The Merc with a Mouth has a movie
I went to see Deadpool this afternoon. It's half-term this week and ordinarily I avoid seeing films then because they're usually full of noisy kids who ruin the whole experience for everyone. I didn't think that would be a problem this time because of the assurances that it would be an R rating so I expected it would translate to an 18 here. Except that it's actually a 15. I was a little surprised by that to be honest.
Quick review: it's a good film, very funny, very Deadpool.
Longer review: I loved the opening credit sequence from a purely artistic viewpoint, it's really well-done. I think I was the only person laughing at the actual credits of things like 'God's Perfect Idiot', 'CGI character' and 'A Moody Teen'. Then again, the audience seemed to take a while to warm up to it and didn't really start laughing until about halfway through. The overall plot of the film is actually quite disappointing. Person is given powers, then hunts down the person who gave them to him while trying to rescue/revenge his girlfriend. That's nothing new, and actually, it's not too dissimilar to Wolverine Origins. I think the thing that annoyed me the most was the constant references to how the X-Men keep asking Deadpool to join them and he keeps refusing. In all the DP comics I've read - admittedly I've not read the early series but I've read from volume 2 onwards - it's been the other way around: he keeps asking to join and they refuse him because - vitally - he's not a mutant. And I don't really know why they picked Colossus. I don't think I've ever seen him paired with Deadpool. At least they managed to get Colossus looking like he does in the comics, so that's something.
There's lots of fourth wall breaking, lots of references to various bits of pop culture and the MCU. I liked the line at the X Mansion about which professor, McAvoy or Stewart, and how confusing the timelines were :) And I'm pretty sure that was a Helicarrier that the final fight was on. Which exploded. Make of that what you will! There's also quite a few in-jokes such as Deadpool's apparent love of childlike stuff, in this instance, Hello Kitty (amusingly the only person the official Twitter account for Deadpool follows is Hello Kitty), digs at Wolverine (and Hugh Jackman), chimichangas, and being Canadian. There's a couple of references to the previous incarnation of Deadpool in the Wolverine Origins film (a line about sewing his mouth shut, his lips being sealed and a shot of the action figure from that film). And Hydra Bob! Although he was just Bob because I don't think they were allowed to use the Hydra name, but yay Bob! It was nice to see DP's best friend included.
Overall, it was good, it was just a bit disappointing in the whole 'there's never been a superhero film like this before!!!' aspect that has been so widely proclaimed. And then there's the post-credits scene which references the King of Fourth Wall Breaking and Post-Credits Scenes so hard. I thought there were supposed to be two but they're actually kind of joined together so it looks like it's all one. And as usual, 99% of the audience had left by that point! You'd think they'd know by now!
And because I am completely sad, I wore my new Avengers sweatshirt that I got yesterday. It was the very last one in the shop so I was really glad it fitted, especially as it was reduced from £40 to £14.50. My excuse is that it was freezing outside and it was the first jumper I laid my hands on... ;)
Quick review: it's a good film, very funny, very Deadpool.
Longer review: I loved the opening credit sequence from a purely artistic viewpoint, it's really well-done. I think I was the only person laughing at the actual credits of things like 'God's Perfect Idiot', 'CGI character' and 'A Moody Teen'. Then again, the audience seemed to take a while to warm up to it and didn't really start laughing until about halfway through. The overall plot of the film is actually quite disappointing. Person is given powers, then hunts down the person who gave them to him while trying to rescue/revenge his girlfriend. That's nothing new, and actually, it's not too dissimilar to Wolverine Origins. I think the thing that annoyed me the most was the constant references to how the X-Men keep asking Deadpool to join them and he keeps refusing. In all the DP comics I've read - admittedly I've not read the early series but I've read from volume 2 onwards - it's been the other way around: he keeps asking to join and they refuse him because - vitally - he's not a mutant. And I don't really know why they picked Colossus. I don't think I've ever seen him paired with Deadpool. At least they managed to get Colossus looking like he does in the comics, so that's something.
There's lots of fourth wall breaking, lots of references to various bits of pop culture and the MCU. I liked the line at the X Mansion about which professor, McAvoy or Stewart, and how confusing the timelines were :) And I'm pretty sure that was a Helicarrier that the final fight was on. Which exploded. Make of that what you will! There's also quite a few in-jokes such as Deadpool's apparent love of childlike stuff, in this instance, Hello Kitty (amusingly the only person the official Twitter account for Deadpool follows is Hello Kitty), digs at Wolverine (and Hugh Jackman), chimichangas, and being Canadian. There's a couple of references to the previous incarnation of Deadpool in the Wolverine Origins film (a line about sewing his mouth shut, his lips being sealed and a shot of the action figure from that film). And Hydra Bob! Although he was just Bob because I don't think they were allowed to use the Hydra name, but yay Bob! It was nice to see DP's best friend included.
Overall, it was good, it was just a bit disappointing in the whole 'there's never been a superhero film like this before!!!' aspect that has been so widely proclaimed. And then there's the post-credits scene which references the King of Fourth Wall Breaking and Post-Credits Scenes so hard. I thought there were supposed to be two but they're actually kind of joined together so it looks like it's all one. And as usual, 99% of the audience had left by that point! You'd think they'd know by now!
And because I am completely sad, I wore my new Avengers sweatshirt that I got yesterday. It was the very last one in the shop so I was really glad it fitted, especially as it was reduced from £40 to £14.50. My excuse is that it was freezing outside and it was the first jumper I laid my hands on... ;)