Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Back when Marvel offered up their digital catalog service called Marvel Unlimited, I jumped at the chance to dig into their back issues. I subscribed for a year and in that year I read a few Spider-Man back issues and a few of the older X-Men storylines, but they could have just called the app Deadpool Unlimited.
The app had the ability to pick a character and go chronologically through all their appearances, so I started with New Mutants #98 and followed him through his interactions within the Marvel Universe. From his own book to the kinda cool and weird Cable & Deadpool team-up series to Headpool's debut in Marvel Zombies and, perhaps my favorite, the more recent run written by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn.
It was fascinating watching the character evolve, really coming into his own when Marvel on the whole didn't seem to give a shit about him, pairing him with another one of their “B” characters in the Cable & Deadpool series.
Deadpool as a character appeals very much to me. He exists to be a smart ass that deflates the seriousness of some comics. The fact that they've made him the only comic book character that knows he's in a comic book allows for some really smart meta humor. I'm a fan of that kind of comedy, but I'm also a child at heart that loves blue humor, so this is a character that feels tailor made for my personal tastes.
I get why the character turns some people off. There are folks that don't like poo-poo humor and there are folks that take their comics very seriously and just don't like someone whose main character trait is to take the piss out of the comic book universe.
If there was any doubt that the Deadpool movie was going to nail the character it was eliminated before the opening credits rolled. That credits sequence is a perfect “get on or get off now” intro. It's either going to make you laugh, poking fun at not just superhero archetypes but of movies on the whole, or you're going to hate its crudeness. Shit or get off the pot, right outta the gate.
Deadpool, from conception, was always the scrappy underdog, so it's fitting that his movie is a passion project from a small group of devotees desperate to get him right within a system that doesn't understand him, but can't ignore his popularity. The movie has a low budget for this kind of thing, but that also gives director Tim Miller the ability to go hard R. The give and take is the flick is a little rough around the edges... the cinematography is a tad direct to video action flick, but none of that matters when you're watching because you're constantly surprised at how funny and strange and vulgar and envelope pushing it is.
The main goal of the movie is to be goofy and give the audience permission to have fun and it unquestionably succeeds at that. Ryan Reynolds is so invested in getting the character right this time. When an actor is giving something his or her all you can tell. There's a little extra spark there. It's the difference of Johnny Depp in the first Pirates film and the fourth. He's doing the same thing in both movies, but there's a little magic in that first performance.
Wade Wilson is a character that requires a fearless performance. Reynolds has the confidence to embrace the absurdity and can sell the fourth wall breaking perfectly. Like I said, it feels like he has something to prove, especially since his last crack at the character was such a clusterfuck.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine wasn't his fault, but to be fair I don't think Deadpool: The Character would have worked as well in 2009. At his best, Deadpool lets the air out of his format. In the comics it's about not taking the written word so seriously. In this context, it's a way to poke some fun at the glut of comic book movies, both successful and not so much.
Both Marvel and DC get jabs in the movie and I think audiences are ready for that in a way that they weren't just when comic book movies were coming into their own.
That could be why the reviews are so strong. Critics are happy to see Deadpool roast what's becoming a kind of rinse/wash/repeat blockbuster formula as studios fall over themselves to get some of that geek coin.
I mean, the movie itself has to be good, too. It's not just because it makes fun of superhero movies that's winning over some of the more sourpuss critics. The jokes fly fast and furious and in so many different forms (verbal, visual, set-up and payoff, etc) that the film moves like a rocket. Say what you will about this movie, but it's not boring.
I keep going back to this being kind of an underdog movie in my mind. It's clearly a film the marketing the department understands, but I don't think the studio itself really cares as long as it's delivered under a certain budget.
That's the reason why you get Colossus actually looking and sounding like Colossus. And he plays a pretty big part of the movie, thankfully. I was worried he'd just be a cameo, but because the movie embraces silly they actually made him Russian and massive, which for some goddamn reason the A-Picture side of Fox's Marvel stuff refuses to do.
It'd be like seeing some random superhero movie where Doctor Doom shows up and actually looks and act like Doctor Doom. As long as you embrace the absurdity you can get away with anything and Colossus, as played by Stefan Kapicic, is proof positive of that.
Morena Baccarin also does great work as Wilson's sweet baboo, who is kind of the Marion Ravenwood of this movie. She's Wade's equal, dishes it out as well, or better, than Wade does (in more ways than one, as you'll see... reminder, this one's rated R for a reason), so when she inevitably is taken by the film's big baddie it doesn't come across as the typical damsel in distress finale (even though it kind of is).
That love story at the center of this silly movie is what grounds the absurdity. You can't help but pull for these two guys to get back together by the end of things. Yep, that means you're invested in the journey of this not-quite hero, even though he's kinda unkillable and gets shot up the asshole from time to time.
I want to call Ed Skrein's villain character, Ajax, a kinda dull, but the movie does that for me! Because Deadpool himself is kind of a bastard (just one that you like) this is the rare superhero movie that doesn't need a strong villain to succeed.
For comic fans there's a lot of happy nods, especially the inclusion of Deadpool's shit-talking old black woman roommate, Blind Al, and a nod to one of my favorite regular comic characters, Hydra Bob. Naturally, they can't use the Hydra part of that because of movie studio politics, but Bob does show up and I really, really, really hope that he keeps showing up in however many Deadpool movies we get when this one makes all the money this weekend.
Which brings us to the future of Deadpool. There's talk about the sequel being a Cable/Deadpool story, which is awesome. My only hope is that the studio doesn't start thinking about the kind of money they could make if only the sequels were PG-13. My hope is that Deadpool 2 doesn't lose its underdog status. We need this series, if it is going to be one, to be the lean, mean, rude, crude, offensive and funny as shit. The worst thing that could happen with its success is it becomes the very cookie cutter thing it lambasts for the entirety of its runtime.
At least those are my thoughts. What about you folks? What'd you think?
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
