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‘Deadpool’ doesn’t quite stick the landing

“Deadpool” is the first Marvel superhero movie rated R. (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox)

Owen Johnson
Connector Staff

“Deadpool” is the eighth movie in the “X-Men” film franchise from 20th Century Fox and the first in at least two movie franchise for “Deadpool.”

In an effort to combat his terminal cancer, former Special Forces soldier turned mercenary Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) submits himself to an experiment that will not only cure his cancer, but give him super powers. After discovering that he is being lied to about the nature of the experiment and being disfigured in the process, Wilson vows to track down the man in charge of the experiments.

The one aspect of “Deadpool” that was done perfectly was the character of Deadpool. From what little I do know about the character, the movie’s interpretation of him was exactly what I imagined it would be, and I imagine any one who’s a fan of the Deadpool character won’t be disappointed by the portrayal.

Other than Deadpool, there is not much else that shines out, which I would attribute to the work done by the director, Tim Miller. While Miller’s work on the movie was competent, his contribution doesn’t elevate the material in any way. The only part of the movie that stood out from the rest was the opening title sequence, which isn’t surprising since Miller’s only other directorial work was for the title sequence of David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and the opening sequence of “Thor: The Dark World.”

“Deadpool” has a lot of comedic moments, but it all feels like the writers were trying too hard to make it funny. Instead of coming off like Wade Wilson is a witty, sometimes sarcastic joker, it comes off like the writers wrote down everything they thought could work as a joke and put it in as one of Wilson’s lines in the hopes that it would elicit a laugh from the audience. There are a couple of really humorous bits in the movie, but the rest of the material ranges anywhere from chuckle-worthy to not eliciting any response.

The villain (Ed Skrein) is one of the most boring villains I’ve ever seen in a superhero movie. He has no personality or charm, nor a consistent evil scheme. At first, he is the scientist who is in charge of the experiment that disfigures Wilson who is trying to make mutants to sell for a profit. After Wilson escapes from him, that plot never shows up again and at the beginning of the movie, he’s in the middle of doing something else. Then, after he learns that Wilson is Deadpool, he drops everything he’s doing and kidnaps Wilson’s ex-girlfriend (Morena Baccarin) instead. He doesn’t even compensate for these shortcomings with some incredible mutant power to make him a formidable adversary. He is merely unable to feel pain. So, he can be harmed, but he just won’t feel it.

The ultimate irony of the whole thing is that as non-conventional as the Deadpool character and the style of this movie were for a superhero movie, it still manages to feel extremely uninspired. It has some fun moments, but that’s about it.

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One Comment;

  1. Andrew Mihovich said:

    Just, one thing: The (British) villain told us exactly why he is the way he is. The procedure that he now applies to other people killed more than his nerve endings. In his own words, he *used* to have a routine filled with playful euphemisms about how what he’s about to do to you might hurt a bit, but now, he’s “blunt”.

    Which makes it all the more extraordinary — if, in my one concession to the movie playing by convention, also to be expected from an outside-of-movie perspective — that Wade’s sense of humor gets even wackier, since that’s one thing that he assured Wade *never* survives the things he does.

    He’s also super-strong. Simply not feeling pain wouldn’t allow him to do what he does.

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