This review of Deadpool will be very spoiler heavy so if you haven’t watched the movie yet and don’t want to be spoiled, I would recommend reading my spoiler-free review instead.
So when you are still reading this I think you already watched Deadpool and hopefully enjoyed it at least as much as I did – so basically a whole damn lot. In this review I will talk about some of the main characters and I’ll also go through the whole movie while talking about my favorite and least favorite scenes. If there is anything you disagree with I would love to hear your opinion on it in the comments or you can also tweet at me (@beer_robin).
So let’s get started:
Deadpool
Although I wasn’t able to read many Deadpool comics to date (the only full run I read is “Deadpool: Merc with a mouth”) I still think what a lot of people on the internet say is true: Ryan Reynolds was born to be Deadpool (by the way: he is the same height, age as Deadpool and they also happen to have the same eye and hair color). You just have to look at the marketing material he made.
As some of you may know Reynolds hasn’t the best track record when it’s about playing comic book character (yes I’m talking about you Green Lantern), but I think this wasn’t his fault but manly the writers’/studio’s one. He even played Deadpool once before in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, but it was just a horrible “variant” of the merc with a mouth – which he couldn’t even be called because of his mouth being stitched up for most of his screen time). But one of the best thing about this Deadpool version now is, how much fun he makes about this fails himself: In the opening scene – which I will talk about more later – there is a Green Lantern trading card floating around and the same thing is true for the little Deadpool figure laying around in his apartment which is a representation of his “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” version. But my favorite line concerning this topic is Ajax saying something like “maybe we should sew your mouth” – me and the few other people in the cinema who got that line just laughed our heads off.
But apart from all these things, Ryan Reynolds just portrayed Deadpool so perfectly I really think this is the best comic book adaption I have seen. Deadpool/Wade Wilson breaking both of his hands and one of his feet just because he can, is something you normally only see in a comic book. The same holds true for him cutting of his own hand just to free himself from the handcuffs and “leaving” his hand behind – showing the finger.
One part you have to mention when talking about Deadpool is his frequent forth wall breaking which is used quite often in the movie. For god’s sake there is even a forth wall break in a forth wall break which Deadpool calls a sixteen wall break.
All in all, Ryan Reynolds did something awesome in fighting eleven years to get this movie made the way he wanted.
He portrays Deadpool so well like probably no one else could.
Ajax
Ajax (portrayed by Ed Skrein) is the main villain in the movie. His first contact with Wade Wilson is at the (Weapon X -) facility, where Wade goes to being cured of his cancer. But the first time he shows up in the movie actually is as the gun shooting biker in the bridge fight scene where he is pinned to the side of the bridge by one of Deadpool’s Katanas/swords (whatever). I really like this scene especially Deadpool asking himself something like “Where would I hide if I were a douchebag called Francis?” although in this scene Ajax doesn’t seem to be even remotely close to Wade’s fighting skills – which may also be in part because there isn’t much of a fight at all.
But the scenes in which Ed Skrein really shines are the ones, where he tortures Wade to activate his mutant abilities. In those he really conveys being the total asshole he is supposed to be. As I already mentioned in my spoiler-free review I actually think he is quite a two-dimensional character, but this is fine with me because Deadpool being so complex and crazy, an ice cold douchebag is exactly the nemesis he needs.
One part of the story I though was rather unnecessary was Ajax telling Wade he can cure him from looking so horrible. On the one side I get that Ajax would say that for the sole purpose of torture but it just doesn’t further the story that much. Nevertheless, the whole Francis thing, that was kind of a golden thread for the movie, really made for some awesome lines – sometimes written in corpses and blood. In the final fight scene Ajax seemed to be a really threat to Deadpool (although how can you be a threat to someone who is immortal?), and I liked that it was Vanessa who put that Katana into him and not someone else.
All things considered Ajax is the kind of villain this movie needed although he isn’t the most memorable one.
Vanessa
Deadpool’s girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) is just as crazy and offensive as Wade himself. This may very well be the reason why their relationship works and is plausible to the audience.
One thing I didn’t really expect about the movie was the rather long and explicit sex sequence with her and Wade. Damn she even put a [frick]ing dildo in Wade! Even though I didn’t expect them, they actually added quite a bit of depth to their relationship.
As I already mentioned above I liked Vanessa thrusting Ajax with that Katana which in my opinion redeemed her for being so stupid to just be kidnapped by him before. This is actually something I don’t get at all. Vanessa walks outside the strip club because her boss, or something like that, tells her someone wants to meet her back there – I think he talked about it maybe being an ex-boyfriend. Vanessa gets there, sees someone who’s face she can’t see but still seems to recognize him. She seemed to think/hope it would be Wade. Not some much wrong with that until there, but later on the (heli-)carrier she is surprised/shocked when Ajax tells her about Wade still being alive. Did I get something wrong there or was it just bad/inconsistent writing?
Anyways I thought her and Wade getting together again was [frick]ing hilarious but still rather believable.
At the end of the day I think, although Vanessa’s character didn’t get that much screen time (I would guess something around 15 minutes) she is really able to develop over the course of the film, and had some remarkable scenes with Wade.
Weasel
Weasel is portrayed by T. J. Miller, who I actually hadn’t heard of before this movie (yeah I know, shame on me!). But after seeing him in Deadpool I’ll have to check out some of his other movies because as all the rest of the cast he was amazing. I loved him being the guy who is kind of the (non-villainous) counterpart to Deadpool’s quirky persona. His best line just has to be: “I would come with you. But I don’t want to.”. The way he delivered this line just in a kind of bored but still funny way is awesome.
Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Angel Dust and Dopinder
These aren’t main characters but I find them quite interesting, so I will also talk about them in a sentence or two. Probably the most important of them are Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead as they represent the wider X-Men universe. I like them both and especially Negasonic is an interesting and fresh character. Her powers of turning herself into some kind of bomb is something new – at least to me. Her powers were changed from the comics (in which she only is a telepath as far as I know) to make her name fit better. But beside this she also adds some “I don’t want to do anything”- mentality to the film.
Let’s talk about Colossus: He is the best – and most lifelike – representation of the comic book character we have seen so far. However, one thing I don’t like about him is his over the top Russian accent. But I’m not upset about it too much because he’s Russian in the comics. Colossus trying to convince Deadpool to become a X-Men is also something I don’t think would have been necessary for this movie, but is rather important to make it more logical for Deadpool to appear in future X-Men movies and hopefully to be part of the X-Force team.
Gina Carano’s Angel Dust wasn’t that interesting to me, because she wasn’t much more than Ajax’s henchman. Her powers are also fairly boring, granting she would probably have been able to take down Colossus if it wasn’t for Negasonic.
Dopinder is the only non-mutant in this “other-character” list but still he may be my favorite one. I think his first conversation with Wade isn’t that interesting, but the second one when he supposedly kidnapped his brother and put him in the trunk was awesome. I just loved how Deadpool/Wade was telling him to kill him and win back his girl “the old fashion way”, by kidnapping here. I would love to know what happened to him (and his brother) after the crash.
Overall story and favorite scenes
As I already mentioned in my spoiler-free review, the plot is the one thing I am disappointed in. This is because it is really predictable and well-tried. Although the way it’s chronologically structured – using the fourth wall braking to let Deadpool kind of tell his own origin story – makes this less of a problem to me. (And I’ve also got to say that most plots are predictable to a certain degree). So this isn’t a huge problem but something that would have made the movie even greater if done right.
Now that I have finished complaining (for the most part) let’s go in some more detail on the movie. The opening scene is probably the best I have seen in a movie to date. There are something like 15 Easter eggs in just one or two minutes. Hello Kitty, Green Lantern trading cards, … SO MUCH.
Then after that, the bridge fighting scene really shows you what to expect from the movie (cutting this guy in two!). Deadpool talking to himself (“Bad Deadpool! – Good Deadpool!”) while killing guys is just strange and perfectly matches his personality.
After that we get the first “flashback” if I remember correctly. I like the fact that it shows, Wade was also quirky and kind of psychopathic before he became Deadpool. I really wasn’t sure what he was going to do in this pizza delivery boy scene. It also shows how he and Vanessa met and became a couple (mainly by having sex – with dildos – as far as I could tell), but I already talked about that above. A line that stood out for me here, was when Wade faded and it was something like this: “Life is like a huge TV show: There are some short times of happiness but it mainly consists of dumb, [frick]ing commercials!”
After that we get some bridge fights and the first time we see Ajax as far as I can recall. My favorite part of this scene is Deadpool hitting Colossus three(!) times and breaking both of his hands/wrists and one foot/ankle in the process. After that he even cuts his [frick]ing hand of to flee. Crazy as shit and that is exactly what I want from this movie. Fun fact: Negasonic didn’t look nearly as surprised or shocked as most people would be the normal reaction to seeing someone cutting of his hand (or any part of his body)!
So now we get some (el) cancer scenes and Wade gets to the Weapon X (I know it wasn’t called that but that’s just what it is/has to be) facility. I didn’t actually like that part that much but this just means I just enjoyed it and wasn’t almost freaking out over the awesomeness like at most other parts. Yeah sure it was funny and Deadpool/Wade getting away was quite the spectacle, but not that awesome compared to everything else.
Now we are back in the present and see Blind Al for the first time and she is freaking cool. She is kind of like Wade (before he became Deadpool) but older and black! Damn that baby hand scene! Was I the only one who didn’t know if it was funny or just outright creepy?
Now Deadpool tries to find Vanessa and gets to a strip club (because awesome? – just kidding). Vanessa gets kidnapped – I already explained my problems with this scene above – and so Deadpool has to safe her. Oh and I almost forgot: We get a Stan Lee cameo (how else would you know this is a Marvel movie ;) which now is my second favorite one (number one is his cameo in Avengers: AoU).
Now we come to my number one favorite scene in the entire movie: The X-Mansion. Just so many awesome lines in there that I probably don’t remember half of them. But the two lines I remember the best are more than enough. You probably know which ones I’m talking about but I will still quote them – just because I can and I want to! Deadpool talking to Negasonic (damn I almost feel racist writing that name) and just saying: “This house is so huge but I always only see the two of you. You could almost think the studio didn’t want to pay for more actor!” and also something about this mansion being blown up a whole lot.
So now they suit up, take the cab and Deadpool forgets his whole, huge weapons/sports bag in there. I guess he’ll just have to do it the old fashion way “with two swords and a whole lot of commitment” than ;). Deadpool kills a whole lot of bad guys (after taking of his shorts) and Negasonic blasts the rest of the mercenaries (except Bob of course).
Now Deadpool finally gets his fight with Ajax and almost loses if it wasn’t for Vanessa. And suddenly there it is: the least expected scene in the movie (at least for me), unicorns and other weird drawn things running around all over the screen while Deadpool has a knife in his head. So stupid and so damn perfect!
After that he kills Ajax despite Colossus’ flaming hero speech. Although that was really predictable to me, it still was a small shock when he really pulled the trigger.
Now Deadpool/Wade talks to Vanessa and she unmask him just to reveal the Hugh Jackman mask – which he supposedly had under his Deadpool costume the whole time since he got to the X-Mansion.
The following scenes just show how well the chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Morena Baccarin works. (“It’s a face I would love to sit on” – “The face isn’t the only part that is different now – MONSTER PENIS!”).
Now to the post credits scene – which according to @mrsundaymovies resembles a scene from “Ferris Bueller”: It’s awesome and Deadpool is full on forth wall breaking in it. I loved how he ask: “What did you expect? Samuel L. Jackson in an eyepatch?”. And in what some people consider the second post credit scene although I like to think of it as just an extra-long one he even talks about Deadpool 2 which was already confirmed by fox as well. In there he mentions some “possible” casting choices.
So that’s it. I feel like I only mentioned about one percent of the things I wanted to talk about! Damn it! I even forgot to talk about the sixteenth wall break in more detail!
Anyways, this review is already 2683 words long and I know I can’t talk about all the stuff I would want to – or at least not will still having to do other things!
I hope you liked this review and please feel free to leave comments about your favorite scenes and opinions (and please, if you can remember one of the lines I quoted correctly, also tell about it because I probably got half of the wrong). I would also love if you could subscribe to my blog so you will hear about all my new posts first or follow me on twitter (@beer_robin) so you can read all the crap (and also some things that may be interesting) I post on there.
If you want to see virtually all Easter eggs, references and cameos that were in Deadpool (more than 100) I would suggest watching this video: