Review: DEADPOOL

I have always been a comic book lover. Thinking back to my earliest memories there were always some comic books in the house, whether from my dad or older brother. So throughout my years comic books have had a steady presence in my life. My Spider-Man fandom is well known and aside from my undying love for Batman:the animated series as my definitive Batman, I have never been shy about my loyalty to Marvel. By now most die hard comic fans know all about the differences between a Marvel movie from FOX or another studio and an actual Marvel Studios movie commonly referred to as the Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU.



A big part of the appeal and success to Marvel Studios films can be attributed to their faithfulness to the source material and their characters physical appearance. This has been a huge criticism (among others) in FOX's X-Men franchise. While the films have been extremely successful, fans of the comics have had enough of them steering away from so many of the things that made those characters great in the first place. Not to mention we have had 7 X-Men films now and Wolverine has yet to wear his iconic costume and most feel he probably never will. The X-Men films and their overseer Bryan Singer are still stuck in the early 2000's when comic films had that black leather aesthetic to their costuming. We were granted a brief reprieve when Mathew Vaughn was handed the reins for X-Men First Class a constantly overrated but serviceable soft reboot/prequel to Singer's (and Ratner's) previous X-Men trilogy. The X-Men wore matching uniforms that actually sported the yellow and blue color scheme that was prevalent in their early days and throughout the comics lifespan. Only to have Singer return with more questionable design decisions. Leaving us with a film that finally introduces Sentinels only to have them be nothing like what we have come to know and love which is what made them cool and a fan favorite in the first place. Singers upcoming X-Men Apocalypse seemingly will continue the trait of ruining characters iconic looks with their piss poor visual rendition of the titular villain Apocalypse. Just another installment of black leather and plastic for the X-Men and a villain who is nowhere near as cool or imposing looking as his comic book counterpart. Fox has also recently applied this aesthetic to the recent catastrophe that was the dead on arrival Fantastic Four reboot. So when news that a Deadpool film was finally coming, there was much hype but also much skepticism and it wasn't only because they had already once butchered the character and made him completely unrecognizable in the awful Wolverine:Origins film. So did FOX ruin Deadpool and yet another X film? Lets see shall we?

Full disclosure, other than him looking cool and being funny in cartoons and the Marvel Lego video game, I have never been a big Deadpool fan. I don't dislike him, I just always felt he was a bit overrated by people who have never even read a Deadpool comic in their life, reminds me of a large number of Harley Quinn fans. Of course there ARE plenty of real Deadpool fans and they have always wanted to see him done justice on the big screen, and to be honest at this point, so did I.

FOX for some reason other than the fact that they just seem to love ignoring the whims of their comic film fan base and while pissing everyone off, refused to greenlight THIS particular Deadpool movie which had been in development hell for years. I myself remember reading this script years ago wondering what the problem was. Thanks to the fan outcry over the released test footage of the now famous freeway scene and some real commitment from the films creative team including Ryan Reynolds, the film was greenlit and I am pleased to say that it seems it was all worth it in the end.

Deadpool was made by people who love and believe in the actual character as is, not someone who just want to use a known character to further their own agenda and ideas in the guise of a comic book film. No, these guys wanted to make a movie about the Deadpool everyone knows and loves, and they did it. Deadpool is without a doubt the best X-Men related film to date and not by default either. This is in fact the first time I have ever felt like I was watching the REAL X-Men world come to life. The sad part is, there are literally only 2 X-men in this. TWO X-Men in this film, and they feel more like the X-Men team I am a fan of than any ever found in the Singer films. We are treated to an outstanding version of Colossus that wait for it....actually looks exactly like Colossus from the comics. For some reason director Tim Miller and co. were magically able to translate his iconic look to the big screen flawlessly. Crazy huh? 2016, 7 films, No one good version of Colossus, all it took though was for someone smart to say "Colossus looks like this, not this, make it look right." and it happened. The same should be said for the star of the film. Deadpool himself looks absolutely perfect. There are no unnecessary changes to his look to make some costume designer feel like he put his own stamp on something for no reason at all. No re-imagined backstory or tweaks to his personality by a screenwriter who couldn't care less about the character, and no toning down the violence, sex or mayhem that define the character by a studio who has yet to really hit a homerun as far as faithfulness on one of these comic book movies. Well they have now and I fully believe that is only because they had as little involvement as possible, and because Ryan Reynolds, Tim Miller and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick fought hard to keep the character the way he should be, because that would result in not only a more faithful adaption, but a better film.

Going into this, my expectations were low, I was mostly concerned the film would be too juvenile as a result of trying too hard to be extreme and crass with its humor. Well the film is juvenile, extreme and crass with it's humor but it didn't matter because I was having a blast while watching it.
Deadpool genuinely feels like a comic book come to life, complete with his emotive mask and his signature breakage of the fourth wall. The film immediately separates itself from the other X-films and embraces it's comic book roots, absurdity and all. The violence in the film is gratuitous and rightfully so, the humor juvenile and vulgar yet still lands about 85 % of the time, the action set pieces are well choreographed and exciting. To see a perfectly costumed Deadpool joking around on screen while acrobatically killing off his adversaries felt kind of surreal.

Reynolds is perfect as Deadpool and lends his own likability to the character of Wade Wilson who at times in the comics can come off much more obnoxious than sympathetic. Reynolds is particularly good during his flashback scenes that go deeper into Wilson's history with cancer. I was a bit concerned about the villains in the film but Ed Skrein does a good enough job with what he is given which is mostly a one dimensional villain who is there to advance the plot. That plot itself isn't very complicated either, it's at its core a love/revenge story and it doesn't get much deeper than that, and that is fine as it gives the film a straight forward thread that grounds things enough so that the craziness of everything else is balanced out. The rest of the supporting cast turns in memorable performances across the board. Morena Baccarin is a love interest worth killing for. The always dependable T.J. Miller as Deadpool's best pal delivers the laughs along with Deadpools blind roommate. Even Brianna Hildebrand turns in a nice performance as Negasonic Teenage Warhead (yes thats her full X-Men name). She is one of the more obscure characters from the comics who aside from really powerful mutant abilities, gets the honor of wearing the best ever on screen X-Men uniform, A uniform based on Frank Quitely's New X-Men comic. Yet again another triumph of source material here. As is the aforementioned Colussus who practically steals every scene he is in.

Deadpool makes the most of it's modest 58 million dollar budget. You can tell it doesn't have the 100 million to play with that The Avengers or X-Men do. But it still never fails to impress and look great doing so. While you can tell from a location standpoint that they had to use their money wisely the action, FX and fun never suffers. The score by Junkie XL is also pretty cool, particularly during the early parts of the film.

Deadpool had a lot of hype leading up to it's release, an aggressive and creative marketing campaign made sure it was on the public's radar. That certainly seems to have paid off and the hype I can safely say has been lived up to. Deadpool is a thoroughly entertaining ride that while at times comes off a bit juevenile as it may teeter on the brink of trying too hard with an extra F bomb here or an uncle molestation joke there, it more often than not sticks the landing like it's star does, then proceeds to kick all kinds of ass.

Go see Deadpool this weekend, it's worth it.