Deadpool may be one the most singular and unique characters in the history of comic book lore. His character has a very rabid fan base among the elite of Marvel comic nerddom, and they have been watching very carefully to see that he has been treated properly by the Hollywood people. He hasn’t been in the past, but more about that later. He may not be the biggest name in the Marvel universe, but he might be the most extreme. Just in case you live in a cave or under a rock, the Marvel universe is inexorably taking over the actual universe with films like The Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Ant-Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Hulk, Wolverine, Daredevil, and on and on. To get back to what happened to Deadpool in the past, we go to the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine. This also gets into the 20th Century Fox vs. Disney battle over the rights of Marvel characters (which is actually only a small part of the picture, since Columbia owned Spider-Man for a long time ,but let’s not go down that rabbit hole). Lots of hard-core comic book fans were incensed at how far 20th Century Fox was straying from the origins and substance of the source material with the X-Men movies, but especially in the case of Deadpool, who is sacred to many. I shouldn’t say sacred, but what can you do, since the character of Wade Wilson (A.K.A. Deadpool) is very profane and NSFW.
Let’s discuss Ryan Reynolds for a moment. Reynolds has been a Deadpool fanboy for years and is specifically mentioned in the comics in a description of Wade Wilson as a cross between Reynolds and a Shar Pei. It should be noted the main characteristics of the Deadpool comics is that it has strong content in both sex and violence that is relentlessly full of silly fun and that Wilson is fully aware that he is in a comic book and talks to the reader in a self-aware manner. So Reynolds played Wilson in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, and Fox did not show proper concern for the concerns of the core fans, and hysteria ruled. Reynolds then took it upon himself to try to get a proper Deadpool movie made (again, I shouldn’t say proper). I think this time they got it right (and when I say right, I mean wrong in all the best possible ways).
The movie starts off with one of the best opening credit sequences of all time, and if you are not on board in the first five minutes, you should run from the theater, because this is not for you. The film is directed by Tim Miller, not be confused with comedian T.J. Miller, who plays Wilson’s bartender friend.
I won’t begin to try to summarize the plot, but simply state that this is an antidote to any other superhero movie out there. In fact, The X-Men are specifically skewered by the film with the inclusion of a rather silly version of Colossus and the X-Men mansion. It is unbelievably violent and gory, full of very bad language, and with a sex scene to rival Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Team America: World Police. In other words, it is wonderful but definitely not for the children (but we know they are going to get to see it anyway). I have warned some of you, and for everyone else, run out and see this multiple times and savor the sick, twisted satire that is Deadpool.
