The Horror Show
Deadpool
by Tim Miller
There are people who hate Ryan Reynolds and there are people who simply adore him. I’ve always enjoyed his semi-goofiness in such films as Van Wilder and Waiting, and absolutely dug him in Blade: Trinity and Green Lantern. I also know that he lobbied so hard to get this iteration of the Deadpool character behind the cameras again, after appearing once in the Wolverine: Origins film from a few years back.
This time all that hard work paid off, as Reynolds fought with producers from Fox to get this film made as early as 2004. It’s a shame the studio had so little faith in the actor’s abilities to bring the “Merc with a mouth” to life in the way the character was always intended to be seen. In fact it wasn’t until the positive response from fans over the test footage that the Studio finally caved in to the erstwhile actor’s wishes.
So lo and behold, Deadpool finally gets made and with an “R” rating attached, proving that sex, violence and hard language could really lift this superhero story into the next stratosphere - perhaps even setting the example for future super hero movies to follow a similar path.
I also feel the way the film was marketed, truly helped to bring this project so much fanfare and box office gold to boot. Reynolds was well suited to play the much maligned Wade Wilson, whose turn as a Special Forces operative turned mercenary, helped his plight to get cancer and then undergo a radical medical procedure – proves to be a slapstick ride filled with nothing but blood and guts.
The film also includes appearances by Colossus from the X-Men and Negasonic Teenage Warehead, both appearing as quality supporting characters. The inclusion of these mutant heroes helps bring depth, humor and more importantly some fantastic dialogue exchanges between Piotor, Deadpool and Ellie. I laughed my ass off throughout the last half of the film, especially when the action is amped up to the ninth degree!
If I had one major complaint, it would be over how boring the main antagonist (Ajax) and his crew were deployed as faceless baddies and obviously used as plot points to move the story along. I would have preferred if the writers stuck to the character’s sequential roots by including Striker as the main villain. Sadly, that wasn’t the case and we end up getting an ok fight scene at the end of the film that was pedestrian and predictable. If anything else, the film lays heavily on the orgiastic moments of video game style violence and nasty dialogue to really drive the point home at how unique Deadpool is and how the hard “R” rating was warranted.
As a whole though, this film lends itself fully to Reynolds’ style of goofy in your face acting and it goes to show you how perseverance pays off in the end. He was able to prove everyone wrong and the film also became a huge success at the box office. I even hear a sequel is in the works and since the film has grossed over 315 million, the fine folks at Fox can now see the merits of an “R” rated super hero movie, so that’s got to count for something.
Kenneth Gallant, HMS
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