In an age where Marvel and DC bathe in box office numbers due to the popularity of their massive, if not flawed, superhero franchises, one would think Deadpool, a movie that pokes fun at and deconstructs the genre, would be a breath of fresh air. And while Deadpool’s admittedly clever marketing campaign has drawn attention to it’s foul mouthed, violent anti-hero in all of his R-rated glory, the film itself is barely different from its mediocre cousins whose trailers swamp the headlines seconds after their release.
I’d like to preface this by saying I am not someone who dislikes Deadpool because it is crass and juvenile. It is part of the titular character after all. If anything, Deadpool is actually striving to be as politically correct and obnoxious at the same time. Just because you cram dick and fart jokes in every single scene, does not make your movie offensive or as some reviewers call it: “bold.” Low effort comedy such as this has existed in the artwork of Will Ferrell, Seth McFarlane, and Adam Sandler for a long LONG time. Deadpool is the same just with without “nigger”, “faggot” and it’s equivalents.
I also won’t be spending too long on describing the plot, because really, the origin story is half the film and the other half is a by-your-numbers revenge film that could be found in a Direct-to-DVD film in a Walmart or your regional equivalent. In fact, that is all you really have to know, because there is no reason to see Deadpool for any plot progression anyway.
If you would like to hear it anyway, I’ll quote Kevin Jagernauth’s review from Indiewire:
An ordinary man becomes reluctantly imbued with superpowers, but in the process becomes horribly disfigured. Betrayed and damaged, he seeks vengeance on the person who maimed him, is forced to reconcile who he has become, and then has to save his girl from the clutches of the villain.
Nothing, I repeat, absolutely nothing is intriguing about Deadpool’s backstory.
I swear, after the first half hour I was so utterly bored i wished I was watching Avatar: The Last Airbender. At least that movie I could laugh at. Deadpool made me chuckle once and smile possibly twice in its 108 minute a barrage of convoluted humour and memes that will become old by the end of the year.
The most important question to ask when it comes a movie is “why should i see it?” When it comes to Deadpool, there is remarkable little that is actually in any form…well…remarkable. The filmmaking side is dreadfully “O.K.” Nothing out of the ordinary in any way. Fight choreography is unoriginal, the editing is painful, and the camerawork is plain. The only distinguishing feature of Deadpool is the screenplay, which is also the most problematic part of the film.
While watching the movie, it occurred to me that every single scene exists to create jokes. They don’t bear much relevance outside of being able to spout the next one-liner. Because of this, Deadpool operates more like a series of skits that try to outdo each other in terms of trash-talking. The characters don’t naturally breathe humour. They just serve as vessels. There is nothing actually funny about what is happening outside of their words. On top of this, numerous by the film attempts to break the fourth wall come off as forced and self-congratulatory more than anything else.
Deadpool tries far too hard to make you like it, to the point of annoyance.
As a superhero movie, it also suffers from being utterly incompetent at delivering any good action sequences outside of the first few minutes. There is an abundance of superpowers in the film, but they are so poorly defined that it causes the fight scenes to be devoid of any tension or reason. In particular, there is a huge metal Russian golem-man who is impervious to almost all physical attacks. He does however nearly succumb to a simple iron rod from the dumpster being tied around his neck.
Oddly enough, Deadpool is rather sentimental in parts and has some very strange attempts at creating a ham-fisted romance in order to establish motivation and relatability. The editing and rate of the flashback sequences, together with awful riffs at Taken 3 during supposedly emotional moments, cause these scenes to be infuriatingly irritating and pointless. You really don’t care about any characters at any climactic part of the film.
Is there anything good in this movie one might ask? Well, Ryan Reynolds does a pretty good job as the lead role, certainly showing some charismatic potential in a future project, as well as being gleefully self deprecating. The first five to ten minutes of the film have a very high-speed and riveting action sequence that actually kept me invested in the film for a while, before it becomes overlong and is interlaced with flashbacks.
Deadpool is like if someone assembled the most cringe-worthy parts of Guardians of the Galaxy, added a good dose of a dull superhero origin story, took all the toilet humour from Cards Against Humanity, and sprinkled it with the most heavy handed pop-culture references you’ve seen since the latest episode of Family Guy. Result: Utter trash that is way too impressed with itself than it should be. As it stands, it is the Scary Movie 5 of the superhero genre.
If you would like to see a good meta-take on a genre, please do yourself a favour and watch Cabin in the Woods instead. If you would like to see a movie that knows how to do comedy through something else than vomiting jokes out every two seconds, watch an Edgar Wright movie. If you haven’t hung out with edgy 15 year olds in a while, and really want to, then fine, watch Deadpool.
4.5/10
OneFlowmotion 