DEADPOOL (R)

Released by 20th Century Fox/Marvel
Reviewed by Adam Mast

It’s somewhat amazing to consider that 20th Century Fox handed first time feature director Tim Miller, star Ryan Reynolds, and crew a stack of cash and let them set out to make this Marvel passion project the way they wanted to make it. DEADPOOL certainly isn’t on the same scale as THE AVENGERS or CAPTAIN AMERICA but team DEADPOOL got a ton of mileage out of the budget they had to work with.

Furthermore, it should be noted that this flick  unleashes irreverence, juvenile humor, and inspired Ryan Reynolds wisecracks by the bucket loads, and from what I’m told, this is precisely what fans of the lower tier but much-beloved Marvel comic have come to expect.

As DEADPOOL opens, our title character–a red suit-wearing acrobatic smartass whose fighting skills are only rivaled by his wisecrack slinging skills–is engaged in an epic car chase. As he dispatches one bad guy after the next in gloriously violent fashion, Deadpool breaks down that all important 4th wall and begins to share his backstory with viewers directly; A story that involves true love, cancer, and a horrific rogue experiment that would ultimately turn a special forces op-turned-merc into revenge-seeking Deadpool.

DEADPOOL sets the stage right from the get go. The opening credits  aren’t just designed to inform you who was involved in the making of this picture. They were also designed to inform you of the kind of irreverent hijinks that await you by way of self effacing humor and a handful of jokes that are aimed squarely at the world that inspired this movie in the first place.

What follows is a very R rated, very entertaining movie in which super hero tropes are embraced, subverted, and straight up made fun of. But there’s a lot of other stuff going on here, too. The romance between Wade and Vanessa (played by beautiful Morena Baccarin), while seemingly superficial on a surface level, is actually quite sweet, and what’s more, it drives a great deal of the action in this picture. That’s right folks!  In its own oddball way, DEADPOOL emerges as the ultimate in Valentine’s Day entertainment. So see it with the one you love.

As a slice of comic book-inspired bravado, DEADPOOL creates a sort of stand alone vibe (one akin to the likes of  KICK-ASS, DARKMAN, and ROBOCOP)  all while managing to remain firmly grounded in the Marvel universe. The inclusion of wise, sweet-natured and tough as nails Colossus (voiced by Stefan Kapicic) and rebellious Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hilderbrand) make the film all the more amusing.

Reynolds positively owns this role in very much the same way Robert Downey Jr. owns Iron Man and Chris Evans owns Captain America. As is completely evident by his unlimited energy, it’s perfectly clear that Reynolds wants to do good by this character. It’s also clear that he wants viewers to forget that he once played a much less interesting version of Deadpool in 2009’s less than stellar X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE. He even takes a couple of spirited potshots at his own forgettable and all too brief appearance in that movie,  and takes it a step further by making Wolverine himself the butt of a couple of righteously hilarious jokes. And again, there’s the wisecracks. The sarcastic, colorfully profane wisecracks. The kind of wisecracks that would probably send Spider-Man swinging in the opposite direction.

The jokes fly fast and furious throughout DEADPOOL giving this flick a much different flavor than your typical big screen comic book adaptation. This movie plays things incredibly loose, and while some of the jokes fall a little flat, the majority of them stick. The gags come at such a rapid fire clip, that DEADPOOL almost feels like THE NAKED GUN of superhero movies. This isn’t to say that this is a spoof per se but there’s a joke or a sight gag of some kind every few seconds and this aids in giving  DEADPOOL a hyper-kinetic energy that’s hard to resist. The juvenile antics at the core of this picture certainly wont be everyone’s bag, but it’s near impossible to deny the obvious lengths to which the filmmakers behind DEADPOOL have gone in an effort to stay true to the source material and to straight up entertain audiences.

This is a terrifically entertaining feature directorial debut for Miller. Admittedly, DEADPOOL doesn’t have a lot of structure, but the movie as a whole is hilarious, the action sequences are well staged, and the film moves at a breakneck pace. And it looks like there might be more to come. Following the end credits, an amusing stinger (one that pays homage to an iconic 80’s wisecracker of an entirely different ilk) suggests that perhaps we haven’t seen the last of Deadpool. If there is a sequel, let’s hope that Fox follows suit and stays true to the irreverent, juvenile roots of this charismatic, wisecracking sort-of-hero, because who in their right mind would want to be subjected to a watered down Deadpool?