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| Title: | Deadpool |
| Director: | Director |
| Starring: | Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccrain, T.J. Miller, Ed Skrein, |
| Genre: | Action, Comedy, Superhero |
| Runtime: | 1 Hour 47 mins |
| Music: | Junkie XL |
| Studio: | 20th Century Fox |
| Certificate: | US: R UK: 15 |
| Release Date: | US: Feb 12 2016 UK: Feb 10 2016 |
| See If You Like: | Kick-Ass, The Change-Up, |
Cue the music…
Not only has Deadpool‘s marketing campaign continually smashed it straight out of the park with months of hilariously inventive and funny posters, pictures, tweets, trailers, and Insta-Vines, but the Deadpool movie has shattered all expectations, all hopes, and proved to be a much-needed cinematic delight; a visual chimichanga if you will.
Returning to the role he first portrayed in X-Men: Origins – Wolverine (though the less said about that shameless misrepresentation of a beloved comic-book character the better), Ryan Reynolds is back as Deadpool, the Merc With A Mouth, in not only Deadpool’s first stand-alone movie, but Deadpool’s origin story, and a true superhero film with a difference; an R-rated (15-cert) hour-and-a-half long bag of fun, filled with swear-ridden put-downs, awesome action, sex references, Ryan Reynolds, and 4th wall-breaking goodness, that’ll have you laughing from start to finish.
Beginning as it means to go on – with the opening credits promising appearances from ‘a British villain’ and ‘a moody teenager’ – Deadpool shows us how Wade Wilson (Reynolds) went from being a sarcastic scoundrel to a sarcastic scoundrel with superpowers (mega healing abilities); via meeting the love of his life (a prostitute played by V‘s Morena Baccrain), finding he’s riddled with cancer, and getting tortured to the brink of death, before embarking upon a revenge-fuelled rampage with the aim of killing his torturer – a vicious clichéd shit (and the typical British villain mentioned in the opening credits) played by The Transporter Refuelled‘s Ed Skrein.
There’s no big master plan for the baddie here (or anything too deep going on anywhere for that matter), all we know is he’s a massive douchebag, and we want Wade to kill him. That’s enough. Hell that’s more than enough. And the simplicity of the story helps not only shed a load of pointless exposition – meaning we keeps the jokes, and the sick action sequences, flowing constantly – but keeps a brisk and effective pace (clocking in at just over an hour and three quarters) which is far snappier than most modern superhero movies, and helps keep the fun button dialled up to unicorn-time.
We’ve appearances from X-Men heroes Colossus (voiced by Stefan Kapicic), and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand, First Girl I Loved), MMA fighter and Fast & Furious 6 star Gina Carano popping up as hard-nosed nasty Angel Dust (a fairly bland, and vocally limited, role which could’ve really been played by anyone who looked vaguely hard), and T.J. Miller (Big Hero 6) putting in an excellent turn as Wade’s comedic best-friend Weasel (who’s not only quick with a quip, but full of meta-busting lines such as “talk to him, he could further the plot”).
Morena Baccarin is also excellent as Wade’s girl Vanessa; a generic girlfriend/damsel-in-distress role which is pulled off thanks to not only Morena’s energy, but the clear on-screen chemistry she shares with Ryan Reynolds (as the two make a brilliant on-screen couple). Yet it’s clearly Ryan who makes Deadpool Deadpool (Ryan was born for this role) – his energy, humour, and love for the character shine through in every scene, sentence, and sexually-charged/sarcastic syllable uttered by the Merc; it’s a fun, energised performance which is refreshingly different, and makes the character not only truer to the comic-books he originated from, but a more enjoyable big screen watch overall.
It’s the differences to classic superhero movies which make Deadpool stand out, and make it a film that’s not only worth watching, but a film you’ll want to watch again and again. More of a comedy than anything else (sure there are romance, superhero, action, and even horror elements included, but it the sheer audaciousness of the comedy which will stick with you), and one which is undeniably ‘grown-up’ (not mature, in any sense… it just makes gratuitous use of the ‘F-word’, sex jokes, and strives to be as vulgar as possible), this is a superhero film for adults. Spitting in the face of P.C., child-friendly, Avengers movies, Deadpool is a shameless piece of pure fun, and one which is not to be missed.
With a sublime soundtrack (featuring not only a Junkie XL score, but music from everyone from DMX to WHAM), awesome action, the best Stan Lee cameo to date, 4th-wall breaking and meta-busting jokes which work as well, if not better than, their Jump Street counterparts, a refreshingly brisk pace, perfectly cast actors, Ryan Reynolds, a great-looking red leather suit, solid direction by Tim Miller (the Scott Pilgrim VFX man who clearly poured his heart and soul into making such a great film), and even the ability to transition from heart-felt emotions to belly-laugh-inducing dick jokes in 3.2 seconds, Deadpool kicks ass.
A fan-pleasing, crowd-pleasing, fan-winning, potential franchise opener, Deadpool is nothing if not fun. In fact, it’s fucking fantastic.
Matt Wheeldon – @TheMattWheeldon.
Verdict: |
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Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Buy from Amazon.com |
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