Deadpool Review: Dead’s Gon’ Give It To Ya

It’s an accomplishment in its own right that Deadpool (2016) exists at all. The fact that Ryan Reynolds already had a shot at the character – one that was sabotaged by a sub-par script and awful character design – yet still managed to convince “overpaid tools” and “asshat producers” to greenlight a solo Deadpool movie is its own kind of triumph.

Fortunately, getting the film to the masses isn’t the only place where Reynolds and company succeed: Deadpool is a fantastic and insanely unique comic book movie.

The movie serves as one part superhero origin, another part (surprisingly endearing) romance story, and a third part cross-examination of the comic book movie genre as a whole. From the start, a clever opening credits sequence teaches audiences that this isn’t your average superhero flick, and that they had best keep a sharp eye out to catch every in-joke director Tim Miller and the writers are about to bombard you with.

Newcomer Negasonic Teenage Warhead kills it alongside Deadpool and mentor Colossus.

I won’t spoil anything, but know that Deadpool easily has some of the funniest writing in any Marvel movie, with the only other real competition being 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. A lot of the humour’s ability to really land comes from Ryan Reynolds’ delivery of the line. Make no mistake, this movie couldn’t have been pulled off without Reynolds. The actor has without a doubt redeemed himself for the sins of X-men Origins: Wolverine and Green Lantern thanks to his exceptional work here.

The supporting cast is fantastic, too. Silicon Valley‘s T.J. Miller is hilarious as Wade Wilson’s best friend Weasel, and Morena Baccarin shines as Wilson’s love interest Vanessa and really sells their relationship. Seriously, Vanessa and Wade – twisted personalities and all – are probably the most real and believable couple we’ve ever seen in a comic book movie. We see the monumental lows and highs during their time together, from Wade’s cancer diagnosis to, well, how they celebrate International Women’s Day.

The movie’s advertising campaign joked about taking your date to see Deadpool this Valentine’s Day, but in a way they weren’t really kidding. It’s actually a very sweet love story!

For everything Deadpool does to differentiate itself from the sea of other Marvel movies, it was unable to escape one issue these movies all seem to have: a lackluster villain. Ed Skrein does everything he can with the role of Ajax, but he ultimately just feels like another generic bad dude there only to progress the plot. Ajax is far too blandly evil, like the dude from Guardians and well, basically any Marvel villain in recent memory besides Loki (please correct me if I’m wrong on that).

Just when I was starting to feel like I’d seen everything superhero movies have to offer, Deadpool showed up and proved me wrong. It stirs up the pot not only with its R-rating, but also with its self-referential and self-deprecating writing, and unique storytelling structure. There’s a good chance Deadpool may end up being the best superhero flick this year, but even if Batman v. Superman or Civil War show up and blow it out of the water, you’ll still enjoy every over the top second of Deadpool.