Are you sick of the standard superhero movies hitting the multiplexes every three and half weeks? Bored with the same ol’ macho men in tights pummeling other macho men in tights ad nauseam? Do you enjoy “Adult” films that obtain their “R” rating by having the immature mentality of a hormone crazed teenager?
You’re in luck! The new Marvel Comics’ movie Deadpool is your one-stop shop for Uncanny Carnal Carnage. This is “Hard R” material that shakes off many conventions of the genre. While it earned its rating for strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity it all results in some harmless fun.
Let’s thank- and this is hard for me to type- Ryan Reynolds for delivering a performance that is a pure delight. Reynolds has always been at his best as an annoying loudmouth and Deadpool is a character that allows for a culmination of his particular talent. Here he gives us a hilarious Anti-Hero that plays like the offspring of Ace Ventura and The Punisher. If not offspring, then second cousins.
Director Tim Miller provides some shining moments of satire. This is his first feature-length film and it is apparent that this is a talented man who finally gets to play with the big kid toys. See the stunning opening credits as an example as the camera floats through a frozen moment of violence sprinkled with a handful of great sight-gags.
Here’s the only bummer, here’s the rub. While the film does a solid job at de-constructing the tropes and themes of the superhero film, it plays it too safe by staying comfortable in the Origin Film template. Everything going on throughout the film plays fresh as it pushes the boundaries. The violence is ferociously silly and Deadpool frequently talks to the camera to remind us that he knows he’s in a movie. All innovated techniques, all things upping the ante set down by another great film of the same ilk called Kick-Ass(2010). But while Deadpool pushes and pulls at the fabric of the familiar, the story settles into the predictable. While presenting us with the “where” and the “why” is understandably important, the filmmakers could have- should have- followed the standard they used for the rest of the elements of film and made something different.
Had that happened Deadpool could have accomplished more than merely making fun of the comic book movie; it could have re-invented it.
