Directed by: Tim Miller
Written by:
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Ed Skrein
Budget; $50 Million
Deadpool has legitimately arrived on screens in all his fourth wall breaking, obscenity quipping, bad guy killing glory. Depending on your view of the Deadpool character in the abysmal X-Men Origins: Wolverine, this counts as the first time the merc with the mouth has been on the big screen. Objectively, the mouth-less, suit-less, arm-sword wielding version presented for the final battle in Origins bears no resemblance to the comic counterpart. According to reports that surfaced after the fact, those design choices were pressured by the studio as they doubted the viability of a closer adaptation. It has been the better part of ten years since that movie released and the landscape of comic book movies and cinema in general has shifted vastly; in the time since then, the Avengers have assembled (twice), Guardians of the Galaxy have been appointed, the Justice League is dawning and even the X-Men Cinematic Universe has hit the reset button via the time travelling hijinks of Days of Future Past. Not to mention Fox’s other Marvel property the Fantastic Four died a spectacular, and surprisingly similar to Origins’, death.
The intervening decade saw Ryan Reynolds pursue further leading man and franchise roles in films such as the disappointing Green Lantern (harshly treated), the experimental Buried and the poorly conceived R.I.P.D. He has been given a couple of opportunities to lead franchises but, through no fault of his own, they didn’t pan out. Further back than Origins, he played a vampire hunter in Blade: Trinity, the set of which birthed his interest in the Wade Wilson character. His character was a smart mouthed, sword wielding bad ass, loosely similar to Deadpool. The similarity was noticed by somebody on set who handed Reynolds his first Deadpool comic, and so began his mission to bring the merc with the mouth to the big screen. Along the way he formed a small posse that aided in crafting the story – writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick along with first time director Tim Miller.
So, what is the result of this near decade of work? Well, in a word – beautiful. The end result is a clear labour of love, of artistic determination and innovation overcoming studio interference. The story follows the titular hero in a Batman Begins-esque structure; we begin at a “present point” of the story and flash back periodically to fill in the back-story with the two time-lines converging going in to the third act. The story is simple; boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy gets cancer, then gets superpowers from a “cure”, girlfriend gets kidnapped and boy begins trail of vengeance. Our villain of the piece is Game of Thrones alum Ed Skrien as Ajax/Francis who seems to be in charge of the vague Hydra-like-but-for-legal-reasons-NOT-Hyrda-but-also-kind-of-Weapon-X group that has been snapping up the desperate for dangerous experiments that potentially give superpowers.
The plot is very paint by numbers but the film doesn’t exist for the engrossing plot, the plot is supposed to serve as a frame work in which all the madness of the character can run wild. Whilst it cannot be said that every joke lands, it is certainly the case that if you didn’t like a particular joke that another will be along any second to fix that. Not to say its quantity over quality. The quality of some of the jokes here is top draw; most of the best jokes result from the permitted meta commentary on Deadpool’s existence and its links to the x men franchise – “Wow, this is such a big house, but I only ever see the two of you here. It's like the studio didn't have enough money for any more X-Men...” – as well as coming from Ryan Reynolds himself. His in-built wit and charisma is what elevates this film above the shticky-shlocky bundle it could otherwise have been.
Overall, this film is a welcome shot in the arm of the genre that showcases a new potential in a field that some said was approaching stagnation. Tim Miller’s direction is more than competent throughout; he skilfully manoeuvres the camera through the action, resisting the modern temptation to apply “shaky-cam” to heighten the hustle of the fights and instead opts for slightly wider shots that let the audience see what is going on. Miller shot a faithful comic book action movie, pulling no punches in either style or violence. One shot sees Deadpool attack a nameless enemy, slice his head off and kick it towards the camera in to a second enemy. The direction extended beyond action with Miller also showing a knack for shooting the comedy too. The placement of the camera for certain body-horror-comedy (such as the hand breaking Colossus scene and its subsequent 127 hours homage) is solid throughout. Other times, he achieves a better laugh by knowing what to keep from the audience, best displayed in the “romantic” montage at the beginning of the film.
A review of Deadpool would not be complete without throwing some plaudits towards the execution of the new Colossus. Once again, the filmmakers created a comic-faithful adaptation of a character; utilizing the ever improving motion capture technology made famous in the Planet of the Apes series, Colossus appears to have stepped off the page and on to the screen. More than simply the look, they captured the essence of the character. Whilst Brian Singers Colossus in the original X-Men movies is perfectly serviceable, he was more just the strong arm of the group, providing support when required. As such, little personality was able to seep in except his heroism. Here, the character holds true to his peaceful roots believing that violence is not the answer to problems but accepting that at times he will be required to fight. His manner of being the quiet, honest and noble man is prominently shown and is what makes the character work in opposition to Deadpool who is the loud, obnoxious type. The best moment for the pair comes when Colossus attempts to bring Deadpool to the professor (“Stewart or McAvoy? These time-lines are confusing” asks Deadpool). Naturally, Deadpool has better things to do and attempts to fight Colossus which results in him breaking every limb against the impenetrable metal skin of the gentle giant, who never lifts a finger. Miller an co. have done a fantastic job in rejuvenating the Colossus character and now fans will certainly be hoping to see him line up in future X-Men releases.
Verdict
A film that shouldn’t exist, that shouldn’t make money, that people surely won’t like, is exactly the opposite of those studio expectations. Finally giving Ryan Reynolds a role to sink his teeth in to and a franchise to lead in his own fashion is good to see. The creative team will have their reputations quite justifiably bolstered with this film on their resume. Fox now will be reassessing their approach to the X-Cinematic Universe to decide how to fit Deadpool in to the main features or, better yet, expand the universe further for more characters like him. Either way, is safe to say that Deadpool has landed and is here to stay.
Praise has to be given for the execution of both the comedy tones and the sombre tones used throughout. In the early going, hardships are skipped by or deflected with humour until a truly pensive and depressing revelation occurs. The tone shifts rapidly to something more serious but keeps the overall feel the same, not like different two movies squashed together.