Movie Review: "Deadpool"

Deadpool (2016)

R

3.5 Stars out of 5

Director                                Tim Miller
Writer                                   Rhett Rease, Paul Wernick
Cinematography                 Ken Seng
Music                                    Junkie XL (Tom Holkenborg)

Ryan Reynolds                      Wade Wilson/Deadpool
Karan Soni                           Dopinder/taxi driver
T.J. Miller                             Weasel
Ed Skrein                              Ajax/Francis
Gina Carano                         Angel Dust
Morena Baccharin             Vanessa
Brianna Hildebrand           Negasonic Teenage Warhead
Stefan Kapičić                     Voice of Colossus
Taylor Hickson                    Meghan Orlovsky
Leslie Uggams                     Blind Al

 

Just call me angel of the morning, angel
Just touch my cheek before you leave me, baby.

Juice Newton, 1981

I thought last year I had reached my limit on comic book-movies. They are so similar, I often struggle to remember which “super hero” beat up which “super villain”. In virtually all cases, we are “treated” to some quasi heroic character that often demolishes cities in their endless quest to vanquish some bad guy or group of bad guys that just can’t be beat until the requisite two hour run time has been reached. There is no real confrontation based on skills and strengths that bear any relationship to reality. (And therein lies the root problem: if you are Superman, and as a consequence invincible, there is no genuine dramatic tension as to your character’s peril or its resolution.) However, in 2014 we did have “Guardians of the Galaxy”, and lo I was entertained. That movie’s characters had some abilities, some strengths and weaknesses, and they had a wisecracking raccoon. (And quite frankly, I can’t resist snarky raccoons.) Now, in 2016 we are treated with more sarcasm dispensed by a super hero in “Deadpool”. This film suffers just as all the other comic book-movies do for its derivativeness and predictability of the action scene outcomes. Fortunately, “Deadpool” the movie has a saving grace: Deadpool the character is often funny; at least he’s funny, if like me, you enjoy wisecrackers especially if they are in red tights.

There is a skeleton of story; though in all honesty, it really seems to be there solely for the purpose of allowing Deadpool or his pre-super hero form cut up non-stop at the expense of almost everyone around him. His pre-super character is Wade Williams (Ryan Reynolds). He is ex-special forces and works for some odd outfit that sends out its tough guys to intimidate bad guys that are stalking people. (Or some such; I’m pretty sure all of the targets are truly bad, while our hero Wade and the company he works for just looks bad; at heart, they surely have hearts of gold.). In any event, this company has a kind of receptionist or dispatch agent (it’s not clear) by the name of Weasel (what else) played by T. J. Miller. Weasel is evidently as snarky as Wade, and as such he runs a pool to see who will die first at the company, i.e. a Dead Pool.

And for some reason or other, there is a stripper or escort by the name of Vanessa (Morena Baccharin) that drops by one day, perhaps for no other reason than to fall in love with Wade; which they do. Darn, just as Wade proposes to Vanessa, he drops unconscious. It turns out he’s got some kind of nasty cancer and only a short time to live. Fortunately for Wade, there’s another company out there that is a really nasty company called Weapon X. They go around finding people in trouble so they can activate their dormant mutant genes and then sell off the newly mutated lost soul to the highest bidder. Their recruiter (Jared) comes calling and signs Wade up. He drinks (or has it injected) the dormant-mutant-genes-activating cool-aid and becomes a latent super hero. Along the way he learns to hate the Weapon X leaders, Ajax (aka Francis played by Ed Skrein, and Angel Dust played by Gina Carano). The reason he hates them is because their methods for finishing Wade’s transformation require torturing him following the cool-aid treatment; this converts him from a latent to active mutant super hero. Make sense?

So, there you have the plot. Wade is a good guy that cracks jokes and gets turned into a super-man that heals very quickly, shoots real well, can do acrobatic twists and turns in the air, and oh yeah, crack jokes. He goes after Francis and Angel after he recruits some help from a couple of characters from the X-Men universe. They are Colossus (voiced by Stefan Kapičić) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand). Together, the three of them go and beat up Francis and Angel, and while they are there, rescue Vanessa.

The point though is very clearly not Deadpool’s (the name Wade and Weasel choose for the Super hero version of Wade) origin, or why he’s annoyed with Francis and Angel, or really much of anything that makes very much sense; this is after all a comic book-movie, though one with a sense of humor. That sense of humor is expressed in the very first image (it’s not really a scene). That image is a beautiful long panning/telescoping image of a frozen scene. It plays out to the music of “Angel of the Morning” by Juice Newton. What is the image, does it have anything to do with Newton’s lovely song; um, need you ask? It is a superb example of what can be done with modern photography and CGI. The pan will begin with a close up of a bullet and will telescope back and over a rotating car that contains our hero, one of his recent victims and any number of flying objects, all frozen in time and space. It is a very cool opening, and it gets better as the credits begin to roll. I will go so far to say, this is my favorite part of the movie and is a great introduction to the snarkiness to come. Each member of the cast is describes as a stereotype rather than named. Most of the descriptions are hilarious; most especially those designated as the writers, i.e. “The Real Heroes of this Movie”.

This movie is fun for adults that enjoy sarcasm and don’t mind very dark humor. An example of the latter involves Deadpool’s discussion with the audience as he breaks the fourth wall (which he does throughout the movie) to mention that he forgot his ammo and must confront a large force of bad guys with only twelve bullets. He jokes his way through the ensuing killings as the audience is allowed to see a countdown on the bullet casings from 12 to 1. It is very black humor. There is no doubt that people are dying at the hands of our humorous anti-hero hero. So, if you like very good CGI, pretty decent pacing for movies of this type, rampant cynicism and the associated sarcastic humor, you might well like this movie. I must warn you, though, this is not a movie for kids, comic book genre or not.