Deadpool

Director: Tim Miller
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Ed Skrein, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Leslie Uggams, Brianna Hildebrand, Gina Carano.
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Runtime: 108 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2016

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Rating notes: Strong bloody violence

The worldwide success of Deadpool seems quite extraordinary. Within a week it had broken many records in the United States and, very quickly afterwards, made an impact right around the world.

While it is a film version of Marvel Comics, it is quite different from the usual presentation of superheroes, the mighty saviours of the world. Deadpool himself does have some extraordinary powers but they were not necessarily of his wanting – his transformation is something akin to that of Peter Parker into Spiderman, and his costume is not dissimilar. But, in personality, definitely different!

The thing is that , Deadpool is really a spoof. Deadpool is actually Wade Wilson, who had a career, a tough career, in righting wrongs around the world, mercenary style. Not that we know this from the beginning. Rather, the film makers have decided to write a screenplay which is something of a jigsaw puzzle: initially showing us Deadpool in vigorous action, then going back to Wade’s story, and a bit of to and frowing between these two periods.

What emerges is that Wade is diagnosed with a terminal illness and, rather than imposing on his loving wife, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) their vigorous courtship we have also been privy to, accepts an invitation to undergo some kind of surgery which might save his life. However, a villain that we have already seen confronting Deadpool, ensures that Wade is so transformed that he becomes hideous, including an desperate fire fight, gets himself a costume which will conceal his burnt face, and off he goes on a quest, especially seeking the villain, Francis (Ed Skrein), especially when he takes Vanessa as a hostage.

This means there is a lot of tongue-in-cheek action as well as very straightforward stoushes, sometimes involving his friends, especially two mutants from the well-known school from the Ex-Men films and some jokes about Hugh Jackman and Wolverine, one a mutant that resembles a Frankenstein monster in some ways and another is a teenager, who waits to go into action until she has finished tweeting, who becomes a speeding ball of fire.

But, what makes the difference, is the repartee in the dialogue, smart, jokey, quite a number of film references even to Ryan Reynolds commenting on his own acting abilities…

And this seems to have captured the imagination and emotional response of audiences in 2016, probably indicating that along with the very serious, big-budget action shows that are to come, there will be a lot more humour, deadpan humour and spoof – which the trailer of Suicide Squad seems to indicate is another in this trend this year.