Author’s note: Deadpool is a rated R movie. As such it is not appropriate for audiences under the age of 17 without an accompanying adult. Furthermore, the topics covered in this review will be judging this movie in a mature, professional manner.
Deadpool is the story of smart talking mercenary Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds). Wade is a dishonorably discharged Special Forces Agent who begins working for a mercenary guild stationed in the Sister Margaret’s Bar, which is run by Wade’s friend, Weasel. Weasel is in charge of the guild and distributes jobs to its occupants, which is filled with many unscrupulous fellows, and is where Wade meets the female lead Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). Vanessa starts out as a prostitute in the bar before meeting Wade whose sense of humor and charm persuades her to end that life and settle down with him.
After roughly a year of happiness together, Wade is diagnosed with terminal cancer in many different parts of his body. Vanessa helps him to try and find whatever cure he can. Wade refuses; that is until he is met by a man in a black suit who promises he can have his cancer cured and gain superpowers. After some internal debate Wade agrees to the treatment where he is taken into a dank warehouse and experimented on/tortured by antagonists Ajax (Ed Skrein) and Angel (Gina Carano) to try and get his mutant powers to manifest.
Eventually he is pushed beyond anything else, which deforms his body and gives him his regeneration powers. The audience learns that the goal of the organization that took Wade hostage is to create super slaves not superheroes. After Wade breaks out of the torture device they created, the building burns down, leaving Wade alone in the ashes. This begins Wade’s quest for vengeance against Ajax and his rise as the red-tights-wearing mercenary Deadpool. As a quick aside, the story is told mainly in a series of flashbacks to explain the events seen in the beginning of the movie and at the end to resolve the central conflict between Deadpool and Ajax.
Characters
Ryan Reynolds is cast perfectly as Deadpool, due to the character’s quick wit and fourth-wall-breaking shenanigans. Reynolds’ infamous sharp wit is perfect in the role. Deadpool feels overwhelmingly shallow as a character, but this is to be expected given the original source material and the fact that this is an origin story. Vanessa has little characterization other than her wit matches Deadpool’s tit for tat, and the fact she was a prostitute and later a stripper. She becomes more shallow as a damsel-in-distress type character. However, she stays mad at Wade after he saves her, so I suppose ultimately it shows that this character is deeper than I initially thought.
The main antagonists, Angel Dust and Ajax, are unique in the fact that both work as foils of Deadpool and his shenanigans. Ajax is a typical arch-villain mad scientist. He plans on creating mutant slaves and selling them on the black market as slaves. He has the ability to not feel anything—no pain, no emotions, nothing but anger. Angel Dust is super strong and nothing else. Both have a no-nonsense style to everything going on with Deadpool, and only want to torture him or make him miserable in general.
Enjoyment
Deadpool is an overwhelmingly enjoyable movie. The gags are great, the characters are fun and ultimately is a great movie. Again, it isn’t for all audiences mainly due to the amount of adult content, but this harkens back to the original source material with Deadpool being a crazy, unstable, merc with a mouth. Ultimately I do suggest this movie to appropriate audiences.