Hello dear reader, Its Deadpool time. A sentence that in itself isn’t that much of a big deal but contained within those three words or, if you prefer, fifteen letters, is a game changer. There have been of course been several Superhero movies over the last few years. The film that really got the spandex ball rolling was Bryan Singers X-Men back in 2000. This was then followed very quickly by Tobey Maguire swinging through the Big Apple, faster than you can say “With great power comes endless merchandising possibilities’. Then Warner threw their hat into the ring and rebooted the ‘Batman’ franchise, with Christopher Nolan. This substantially raised the bar with regards to treating the audience with a modicum of intelligence and realising that action set pieces are all very well but it’s the script and characters that ultimately puts bums on seat. “I’m gonna make this pencil disappear…”
Then came a long a gentlemen by the name of Kevin Feige shouting to anyone that would listen that “There’s gold in them their hills!” and launched what can arguably be described as the most successful movie series in history. So back to Deadpool and its substantial moving of the goalposts. Why is it a game changer I hear you ask? Well, my awesomely fabulous reader, the answer is quite simple. With the possible exception of ‘The Crow’, there has never been a main stream comic book film released by a studio that set out from the very start to be dark, ultra-violent and have enough bad language to make even Quentin Tarantino blush. And before anyone pipes up and tries to play either the The Punisher or Ghost Rider top trump card, I would like to just state for the record that they both suck so much they should be sponsored by Dyson, and therefore do not count!
If you’ll indulge me, I’ll just give you a quick heads up on how Deadpool ended up being greenlit in the first place. Back in 2009 Hugh Jackman had his first opportunity to ‘go solo’ and see if he could carry the weight of an X-Man film all on his lonesome. I say lonesome but there were a few other mutants thrown into the mix just to keep it interesting. There was a Gambit, a Sabretooth and even a Cyclops. It’s also memorable for the fact that it’s the first time that Deadpool, or Wade Wilson to give him his civilian name, appears on a cinema screen. The film isn’t exactly remembered as what people in polite society would call ‘good’, and even the the actor charged with bring this Deadpool to life, Ryan Reynolds, has gone on record and said that it’s a bit poo. The film itself falls a long way from being the sum of its parts. Mr Pool is stretched a long way from his comic book routes and to say it was substantially watered down for more palatable tastes, is an understatement. It did however get the ball rolling and a couple of years later Twentieth Century Fox commissioned about five minutes of test footage to see if a Deadpool film could actually be brought to the silver screen and more importantly, done well and not skimp around the edges. This test footage was then somehow ‘accidently’ leaked onto the internet and then fans all proclaimed in one voice ‘more please!’ They basically bombarded Fox, insisting that a film be made and wouldn’t you know it, persistence paid off. Fast forward to late 2014 and once again Ryan Reynolds is back and this time there’s a little gravitas about the whole operation. The Wolverine movie is ignored and this outing is treated as an origin story.
The film itself is a breath of fresh air. It takes the Superhero rule book and throws it out of the window. It cares not one jot about keeping little jimmy happy and trying to draw in the biggest audience it can get its hands on. Deadpool is squarely aimed at the adult end of the spectrum and to be honest if little jimmy did manage to get in and watch Deadpool, he’d leave a needing about six months of therapy and have a list of ‘why’ questions that would keep even the most caring of parents reaching for the Prozac. That said there are times when Deadpool comes across as a film that doesn’t really know what it wants to be. It’s very funny, has well put together action sequences, doesn’t take itself seriously at all and has some very clever forth wall breaks. However, there are also scenes that wouldn’t look out of place in a Saw film. I got the feeling that the screenwriters, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, just basically decided to throw a huge amount of content at the wall and see what stuck. Tonally Deadpool doesn’t have a smooth ride from start to finish and although I would give it four out of five, it only gets there by the skin of its teeth. There will of course be people out there of completely disagree with on this and that’s fine. Opinions are fine and dandy and it doesn’t mean that I’m right and others are wrong. I suspect there will be people out there in internet land who were looking forward to this film more than Episode VII. There was a lot of pressure and expectation put on its release and it did have some fairly harsh critics to win over. As I mentioned earlier, Deapool is a breath of fresh air and could also be seen as a soft reboot for the genre. As a result of its popularity I suspect there will now be a lot of studio boardrooms, full of executives, having conversations along the lines of ‘we can do what now?’ and ‘Adults also like this stuff, who knew!’ Warner Brothers have already confirmed that the Blu-ray release for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will be a much more violent and darker affair than the imminent cinema release and only time will tell what the world makes of this new angle of attack when it comes to Superhero films.
Marvel has had the lion’s share of the market over the last eight years and has been merrily counting the ALL money generated from Iron Man and his pals. But like a storm moving in from the horizon, Warner Brothers are about to launch their little boat into the water and there may not be enough space for them both to play without there being casualties. Before too much longer we as a planet could find ourselves hurtling towards the Superhero event horizon, with absolutely no way of stopping it. To say nothing of there now being the possibility of each film potential having two versions available.
But back to Deadpool. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll almost certainly wince and it being one of them there ‘do-gooder’s in spandex’ films, you’ll also sit through the credits for what feels like an eternity, waiting for the sting thingy. This by the way the credit sting is very in keeping with the feel of Deadpool. It’s also worth pointing out that Deadpool has a great cast and a British bad guy called Francis. The Director, Tim Miller has what can best be described as an odds and sods CV but someone at Fox saw something in him with regards to potential and that gamble has paid off. Deadpool, although it does have its faults, certainly doesn’t have any issues with it production of overall visual feel and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s asked to take on the directing reigns again. So in closing I’ll say this. Deadpool is one of those films that grabs your attention from the start and takes you on a ride that doesn’t really let up. It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Ryan Reynolds now playing the part and although I don’t think it passes the Bechdal test, the female characters in it aren’t just there to be rescued or viewed as eye candy. If you like your champions of the silver screen dressed in red, having a fairly strong leaning towards the effing and jeffing and a lot of comedy thrown into the mix then Mr pool and company may just be the film for you…
Twitter review:
1 portion on spandex, 67 tbsp of violence, a sprinkling of smut & a metric f%#k tonne of blood & gore. Stir and bake on Hi-Def.
#Shoop
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1431045/?ref_=nv_sr_1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vN6DHB6bJc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr1YnpLiJC8
http://www.empireonline.com/movies/deadpool-2/review/
