From the very opening minutes of the film, it is made abundantly clear that Deadpool -- a character in the latest among Marvel's long slate of upcoming superhero films -- is not like any other superhero. While most other superheroes would be wracked with guilt from killing even a bad guy, Deadpool maims, beheads, dismembers and even disembowels them with joy, sprouting jokes without skipping a beat. He's weird, crass, violent and even downright sadistic in all the best ways, and that is exactly why he is such a joy to see in action, even if the film around him is only average at best.
Deadpool's story centres around Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), an ex-special forces soldier turned mercenary. In an attempt to cure his terminal cancer and return to his beloved girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), Wade submits himself to a secret government programme to develop super soldiers. As it turns out, the secret programme is actually an illegal lab where British arms-dealer Ajax (Ed Skrein) uses a special serum to unlock the dormant mutant gene in a person (think X-Men, another one of 20th Century Fox's superhero film series) in an attempt to create "super slaves" to be sold as weapons.
Wade's unlocked powers allow him to heal from any injury -- even ones as harrowing as having a burning building fall on him while impaled by a steel cable -- along with having super-strength and agility, though leaving him horribly disfigured. To hide his disfigurement and hunt down Ajax in the hope of a cure, Wade takes on the identity of Deadpool before going on a bloody rampage through the ranks of Ajax's organisation with the help of X-Men Colussus (performed by Greg LaSalle, voiced by Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (I couldn't make up that name if I tried; performed by Brianna Wildebrand), making pop-culture and genitalia jokes all the while.
First off, let's make this very clear: do not take your children to watch Deadpool. Marvel's first R-rated film takes full advantage of its rating, showing us severed limbs, gory deaths and even nudity, so don't let the fact that it's a superhero film fool you into teaching your kids a lot of new phrases you most likely won't appreciate.
With that out of the way, let's get to the best part of the movie -- Deadpool himself. Deadpool is nowhere near what you would typically describe as a hero; he's a dirty-talking, violent, morally compromised man who seems to take nothing seriously. And yet, his combination of pop-culture references, crass humour and 4th-wall-breaking speeches to the audience are so endearing, even as we watch him split a man into three parts with his swords before skipping like a little girl towards his next victim.
Ryan Reynolds shows a great return to form again as Deadpool (you'll be forgiven for forgetting he also played a version of the character in the awful Origins: Wolverine), nailing comedic beats and dramatic scenes alike. The two X-Men guest stars also deserve credit, Colossus' boy-scout morality and Negasonic's deadpan teenage angst working nicely to augment Deadpool's wackiness. Reynolds' chemistry with the two X-Men produce some of the best scenes in the film, with the comedic quality bordering on sitcom level. In fact, it is perhaps a credit (or is it?) to this chemistry that I found it tedious to sit through any scenes that didn't involve Deadpool's unique brand of humour.
You see, when we get down to it all, Deadpool is just a man trying to get his revenge on the person who wronged him. While stopping Ajax would mean a stop to his torturous experiments and his slave trade as well as a cure, the stakes are still comparatively low. This is not helped by the little screen-time dedicated to establishing Ajax's character and motivations beyond that he is an evil, greedy man. While this didn't necessarily detract from my enjoyment of the film, it still felt slightly disappointing that a hero as outlandish as Deadpool can have a villain so tame in comparison. As for Vanessa's character, she did manage to humanise the man behind Deadpool, getting more meaningful screen-time than Ajax, though it still only served to develop Deadpool's character rather than have any impact on the film. To be honest, I found minor characters like Deadpool's taxi driver friend or his blind, old lady roommate to be much more memorable characters than either Ajax or Vanessa.
