Deadpool: The Review

By Paul McIntyre

The following review contains extensive spoilers. If you haven't seen Deadpool yet, do not read on. Go and see it, then come back here and enjoy the review. You might just enjoy the read as much as you will no doubt enjoy the movie.

Deadpool is one of the most enjoyable films you will see in 2016.

I feel as though I'm writing the introduction of a press release with such a positive opening statement, but there you have it. A product of fan support and a great deal of dedication from the creator and cast, Deadpool is a veritable feast of hilarity.

A riot of a movie, there is very little in the movie to critique or complain about. It is by no means a flawless movie; it is, however, everything that was needed to satisfy a fan base with a great degree of anticipation and a large amount of expectation.

In many ways, the movie is a love letter. A love letter to its character, to the character's fans, and to the industry from which he comes. And in many ways, that is atypical of the modern superhero movie.

Most superhero movies, as much as we may enjoy them, await them and dissect them, now have an agenda. A mandate, if you will, to establish continuity and to expand the pre-existing universe.

Captain America: Civil War will no doubt be a great deal of fun. However, it will also spend quite a lot of time laying the groundwork for future Marvel films. Batman v Superman will pit two of the most iconic fictional characters against one another, but will also be DC's first jigsaw piece in their attempt at the puzzle of a cinematic universe.

Deadpool isn't like that. This is no doubt related to the nature of its character, and also to the fact that there was every chance the movie would never be made. That is, until test footage leaked and the characters fans bombarded Fox with demands for the movie to be made. This was their reward.

And it's certainly a fantastic one.

Deadpool is a tonic to the self-serious, grandiose, epic and over-arching comic book movies of DC, Marvel, and yes, even Fox itself. An irreverent and self-referential piece of cinema - What else? It is Deadpool, after all - with an attitude much like its titular character.

That being: fuck it, let's have some fun.

The story may spoof the typical superhero formula and tropes, but it certainly doesn't mind deriving from them.

Wade Wilson is our protagonist; not a 'hero', the moniker he so despises. He is a mercenary who is comedic, dangerous, self-serving and self-aware. When he falls in love - Happy Valentine's, folks - things appear to be going his way, until he suddenly discovers that his body is riddled with terminal cancer.

Having found love in Vanessa, Wade chooses to live for her and undergoes an experimental surgery. Sponsored by a shady, clandestine organisation, the operations that take place are designed not only to cure him but also to give him superhuman abilities.

Said operations are, in truth, rituals of torture designed to imperil him and awaken any latent mutant genes, which are then meant to activate any powers he may possess.

The results are both everything and nothing he was looking for; his cancer is cured, and he is bestowed with superhuman abilities in the form of a rapid healing factor. However, he is also horrifically disfigured, which later influences his decision to don his red-and-black costumer while seeking revenge on Francis... er, Ajax, who was responsible for his torture and disfigurement.

This does not happen chronologically, however, instead taking place via a series of flashbacks designed to establish Wilson's origin. Instead, we open with his pursuit of Francis, which has been ongoing for a year after his operation.

In that time, he has executed Francis' entire crew in pursuit of the villain. What's more, he has crossed paths with whatever canonical example of the X-Men exist in his timeline. He is familiar to Colossus, for example, who is a big feature in the movie along with his mutant protege Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

Colossus has tried on many occasions to convince Deadpool to join the X-Men and Xavier's crusade, but Deadpool won't do that, especially when he doesn't know if he'll be working for "McAvoy or Stewart". They of course become entwined with his crusade of revenge, as Deadpool looks to kill Francis and win back his girl.

Along the way, he learns absolutely nothing.

Now normally, that would be a bad thing. A protagonist should progress and evolve, right? Not so in the case of Deadpool. He starts out as a deranged, profane and pop culture-referencing anti-hero, and finishes that way. And that's exactly what fans of this movie want to see.

The humour in this film is what elevates it to excellence. Deadpool was always a movie that would live or die by the quality of its script, and fortunately it excels on every level in terms of dialogue.

Wade Wilson is joyously vulgar, meta and culturally relevant. He of course knows that he's in a movie and frequently addresses the audience, making reference to himself, to Ryan Reynolds, to Wolverine, Hugh Jackman, and to the other X-Men the studio "couldn't afford" for the movie.

What is perhaps most impressive about the entire movie is that the humour caters to both hardcore comic book audiences and the broader, mainstream audiences that are just looking for a blockbuster to enjoy.

Educated fans are rewarded with Easter eggs that reference Rob Liefeld and Ryan Reynolds' disastrous turn as Green Lantern. At the same time, though, this doesn't distract from the jokes everyone can enjoy about Deadpool getting his own movie by fondling the balls of someone whose name "rhymes with Polverine".

Perhaps time will colour my view of the entire experience, but for now at least I can't find a single fault with the movie. I will go on record as saying that Deadpool is not a comic book character I like; I can't read his series because I need more from a comic book than meta humour, R-rated jokes and internet memes.

That doesn't mean I can't indulge in it for two hours as a movie, though. Deadpool, for all intents and purposes, was born to be a star on the big screen.

Despite my general indifference towards the character, I wanted this film to be a success. Everyone involved spoke of it with such pride and dedication, and Ryan Reynolds in particular seemed born to play Wade Wilson and desperate for the opportunity.

I'm pleased to report the movie was everything I wanted and more. I have no doubt that Deadpool's fans and those that see the movie will feel exactly the same.

​Liefeld's still no artist, though.