Deadpool

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1431045/

Stars: 3

Rated: R

Studios: Marvel Entertainment, TSG
and Twentieth Century Fox

Director: Tim Miller

               Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin

                       TJ Miller and  Ed Skerin              

Length: 108 Min

I am, and always have been, a complete and utter comic book nerd. I grew up reading primarily Marvel; but, every American can say that they likewise have a deep rooted homegrown love of DC as well. Anyone from my generation, and even some from earlier or later, grew up watching the Justice League characters in both film and television. So, given my predisposition to love films based on comic books; it is a good assumption, that I went to see Deadpool opening night.

If you guessed in the affirmative on that question; then, you were absolutely DEAD right. I tried to resist, I really did. I even handcuffed myself to my toilet after I took my kids back home to their moms Friday night. Before long, however, I began to sweat and go crazy. I started referring to myself in the third person and, after about two minutes, I started trying to gnaw my arm off. Since I am not completely insane like Wade Wilson; I realized I had the key, and unlocked the cuffs and headed out to the Carmike Spring Hill. I arrived at the theater two minutes after the film was supposed to start; and, to my great joy, the movie was not sold out. Forgoing the concessions stand, since I had already taken out a second mortgage on my house to buy popcorn last time I was at the theater, I headed in and plopped myself down in my seat.

Now, as much as I wanted to see this film; I was however, apprehensive about the content of the film. Deadpool had been given an “R” rating; and from what I had seen and already read, I was worried that the content would be a little too much for me. I was, however, pleasantly surprised. For all of the hype about the film being a very “hard” R: it was in fact, not quite as bad as I expected it to be. In fact, I had seen plenty of other “R” rated films whose content were much worse. All in all, most of the nudity in the film was contextual to the scenes and not portrayed in a sexual manor. Of course, there is a sex montage between Wade (Ryan Reynolds) and His love interest in the film Copycat (Morena Baccarin). During this montage there is, however, only about a 15 second scene where any nudity is shown; and, both actors are positioned so the audience is unable to see any complete nudity. Other than the sex montage, most of the other nudity is that of Reynolds during his time being experimented on and is not sexual in nature.

There is, however, a scene that takes place in a strip club; and, in this scene there is quite a lot of gratuitous nudity. The scene does not last long; but, it is completely unnecessary to the story and the scene could have been cut so as to minimize any nudity. This one scene, in my opinion, was the one mistake the director made in his final cut of the movie; because, it was only put in for shock factor, and to be offensive. For me personally, if he had chosen to edit this scene differently, I would have enjoyed the movie more. The rest of the content was pretty standard fair for an “R” rated action film, with there being lots of cursing and violence. I did find, however, that pretty much every Quentin Terentino film I’ve had the misfortune of viewing has had more foul language and much more graphic and disturbing violence then this movie did.

Now the story, in all actuality, is nothing really new. Where it is the funniest superhero film I have ever seen; the plot, is nothing new under the sun. In fact, it is pretty basic. Ex-special forces operative becomes mercenary and primarily does jobs that help people; even though, he constantly protests that he is not a good guy or a hero. He meets a girl who is just as screwed up as he is, and he falls in love and then is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He is offered a chance to live by willingly enrolling in a program that will cure him and make him into a superhero. He does; only to find out, that the people experimenting on him are evil and are making him into a super soldier for hire. He escapes, they kidnap his girl and he goes after the bad guys to get revenge. Lots of raunchy jokes and dismemberment ensues and it all works out in the end.

The one element that makes Deadpool different from other superhero films; is that he is completely insane, psychopathic and knows he is only a character in a movie. This fourth wall breaking is nothing new; however, with such films as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off using it long before Deadpool did. Likewise, Guardians of The Galaxy is also a film that takes pseudo heroes and turns them into heroes in a hilarious way; so, even that plot element is not revolutionary. Ryan Reynolds is the perfect cast for Wade Wilson and he fought hard for years to get this film made, and it shows in his acting. In my opinion, I have never before seen a more perfect adaption of a comic book character to the big screen then Reynolds depiction of Deadpool. It was as if he was actually born to play the Merc With a Mouth. There are two Xmen in the film Colossus amazingly voiced by Yevgeniy Kartashov  and Negasonic Teenage Warhead brilliantly played by Brianna Hildebrand. All in all, every member of the cast looks like they are having a rip roaring time making this film; and that shows through in the final project.

Deadpool may not be the best superhero film ever made; but, it could very well be the most enjoyable one. It is a movie that is not for everyone, especially kids; but, it is a very funny film that will make you laugh out loud often, and the fourteen year old in you jump for joy if you let him out. It is raunchy and filled with stupid jokes, over the top and at times ridiculous violence and a plot that could have possibly been written by the strange love child of Nicolas Sparks and a Kevin Smith.  Aside from its few flaws, Deadpool is by far the best superhero adaption Twentieth Century Fox has ever given us. As always, there is a scene after the credits; so, make sure you stay till the very end, it’s worth it. So folks, get yourself some red spandex, but not your kids, and head to your local Cineplex to see Deadpool. I promise you, you will only have to seek out minor psychiatric help after you see it.

This film is rated R for strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and nudity