Deadpool (2016)

Deadpool (2016)

Director: Tim Miller

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand

I started collecting comics at the exact time when Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee and Erick Larsen were at the peak of their artistic powers drawing for Marvel Comics. It was a special time to be collecting comics because during the 90’s, comics suddenly became scalding hot! Thanks to artists such as these, comics were selling more than a million comics per issue, something unheard of at the time. Suddenly, these comic book artists were rock stars! It didn’t take long for them to realize their pulling power, so they banded together and branched out on their own, creating Image Comics, a comic book company that went on to become the third biggest comic publisher in the United States, giving Marvel and DC a run for their money. Image Comics success obligated the big two to adjust to the Image Comics style. But before Image Comics came along, these artists created a lot of characters for Marvel Comics, one of these characters was Rob Liefeld’s and Fabian Nicieza’s own brainchild, Deadpool, a character that made it’s big debut on The New Mutants #98, went on to appear in X-Force and later became so popular he got his own publication. Deadpool has come a long way baby! Now his got his own feature film, and it’s an astounding success! Who would’ve thunk it right? Specially coming from a property that the studio had absolutely zero faith in? To use a tired phrase, show’s how much they know right?

Deadpool's first appearance in The New Mutants issue #98

Deadpool tells the tale of Wade Winston Wilson, ex-mercenary who suddenly finds himself with the happy prospect of dying from cancer. But wait, there’s hope for him yet! A mysterious organization offers him the chance of curing his cancer and possibly turning him into a superhero! How can you say no to that? But wait; is it all peaches and cream? Is this deal too good to be true? Of course it is and so, the organization turns out to be an evil organization dealing with genetic experimentation. You see, they take volunteers and inject them with mutant genes, just to see what the hell happens. In Deadpools case, well, he turns into an immortal. No matter what happens to him, he doesn’t die! He regenerates at a lightning fast pace! The problem? Well, Wade ends up looking like Freddy Krueger on Monday morning! Will he get revenge upon those who turned his face into hamburger meat?

The way a Deadpool comic book goes is, he breaks the fourth wall all the time, saying jokes to the audience as he kicks ass. He makes a zillion pop cultural references per second and as he fights the bad guys, he usually gets beaten up pretty badly, and by badly I mean dismembered, torn apart, decapitated, you name it. Cool thing is he quickly regenerates and keeps on ticking. Brilliant thing about the new film is that it didn’t change that one bit, they went with it and simply translated that modus operandi to the big screen, and it works like magic. Deadpool is always talking to us, explaining things, making jokes at the film itself and so forth. That’s right my friends, don’t expect a “normal” movie by any standards. This is the kind of film that purposely breaks as many cinematic rules as it can. In fact, on this film, nothing is sacred, not even the credits sequence! Or the post credits sequence for that matter. If you want to know what to expect for Deadpool 2, stay after the credits!

Since this is Deadpool's first solo film, it is an origin story, so we do see how he came to be, which is cool because this character is not as well known as Superman or Batman, we don’t know how he came to be by heart, and trust me, Deadpool’s origin is very dark for a Marvel movie; which brings me to this films ‘R’ rating. This movie is a very hard ‘R’, there’s nudity, there’s profanity, there’s blood and guts, gore, decapitations, violence galore, sex and dildos. Trust me, you don’t want to be taking your little kids to this movie, because it’s not for little kids! This movie is for adults, or at the very least teenagers who can take a joke dealing with a strap on. Problem is, parents see the Marvel logo and they immediately think it’s okay to take the kids! So please, if you’re a parent be forewarned, this is not a squeaky clean character. He cusses; he lives with a blind lady who loves cocaine, he has no problems shooting villains in the head. By the way, Ryan Reynolds was born to play this role. Often times, Ryan Reynolds non stop jokes can be annoying in other roles, but as Deadpool, his thousand jokes per minute technique fits in perfectly. His character has a good story arch, even tragic. It brought to mind other comic book movies like Spawn (1997) and Darkman (1990), both of which go through similar situations of falling deeply in love, then having trouble reconnecting with their loved one after they've been permanently scarred.  

By the way, it’s refreshing to see an ‘R’ rated film; they’ve become so rare these days. Watching them is like seeing an animal about to become extinct, which is why I’m beyond happy that this movie is doing so well at the box office! I mean, it’s opening weekend was better than all those X-Men movies, all those guys got left in the dust by Deadpool’s success! Okay, here’s some numbers to put things into perspective: the film cost 58 million dollars, a small budget for a Hollywood film. Yet Deadpool went on to make 260 million worldwide on its first weekend! That’s five times its budget! That’s an immediate success story! Obviously we’ll be seeing a Deadpool 2, which by the way was  greenlit even before the first films release so yeah, we’ll see a whole lot more Deadpool. I just hope that Deadpool’s success will propel some studio out there to finally make that Lobo movie! You see, Lobo is DC comics version of Deadpool, only he’s a whole lot meaner, and a whole lot more sci-fi as in he rides a motorcycle through space. Here’s hoping Deadpool opens the door to more ‘R’rated films, I hear Wolverine III is aiming to be an ‘R’ rated film as well. I got my adamantium blades crossed.

Rating: 4 out of 5