[yasr_overall_rating]
A former Special Forces operative turned mercenary is subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopting the alter ego Deadpool.
Okay, let’s get the obvious question out of the way, is “Deadpool” good? The only way I can sincerely answer, is by swearing, something I typically try to avoid on this site because I feel that one should be able to critique a movie without resorting to profanity, no matter how bad the film may be. But, getting back to the question at hand, is “Deadpool” any good? HELL FUCKING YEAH! Okay, that was said standing upright with my arms stretched straight up over my head, fists clenched. “Deadpool” is everything you are expecting plus more. Ryan Reynolds embodies the character of Deadpool perfectly. It is hard, no, make that impossible, to imagine any other actor in the role. He is not a superhero, he is an antihero, a wise-cracking, foul-mouthed, X-rated, sexually-explicit, unrefined, narcissistic antihero. And those are his good qualities.
There is some semblance of a storyline but Deadpool’s antics is what you are going to see this movie for. As the movie begins, we discover that Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), a former special forces operative, works with a small group of ex-soldiers, eradicating the local crime lords and thugs. When Wade meets Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) in a bar, they fall hard for each other and just as things are beginning to look rosy for the couple, Wade is diagnosed with inoperable cancer. When he is approached in the bar one night by a strange fellow who calls himself The Recruiter (Jed Rees), he informs Wade that he works for an organization with the capability to cure his cancer. Wade tells him he’s not interested but as time goes by, and the cancer worsens, he rethinks his situation and not wanting Vanessa to see his deterioration, he disappears into the night, leaving her on her own, and contacts The Recruiter.
Given the impression that he will be administered the power of accelerated healing, thereby reconstructing any damaged tissue, things change drastically after he meets Ajax (Ed Skrein), the leader of the group, and quickly realizes that they are using people for genetic experimentation. Against his will, he is tied up and forced to go through with the procedure and while it does cure his cancer, it turns his body inside out, severely scarring him from head to toe. After managing to escape, and blowing everything up in the process, he immediately designs an outfit and mask to disguise his unsightly appearance. He then sets out to locate Ajax, with the unlikeliest assistance of two fellow mutants, Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), a teenage X-Men trainee.
“Deadpool” grabs you from the opening scene in which the camera traverses its way around the interior of an SUV in mid-air, upside down, and shows you each character, in some form of motionless posture, and for the bad guys, it’s the embodiment of agonizing pain after Deadpool has either shot them, stuffed a hot cigarette lighter in their mouth, or thrown them from the vehicle. Like Ferris Bueller before him, Deadpool constantly breaks the fourth wall and in movie speak, that basically means he stops whatever he’s doing and addresses the audience. It could be an acrimonious one-liner, or it could be him letting us know what he is going to do next or what he is presently feeling. Ryan Reynolds played the same character in the uninspiring “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” back in 2009 but that movie, although considered canon in the X-Men universe, and which is reviled by fans, presented Wade Wilson as more of a secondary character and one that neither Reynolds, nor the fans, care to remember.
“Deadpool” is rated a hard “R” for violence, language, nudity, violence, language, violence, and violent language. If you are a fan, you are going to absolutely love it. If you are an X-Men fan, you will go absolutely bat-shit crazy at the amount of references, inside jokes, and disparaging comic one-liners Deadpool throws in their direction. There is plenty of action and mayhem to satisfy the most bloodthirsty fans but make no mistake, this movie, first and foremost, is a showcase for Ryan Reynolds and his defamatory, offensive, and sharp-tongued sense of humor. If that’s not your thing, you might want to check out “How To Be Single” instead.
In theaters February 12th
