Movie review: 'Deadpool' gross and violent but nevertheless entertaining
February 12, 2016 12:00 AM
Let's get one thing straight: though vile and nausea producing, "Deadpool" is a ferociously entertaining movie.
It will single-handedly revive Ryan Reynolds' career as a franchise-worthy superhero after the disastrous "Green Lantern" debacle. It is also revolting thanks to its fascination with bodily fluids, torture, indifference to human life and masturbation jokes.
For better or worse, "Deadpool" is true to its comic book roots by being the most nihilistic, irreverent and epistemologically self-conscious movie to land on the big screen in years. It is funny in ways both sardonic and knee-slapping. It is the anti-Disney version of a Marvel film. I laughed out loud many times, so I'm ashamed of myself for enjoying it so much.
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein.
Rating: R for strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity (not suitable for children or young teens).
As the title character, Mr. Reynolds turns in a genuinely winning performance as the perversely charismatic antihero who runs his mouth while committing acts of mayhem on various and sundry criminal stooges. When mercenary Wade Wilson (Mr. Reynolds), the so-called "Merc with a mouth" is diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer after proposing to exotic dancer Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), he goes to a shady laboratory in search of a radical, experimental cure.
At the lab, Ajax (Ed Skrein) who runs an offshoot of the same WeaponX super-soldier program that created Wolverine, cures Wilson's cancer by torturing him for months. This process unleashes Wilson's powers of regeneration, virtually rendering him immortal.
Bloodied and pulverized, Wilson escapes from the lab, but the once handsome mercenary is horrifically disfigured. Now calling himself Deadpool, Wilson is too self-conscious to let Vanessa know he's still alive. Instead, he begins a quest to kill Ajax and destroy his criminal enterprise.
Throughout the film, Deadpool breaks the fourth wall and engages in so many comic book and cinematic inside jokes in a running dialogue with the audience that he makes the characters in "The Big Bang Theory" sound like extras in "Downton Abbey."
For hard-core comic book geeks, there are appearances by Colossus of the X-Men (created by digital effects) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand). The two heroes want to recruit Deadpool for a slot in the X-Men, but he isn't interested.
For all of its humor and violence, "Deadpool" is one of the most dispiriting movies you'll see this year because it is such a cynical and morality-free cash grab. While there's plenty of evidence that director Tim Miller is actually very smart, the movie has nothing worthwhile to say about anything. It is all explosions, shootings, stabbings and mutilations. This is boring unless you're a sadist.
Fans of superhero movies increasingly have no standards and "Deadpool" is proof of that. It is also critic proof because fans will flock to this film about a lovable, loony wisecracking mercenary like it is the cinematic equivalent of crack — which it is. The soundtrack is incredibly addictive, too. I hate this movie. I love this movie. Like any Marvel film, make sure you stay through the end credits.
Tony Norman: tnorman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1631.
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