Deadpool
Former Special Forces soldier Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds: Self/less) is a terrible hero, eking out a living as a mercenary. His main interests are having sex with his girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin: Gotham), starting bar fights and cracking wise.
Then Wade is diagnosed with terminal cancer. To buy time with Vanessa, he signs up for experimental treatments at a shady corporate facility. Unsurprisingly, Wade is subjected to terrible things.
The experiments leave him disfigured but able to quickly heal and regenerate tissue. Vowing vengeance, Wade dons a red costume, grabs a gun and introduces himself as Deadpool.
Director Tim Miller makes his feature debut with a clever take on a hackneyed story. Miller subverts your basic hero-origin story by exaggerating all of the familiar tropes. The film mocks everything from the X-Men to star Reynolds’ disastrous performance in The Green Lantern. The opening credits set the tone, mocking superhero actors, crew and concept.
The only Marvel character aware that he’s in a comic book, Deadpool also knows he’s in a movie. He pauses the action to talk directly to the audience and joke about Marvel franchises. He is, in essence, the Ferris Bueller of superheroes. Reynolds runs with it, creating a hero who’s sarcastic, violent and oddly loveable. He and his character thrive on outrageousness, which works well in a film that revels in the ridiculous.
The supporting cast, including cameos by a few X-Men, help make Deadpool light fun. An especially odd sequence featuring his adventures with a cab driver morphs in no time from silly to sick. Deadpool’s shocking humor works because the whole cast trades barbs as easily as they trade blows.
Deadpool is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended. Action, comedy and vulgarity are the standards this film rises to, with plenty of naked people, curse words and exploding heads to keep the popcorn masses enthralled. But if you’re tired of the milquetoast brand of superheroes mass-marketed with every new Marvel release, Deadpool will energize you.