By Brendan Bogley
Anybody who is at all familiar with the Deadpool character knows to expect wisecracks and a foul mouth, broken fourth walls and envelopes pushed. I was given the opportunity to see the “Deadpool” movie, and I enjoyed it as much as a mouse in a maze made of cheese. Say that five times fast if you can.
Preceding the movie, I believed I had an optimal amount of knowledge to take into the theater. I was familiar with the Marvel movies and comics, but I knew little about Deadpool other than understanding him to be a smart-aleck who crosses more lines than a teenager practicing his driving in an empty parking lot. Therefore, I was informed enough to enjoy much of what would be presented, and unapprised enough to enjoy discovering more.
Before the less-than-revelatory opening credits have even finished, the audience is well aware of the movie’s tone. From the very start the fourth wall has been breached enough so that one almost questions if the aforementioned wall was present to begin with. Opening into the midst of a combat with more gore than perhaps any previous Marvel movie, the audience realizes that their expectations will be expressly met.
Almost every moment of the film is entertaining, filled with either action or absurd banter. The movie is not simply composed of blazing gunfire and rhetoric, however. The story itself is compelling and has a great flow. The exchange between scenes in the present and explanatory flashbacks is paced excellently, neither proceeding for too long without returning to the other.
With the sparse knowledge I had of the character, I expected to find little redeemable in a protagonist with such ethical abandon. Perhaps the thing I enjoyed most about “Deadpool” was discovering how wrong I was. Despite all of his shortcomings, I felt sympathy for the “hero” and I was rooting for him for reasons other than that the movie bore his namesake. I wanted this character to succeed in his endeavors, and I lamented his losses with him. I was surprised how serious the movie ended up being, but I found that the contrasting levels of both sobering and lighthearted moments did not take away from each other. Rather, they came together to give the film a sense of completeness.
To offset Deadpool’s generally comedic personality, other characters are scattered throughout the film who ground it in some measure of rationality. Chiefly among this cast is the X-Men character Colossus, someone with steadfast morals.
According to Yahoo! Movies, Colossus was also chosen for the film because the writers felt the character had not been done justice in the “X-Men” movies. I can personally say that I was satisfied with not only his direction but with his physical appearance, which was more in keeping with how he was drawn in the comics than his past cinematic incarnations had been.
Furthermore, this movie rewards those who have seen other installments in the Marvel movies, providing references to past films.
My one complaint with the movie is the gratuitous nudity and sexual content. I realized that such material would be in a movie about Deadpool, considering the character’s commitment to shocking his readers. However, I found that aside from being unnecessary, not all of the moments contributed to Deadpool’s wanton behavior. One scene at a strip club, for instance, is actually one of the more serious scenes in the story. Although the setting being a strip club does contribute to the atmosphere of the narrative, it was excessively graphic. Previous movies have included moments in strip clubs without resorting to frontal nudity, and this movie did not require such shots to create the desired mood. On the contrary, it only served to dilute the gravity of the situation.
Aside from this, I was stunned with how much I enjoyed “Deadpool”. There was abundant humor, action and material that was aimed towards fans of Marvel comics and movies. I cannot remember the last time I had that much fun in a theater, or while watching a movie altogether. “Deadpool” remained as true to its title character as I have ever seen a film do, and it was overall a fantastic movie.
True to the style of many Marvel movies, “Deadpool” contains a scene for those who remain watching until after the end credits. Without revealing anything, all I can say is that I would strongly recommend waiting to see this extra content.
