After a decade and a half in development hell, a film focused on wiseacre X-Men frenemy Deadpool has finally swaggered into theaters. Its arrival is a welcome clock to the jaw, but not because visual effects wizard Tim Miller’s directorial debut is a particularly exceptional entry in the superhero subgenre. Deadpool the movie is functional, slightly over-familiar stuff, at least as an action vehicle and vigilante-in-tights origin story. What sets the feature apart is its unabashedly adolescent irreverence for the very generic conventions it relies upon.
Deadpool’s cheeky tone is set straight away by a mock opening credit sequence that heralds “The Hot Chick” and “A CGI Character,” among other cast and crew. In the role of ex-Special Forces gun-for-hire Wade Wilson is Ryan Reynolds, who originated the character in the best-forgotten X-Men Origins: Wolverine. When Wilson is abruptly faced with a Stage IV cancer diagnosis, he walks out on girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and attempts a Hail Mary with back alley genetic tinkerer Ajax (Ed Skrein). Bad move: Ajax’s cruel experiments render Wade indestructible but horribly disfigured. Wade eventually escapes and assumes the Deadpool persona, slicing a bloody, smart-alecky trail back to his captors.
At the story level, it’s standard, even hackneyed fare, but what makes Deadpool distinctive is the film’s absolute refusal to take itself seriously. Director Miller, screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reesea, and Reynolds (whose longstanding gusto for the character arguably makes him Deadpool’s auteur) fire quips at a machine gun tempo: juvenile insults, scatological humor, smug meta-jokes, potshots at the X-Men films, and gleeful piss-taking of blockbuster filmmaking in general. Only about half of these gags stick, but Deadpool nonetheless endures through sheer waggish enthusiasm, spattering guts (and other substances) all over the dire, earnest tone that smothers many comic book adaptations.
Deadpool opens Friday, February 12 in wide release.
