Review: Deadpool

Smart arse mercenary Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) thinks he’s got it all now that he’s with the beautiful Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), but he is dealt a devastating blow in the form of terminal cancer. The mysterious Ajax (Ed Skrein) approaches Wilson with a supposed cure, but eventually learns that it’s all a bit dodgy. A lot dodgy, actually. Pissed off and with an uncontrollable habit of mouthing off to the wrong people, Wilson grinds Ajax’s gears to the point where he is subjected to torturous mutation experiments. He is given the power of tremendously effective healing of his own body, but is physically scarred for life. Wilson eventually escapes the mad scientist, goes into hiding, and dons a mask and suit to become a smart arse masked mercenary named Deadpool. Now he plots his revenge against Ajax, but this has the unwanted effect of putting Vanessa (who has no idea of Wilson’s whereabouts since going into treatment) into mortal danger. T.J. Miller plays Wilson’s bartender pal, Leslie Uggams comes out of who knows where to play an old blind woman, and Gina Carano plays Angel Dust, Ajax’s mutant henchperson (The film takes place somewhere within the “X-Men” universe, with Reynolds having previously played a poor shell of the character in the first “Wolverine” movie).

 

When I heard about this 2016 Marvel comics adaptation, I was extremely worried. I loathed “Iron Man” for featuring an actor giving a completely flippant performance as a smug, insincere superhero and pretty much making me not care about the plot. Why should I care about the plot when Robert Downey Jr. couldn’t be arsed taking a damn thing seriously? It was a tightrope act, and Downey slipped and fell repeatedly. Given that Ryan Reynolds is at the majority of times a similarly smug, sarcastic actor I had obvious reservations about this flick from debut feature film director Tim Miller (who directed two short films prior to this). Well, I’ll give the film this: In theory, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a flippant, sarcastic Deadpool, because that’s pretty much how the character was designed in its original form. To that end, Ryan Reynolds is absolutely pitch-perfect casting as the smart-arse, slick mercenary turned masked superhero.

 

No, my problem with this film has nothing to do with its conception, as this wasn’t Ryan Reynolds acting above the material. It’s the execution that is the problem. The material isn’t particularly funny, the characters somewhat boring, and the plot is mostly uninteresting. I didn’t hate this film, but I didn’t have much of an opinion of it at all. It’s just…there. And that came as quite a surprise to me. Scripted by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (who partnered up for the vastly superior “Zombieland”), it’s really, really bland and ultimately forgettable.

 

It starts brilliantly with an entirely sarcastic series of opening credits like ‘Some douchebag’s film’, ‘Starring God’s perfect idiot’, etc. whilst Juice Newton’s ‘classic’ song “Angel of the Morning” plays over Zack Snyder-esque slow-mo graphics. Perfect, really. Unfortunately, the problems begin when we see that the film’s credited ‘British villain’ is played by Ed ‘Not Jason Statham’ Skrein. Skrein, a poor man’s Luke Goss (the poor man’s Jason Statham) is boring as hell. He’s completely without menace, wit, relish, or entertainment value whatsoever. Hell, he’s pretty much without character or motivation, either. Why was he experimenting on Deadpool again?

 

As for Deadpool himself, there is nothing wrong with Reynolds’ casting whatsoever, but as scripted, Deadpool isn’t actually funny. He’s snarky and swears a lot. The material he is given just doesn’t come up to muster. In fact, the film’s funniest line goes to T.J. Miller directed at Skrein’s villain: ‘Have fun at your midnight showing of “Blade II”’ (Even Miller sees the resemblance between Skrein and former Bros member Luke Goss). Meanwhile, the film’s funniest moment is the end credits scene where Deadpool parodies a very familiar and quite early post-credits scene from a beloved 80s teen movie. To be honest, even that isn’t screamingly funny, just really clever and unexpected. It also doesn’t help that director Miller has absolutely no idea about pacing. This is seriously sluggish stuff. The action scenes are fine (though we’re given no clue as to how Deadpool acquires his skills, including expert weapons firing), and the humorous approach doesn’t ruin the action at all. The humour is ruined by not being terribly funny.

 

This isn’t a miscalculation in conception, but a failure in execution. The film has workable elements in theory, but the material just isn’t funny, the story and characters not especially interesting. It’s kinda empty, I was bored. It could’ve been entertaining. It isn’t. Reynolds tries really hard, though. I appear to be in the extreme minority, however, so don’t just take my word for it (Especially since I already belong to an extreme minority: I enjoyed Reynolds’ reviled “Green Lantern” movie).

 

Rating: C