After what I honestly think is the best promotional & viral marketing campaign a film has had, probably ever, the Deadpool feature film is finally here! And it's... Alright.
I always try to manage expectations with these things, but after the aforementioned advertisements as well as multiple critics I highly regard the opinions of raving about it (John Campea of Collider for example gave the film his seventh 5-out-of-5 in his entire career) and my well-documented appreciation for the character of Deadpool, not to mention it's higher MPAA rating, there's only so neutral you can be going in. Still, I don't think my own personal biases had me too overhyped for Deadpool, I think I can fairly lay the lion's share of my underwhelming experience at the film itself.
I should start out by saying that I didn't dislike Deadpool, I'm giving it a positive rating, and I recommend that people go watch it. Three stars for me is not a low score at all, I am glad I watched the movie and would happily watch it again, this is not a scathing review; Ryan Reynolds has tried his hand at the comic book film no less than five times, and of those five movies, Deadpool is inarguably the best.
Also worth noting that among those other four films, Ryan Reynolds was not the problem in them, but they were all truly bad movies.
The way in which Deadpool is done is pretty impressive, we get all the gore-laden action, R-rated comedy, quip-havery and fourth-wall-breaking you could want from a feature of his own. There are lots of meta-references to previous work to the past failings of both Reynolds as well as the Fox Studio itself. It's non-linear. It's 100% non-serious, almost a comedy before an action film. It's like the 22 Jump Street of the superhero genre. Stylistically, it's a completely fresh comic book movie.
Which is why the complete juxtaposition of how unbelievably generic the actual plot is, is so jarring. It's not only completely unoriginal, it's sometimes downright bland. The "how" is great, but the core of the "what" feels completely uninspired, and these two aspects clash up against each other very unpleasantly.
Points go out to the work done between Ryan Reynolds and Morena Baccarin, although the majority of their characters' relationship is montaged through, the actors themselves had a great on-screen chemistry. I'm also totally on board for a Deadpool sequel (which has been greenlit) or seeing Deadpool show up in other X-franchise properties. But that doesn't mean I can give Deadpool a pass on the things that didn't gel for me.
63%
-Gimly