Caffeinated Clint
Right from the opening credits, with its hilarious mockery of everyone associated with the film (the director credited as “some douche” and Stan Lee credited only as “gratuitous cameo”), it’s clear ”Deadpool” is going to be as good a time as it’s bloody ingenious, laugh-first marketing campaign has.
The anachronistic idea to turn the lesser-known Marvel comic into a movie has been floating around for years – and all this time Ryan Reynolds has been onboard to play the titular ‘merc with a mouth’. But with Reynolds’ less than stellar track record with superhero movies (”Blade Trinity”, ”Green Lantern”, ”X-Men Origins : Wolverine” – in which he actually played a variation on the Deadpool character), and the fact that the property is more ”Kick-Ass” than ”Iron Man”, nobody’s ever been that keen to press the go button on it. But after director Tim Miller and star Reynolds put their own time and dime into doing a short demo (the video of which onliners went nuts for) of what they could do with a ”Deadpool” movie, Twentieth Century Fox decided the time was right – – even if the filmmakers did plan on making a very adult movie that wouldn’t lend itself to teenage ticket-buyers and toy lines.
The flick fixes on a wisecracking anti-hero in a red jumpsuit that’s on a mission to take out the British scoundrel (Ed Skrein) who disfigured him. Along the way he’s assisted by a bartender friend, an elderly blind woman and a couple of X-Men. And that, in a nut shell, is the plot.
More comedy than anything else, ”Deadpool” is just as hell-bent on giving fans of the comic the loyal interpretation of the source material they’ve long desired as it is spoofing and teasing pop culture (for instance, in one scene Deadpool remarks that they’ve now made three “Taken” movies. “Sooner or later you just have to wonder whether he’s a bad father”, he remarks), giving sister series X-Men a rib tickle (in particular, star Hugh Jackman), and breaking down walls well beyond even the fourth – this thing is more Meta than Ferris Bueller ever was.
You’ll be laughing so much you might even totally ignore how well the action scenes are choreographed. Whether visually or physically, these are some of the most impressive fight scenes, car chases and stunts to be seen in a comic book movie in years. And the film’s action-clad conclusion is one of the better Marvel movie showdowns to date. And did I mention how bloody these scenes are!? George Romero would wince!
”Deadpool” is on track to become one of the best times at the movies in 2016.
The film screened for media featured an end-credits scene – naturally – but it wasn’t a rip snorter. According to various reports, there’s actually a second post-film scene – that Fox aren’t showing critics – that’ll be tacked onto prints going out this week.
Interestingly enough, a video has surfaced featuring Reynolds taking on “X-Men Apocalypse” honey Olivia Munn, indicating that she might reprise her hot-lethal-chick-lady-person-whatsherface for the aforesaid stinger. Though, obviously, there’s an equally good chance that Reynolds and Munn simply caught up on the promo trail.
#Psylocke @oliviamunn vs #Deadpool @VancityReynolds pic.twitter.com/eZbo9KPS9y
— X-MenFilms.com (@XMenFilms) February 8, 2016
