Bloody good

There’s a certain amount of agony and moral debate that goes into the preparation of any review of a movie with superhero characters. Some of that quandary revolves around the inherent value of stories that demonstrate heroism without realism, but most of it starts with the fact that few to none of the protagonists actually have any kind of personality.

Wolverine is generally the exception to this rule but Hugh Jackman has now played him in seven films so he has since become tired and stale.

That leaves us with Deadpool, a decidedly un-PG character from the Marvel universe. He’s a lippy sort, snarky and snide, and doesn’t self-censor anything he says so often he’s offensive but in a way that’s still somewhat endearing unless you’re his foe. Nothing he says or does is suitable for a family audience.

Apparently, fan interest in this character was so strong that it was basically a war of attrition before a movie would be made where he was the central figure. The only stipulation of the unspoken agreement was that the movie must be as R-rated as the character himself. Nobody, it seemed, had an interest in making another X-Men or Avengers with endless carnage and destruction but without a single drop of blood or a foul word spoken.

Deadpool has certainly filled that gap. In this movie, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is a Special Forces trained mercenary who falls in love with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) but soon is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He is offered a unique and experimental treatment from a dubious source, and it renders him both with superhuman healing powers and a distorted appearance. This entices him to don a full body suit, reluctantly leave his lover and go on a revenge-filled quest to track down Ajax (Ed Skrein), the person responsible for his new life along with its blessings and curses.

Mostly told in a fragmented back and forth timeline, the movie revels in its protagonist’s smartass attitude and his ability to cut through conventions by talking to the audience, talking about how the movie was made and the movie industry in general, talking about the actors and other people involved with the making of the film, and really just talking, talking, and more talking. Where other formulaic comic book superhero movies rely all too heavily on plot, this formulaic comic book superhero movie relies 100 per cent on Reynolds’ witty quips and boyish charms.

Finally, there’s a role that’s absolutely perfect for this actor … except that his full face mask keeps his pretty face covered for a fair portion of the screen time, a problem that manifests even more profoundly if you rely on lip-reading to any extent. Even theatres’ closed captioning devices cannot keep up with his rapid-fire dialogue. Half of his verbal genius is lost or muddled.

Apart from that, however, Deadpool is a stroke of brilliance in an otherwise bland studio of characters and stories that are practically indistinguishable from each other. Deadpool has personality and, take it or leave it, that’s a large part of what makes movies valuable. I have no interest in seeing another film where someone saves the world yet cannot utter a sentence that makes me fall asleep or lose track of the story. Maybe this film didn’t really have much of a story to begin with but it’s the main character who makes it all worthwhile. And thank goodness there isn’t a surfeit of CG nonsense also.

I also have no interest in seeing another film where someone saves the world yet massive carnage incurs without the realistic depiction of such. How many immense fight sequences must take place in the middle of major metropolitan cities where buildings topple and thousands die or are injured, and yet the superheroes casually walk (or fly) away without a second thought. Deadpool the movie is bloody and super violent because Deadpool the character is bloody super violent himself. Credit must be given for such authenticity to a fictional figure and such veracity to actual cause and effect.

And it was only there that I had reservations about offering praise here. The violence was a bit much for this critic’s sensibilities but it was all true to the story and the character. Everything is forgivable if it serves the larger purpose, and it does serve here in spades: bloody, crass spades.