphically chops henchmen’s heads off with blood oozing everywhere. T.J. Miller plays as Weasel, Deadpool’s best friend and partner-in-crime. Miller is a great complement to Reynolds in regards to adult jokes and immaturity.
The movie’s humor is one of the strongest aspects of the film. There are not too many adult superhero movies that have the sick, dry and sarcastic humor of “Deadpool.” For example, when Wilson finds out he is diagnosed with cancer, Vanessa Carlysle, his girlfriend, tries to comfort him. “I love you, Wade Wilson. We can fight this,” she said. Wilson replies, “You’re right. Cancer’s only in my liver, lungs, prostate and brain. All things I can live without.”
The set up for the plot is very basic. It starts out as a superhero origin story and then blends into a revenge plan with two unlikely heroes. The film has everything you would expect from a superhero movie. This formula seems to works thanks to the humor and the fourth-wall-breaking that Deadpool is famous for. Multiple times during the film, Deadpool acknowledges the audience, just like what he does in the comic books.
One brilliant instance of fourth-wall-breaking is when Deadpool arrived at the X-Mansion to talk to two other superheroes: Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Right as they answer the door, Deadpool says, “Wow, this is such a big house, but I only ever see the two of you here. It’s like the studio didn’t have enough money for any more X-Men…” This pokes fun at the studio for giving the film a budget of $58 million, which is pretty low for a superhero movie. 20th Century Fox owns the rights to the X-Men, so Marvel had to pay Fox for the usage of the X-Men characters.
The low budget did not negatively affect the special effects, however. Many scenes, especially the final one, use brilliant special effects, like cars exploding, towers falling and even a CGI character.
The film does have some minor flaws. I do not care for the multiple flashback gimmicks that appear frequently in the beginning of the film. The film’s trailers also ruined the movie a little bit for me because some of the funniest jokes were in the trailers.
This movie is also not for everyone. If you can’t take raunchy jokes and crude sex humor every few minutes, this movie is not for you. Besides that, “Deadpool” is a must-see for comic fans, especially if you can take a wild sense of humor.
cottintf14@bonaventure.edu
