From the opening freeze frame of the Merc with a Mouth beating up baddies in the most unconventional ways tuned to the sound of Juice Newton’s “Angel of the Morning,”Deadpool is in every way an hour and 48 minute comic book adventure that does the character justice.
Starring Ryan Reynolds as “God’s perfect idiot,” Ed Skrein as “a British villain” and Morena Baccarin as “a hot chick,” Deadpool introduces audiences to the titillating Wade Wilson and his origin story. Diagnosed with late stage cancer all over his body, Wilson reluctantly agrees to undergo a life-altering procedure not for himself, but for his fiance (queue heartfelt moment). But when the procedure succeeds at the price of his devilishly handsome complexion, Wilson goes into hiding to fix his fracked-up face and get back to his lover. Despite his violent and sarcastic tendencies, Wade does manage to make some friends along his journey, including a blind black woman with a nostalgia for cocaine, a russian man with metal balls and a teenage girl with nuclear abilities.
One of Marvel fanboys biggest concerns leading up to the film was that Reynolds and company wouldn’t be able to pin Wilson’s humor down to a tee, but those concerns are far from the reality. Reynolds takes a fair amount of shots at his former self and aussie Hugh Jackman in X-Men Origins: Wolverine as well as ripping Reynolds first failed superhero attempt Green Lantern. Plenty of penis jokes and roughly 80 f-bombs later, Mr. Wilson appears in a post-credit scene reminiscent of Matthew Broderick’s hooky cult classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Accompanying this extremely malicious love story is a wild soundtrack from the past featuring everyone from DMX to Salt-N-Pepa. Although none of the music seems to follow a theme, the crazy array of song spectrum pairs wonderfully with the unpredictable nature of the character who “looks like an avocado had sex with an older avocado”.
Although the film lacks the comprehensive X-Men involvement that many people were hoping for, which Wilson himself acknowledges, the tandem of a russian-accent Colossus and bratty Negasonic Teenage Warhead provides enough of Xavier’s gifted youngsters to redeem itself. T.J. Miller, billed as the film’s comedic relief in the opening credits, offers a small but satisfactory range of one-liners and quick quips along the ride.
Overall, this movie delivers exactly what it’s supposed to in the best possible ways. The same way Guardians of the Galaxy went against the conventional superhero movie template, Deadpool took the template and tore it to shreds before wiping his ass with it.
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