By Sean Ray | a&e editor
Despite appearing in 2009’s “X-men Origins: Wolverine,” “Deadpool” does not treat that film as canon and even jokes about it several times.
After years of waiting and anticipation, the Merc with a Mouth is finally getting his own movie. “Deadpool” opens tomorrow and the film already has a ton of hype behind it. But with so many super hero movies coming out each year, does this one stand out from the pack? The answer is a resounding, over bloody, over crude yes.
“Deadpool” stars Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson, an ex-soldier now working as a gun for hire who also has a knack for sticking up for the little guy.
For a while, things seem to be going perfectly for Wilson as he marries his sweetheart Vanessa, played by Morena Baccarin. However, things take a turn for the worse when Wilson discovers he has cancer in just about every vital organ in his body.
Not expected to survive, Wilson agrees to undergo a shady science experiment that promises to cure his illness, as well as give him super powers. While the experiment succeeds in stopping his disease from killing him, the cancer cells in Wilson’s body continue to grow and hideously deform him. Angered, Wilson recasts himself as the vigilante Deadpool and hunts down the men responsible for his hideous transformation.
If the plot sounds basic, that’s because it is. Do not expect to get an epic, sweeping tale of intrigue out of “Deadpool.” The real reason to see this movie is for its comedy. Even before becoming a superhero, Deadpool shoots out a constant stream of one-liners and puns, all of which seem to work. After getting his powers, Deadpool’s antics increase further as he gains the ability to regenerate from any injury, allowing himself to get eviscerated in increasingly funny ways. The film is practically “The Three Stooges” meets “Saw” with its slapstick.
Unlike your typical superhero movie, violence is turned up several pegs, with people getting decapitated, impaled and squashed during fight scenes. Furthermore, many of the jokes are crude and the film even features a fight scene with full frontal male nudity (Don’t get too excited, it’s the hideously deformed Deadpool who is naked).
The main character is not the only funny person this film has, however. While completely undersold in the trailers, X-men veteran Colossus, now played by Stefan Kapičić, has several very hilarious moments, and I was surprised to find myself liking him a lot. His teenage sidekick is also quite enjoyable and has a superhero name that just needs to be heard to be believed.
While the cast is strong, some of the more technical aspects of “Deadpool” are pretty lacking. Several CGI shots look extremely amateurish, with one in particular looking like a PlayStation 1 cutscene. Furthermore, while the gunplay is good, several of the hand-to-hand combat moments are very poorly executed, with the director zooming in way too close and cutting way too often. This makes it very hard to tell what is going on in the fight and just gives the audience a headache.
While I would not say “Deadpool” is as good as “Guardians of the Galaxy” or “Ant-man,” two other superhero movies with lots of comedy in them, the film is not far behind. The experience suffers from having a much smaller budget than typical movies of this genre, but makes up for its shortcomings with jokes that will have audiences laughing from the opening credits to the very end. Plus, it is very refreshing to have a different, more adult-oriented superhero film. Let’s just hope the sequel can fix the few mistakes of this one and launch “Deadpool” into greatness.
