It's true. Deadpool has arguably the worst story ever for a superhero movie. The only thing that comes anywhere close is the forgettable Daredevil and Ryan Reynolds' embarrassment that called itself the Green Lantern movie.
Funny thing is, you don't really realise how absolutely crappy the story is until you leave the theatre, start your car and fish for your wallet to find the parking stub. And it's probably because you'd been laughing so hard through the film, all along wondering if they decided to spoof themselves as hard as they have to ensure somebody else doesn't do it on YouTube.
Deadpool is the most irreverent, foul mouthed, smart a**ed, selfish immortal you'll ever spot in red spandex. And from start to finish it's a hoot and a half. Loosely patched into the X Men comic universe, Deadpool is Wade Williams, a strongman who threatens stalkers to stop them bugging teens, who collapses with end stage cancer just after he proposes to his hot, hot girlfriend. When hope is at a premium well beyond their seedy means, he takes up a mysterious offer from a man in a black suit who says he can help him beat the cancer. Unfortunately, the 'cure' is a series of forced genetic mutations that are pressed into his body by the slightly kooky but eminently watchable Francis Freeman (Ed Skrein). It's weird how he keeps asking Reynolds if he remembers his name (sounds like some weird fetishy version of who's your daddy). Meanwhile, the treatment and the physical torture turn Reynolds' Man-of-the-year looks into something out of Frankenstein. It also makes sligh tly immortal. Which would be a cool power to have except he still bleeds and stuff. It's just that he can regenerate most parts of his body. Given time, encouragement and plenty of porn.
Packed with comic lines that would have made Harold, Kumar and Borat proud all at once, Deadpool is a fun movie because it doesn't pretend to be a superhero movie. Heck, it doesn't even pretend to be a movie with any amount of seriousness. Ryan Reynolds brings every bit of comic acumen that he has had to hold back in his recent run of Parental Guidance rated films and takes a solid trip on the studios, superhero films, the X Men, love stories and practically everything else that makes a movie, well, a movie.
He also frequently looks into the fourth wall and makes sure your laughter levels don't drop any, "You're probably here because your boyfriend said this was a superhero movie. Well, I am super, but I'm no hero," he says, before killing every bad guy in sight. And just to be clear, there's no world peace motive that he's got running. It's just simple, undiluted, comic book revenge for making him look like the average zombie.
The downside, other than the way-too-corny gags at the end, is that there's a fair share of gore.
The sex, the lines and the number of times they all cuss on screen are so frequent that you almost agree with the guys at the censor board who slapped it with an A certificate. Sidebar: the guys at the theatre were giving plenty of college students the once over, asking for id cards and what not, which belies a rare adherence to protocol. Morality, much?
All that aside, Ryan Reynolds ought to thank his stars that Deadpool, with a script that would have made his Green Lantern movie look like an Oscar frontrunner, is so slapstick you'll love it. And then some.
Wonder what'll happen when they put him and Wolverine in the same movie.
