Deadpool - which is finally released this week, after years of fan anticipation - should have taken the superhero mould and emptied twelve bullets into it, but what we received instead was simply all of the Crimson Commando's personality tics inserted into the standard formula of a comic book movie (with some minor alterations to structure). Although it's the film we might not all have expected, in that it's a simple origin/revenge story - the kind of clichés that the character exists to subvert - it's been balanced out by more gore than you can shake a severed hand at. Not to mention the requisite amount of hilarity, punctuated by salty R-rated language, of course. It's an agreeable trade. At the end of the day, director Tim Miller and Ryan Reynolds have pulled an action comedy out of the bag that can be enjoyed by all of its audience - without being caught up in the "bullsh*t" (Deadpool's words, not mine) of the X-Men universe. It was arguably the tradeoff that Reynolds could pretty much say whatever he wanted on camera, with that heaven-sent R-rating, but in return they had to do the origin story for the studio. Pros and cons. Ups and downs. The movie is full of these balancing acts and compromises - click through and see for yourself. Spoilers abound!
Cinephile since 1993, aged 4, when he saw his very first film in the cinema - Jurassic Park - which is also evidence of damn fine parenting. World champion at Six Degrees of Separation. Lender of DVDs to cheap mates. Connoisseur of Marvel Comics and its Cinematic Universe.
