Deadpool (2016)

If you were screwed over, what would you do to get even? In February 2016, Wade is keeping an eye out for a certain someone, and heads will roll until he finds him.

Directing this 108 minute action/adventure/comedy is Tim Miller.

Some of the cast is: Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson/Deadpool, T.J. Miller as Weasel, Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Stefan Kapicic as (voice) Clossus, Gina Carano as Angel Dust and Ed Skrein as Ajax.

Wade Wilson, once a special forces operative, now spends his time as a mercenary for hire. Everything was going pretty good for Wade after he met Vanessa. Sadly, Wade’s happiness doesn’t get to last long, because he just found out he has terminal cancer. Thinking his life was over, Wade didn’t know what else to do but give up. Then out of nowhere, a stranger appears and offers Wade a cure. Unfortunately, what Wade doesn’t know is that cure will have a hefty price tag on it…

Now, before I go any further, I have to say this real quick for everyone out there. Yes, Deadpool is another Marvel comic book character, just like the fun loving X-Men, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Avengers. However! Don’t just look at the Marvel stamp and think “Cool, this will be a good one to take the kiddies to.” IT IS NOT KID FRIENDLY! Don’t take your kids to see this one unless you want to have some long conversations with your kids about what they saw or heard during the movie. So, unless you want to have to explain to the kids what “tea bagging” is, which if you had to Google that then you (now) know you don’t want to have to have that conversation with them. Fact is, I loved this movie, but I know I don’t want to have to explain to my kid why a “superhero” just freaking cut that guy’s head off with a sword or why/where Deadpool was hiding that ring pop… Deadpool is a hard rated R film, with vio-len-ce, lan-guage, nudity and more violence. So, trust me and wait for Thor 3, or some other Marvel flick, but Deadpool is more a film for the adults.

So, in 2009 we were given our first chance to see a live-action version of the Deadpool character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine – and the fans were seriously pis*ed off! The first showing of Deadpool showed us what happens when studio big wigs have too much say in character development and don’t care about source material or if the fans will care. However, back in 2010, a script for a Deadpool movie was leaked and the fans showed a positive reaction, which pushed Fox to green light a small budget to make some test footage. In 2014 the motion captured test footage that was made back in 2012 was leaked online, and the fans flipped out! So, thanks to a few (well placed) leaks the fans reaction showed Fox that there was not only a profitable market for Deadpool but that this was a film that was long overdo to be made.

The story was written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and is based on the Deadpool character by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld. This flick is an origin story, so for any non-comic fans you get a solid and funny introduction to the character. Now, a comic fan will have a different movie going experience, due to a bunch of great nods to the Deadpool comic material that’s scattered throughout the film. Will the difference hurt your movie watching if you’re not a comic fan? No not really, like most films if you don’t catch a joke or visual you just move on and wonder why a couple people are shouting “Yes!”, which is what you’ll do here too. There’s still plenty that’ll having you laughing and make it worth catching. Unlike most of the superhero films that have come out, Deadpool has a darker tone and humor with some, well… quite a bit actually, crude and low brow humor mixed in. Another thing that makes this one stand out from the other superhero flicks is the lack of superheroness from the main character. Deadpool being the anti-hero means even though he might be saving the world, that wasn’t his main goal, just a positive byproduct of his actions.

The playthrough was awesome! As the story unfolds it’s told out of order, but the way it’s pieced together makes it even more entertaining. The out of order storytelling is not confusing at all to follow and also helps break up the scenes, makes for some cool transitions, and keeps things interesting. Also, there are some seriously cool fight scenes throughout the film.

The special effects looked great and everything flowed smoothly. One of the (many) cool things this one has to offer is we finally get the best visual representation of the character Colossus (closest to source material, it’s a geek moment for some… like me), which looked amazing. The CGI, which looked great, blended together well with the rest of the movie.

There have been a few actors/actress over time that have played a comic character, that after it was over, owned the role by taking the character from comic pages and giving it life. Afterwards you’re left thinking that role was made for them and no one else could have pulled it off. Like Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and now on my list… Reynolds as Deadpool.

Now, as great as Reynolds was as Deadpool, he didn’t outshine the rest of the cast’s performances though because everyone brought some high grade talent to the table. I dug the interactions between Miller and Reynolds because they played off each other really well and brought some awesome, sometimes raunchy, jokes to the film. I thought newcomer Brianna Hildebrand was a good addition to the cast and helped make for some funny moments with her delivery as she played the (kind of) serious to Deadpool’s wacky. I’ve seen Baccarin in other stuff, but I really liked her character here and the chemistry between her and Reynolds. Baccarin shows she’s got the talent to do funny, strong and badass all at once.

Is there a sequel in the works, you ask? Well, I don’t want to keep you wondering so, yes there is. By the time the movie was released Fox had already green lit a sequel. Come to find out, the film had a budget of $58 million and has already pulled in $609 million (as of 2/29/2016) so greenlighting a sequel was a brilliant idea Fox. I have to say, Fox isn’t really known for their “great” decision making when it comes to films (like Fantastic Four 2015), but every now and then, they strike gold and this one is proof of that.