Deadpool has been making headlines lately after earning $491.9 million in worldwide box office takings despite having only been shown in theatres for just over a week. The movies success has urged studio 20th Century Fox to 'consider' more R-rated comic book movies, including the third Wolverine movie which is due for release 3rd March 2017. Popular Marvel director James Gunn, whom has just started filming on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 was quick, and right to criticize that the lesson Fox should learn from Deadpools success is not in its R-rating, but in the trust and confidence the cast and crew of the movie had in their adaptation of the source material. The love and devotion exhuding from star Ryan Reynolds and director Tim Miller gives the audience the confidence that they can enjoy the movie. Gunn has a point, as when comparing Deadpool to similar recent low key comic book movies such as the Fantastic Four and Ant-Man, the lack of confidence in their final product, especially for the Fantastic Four spoke volumes about the movies quality.
Weren't the Blade movies R-rated?!?
Deadpool isn't the first R-rated comic book movie, so it is somewhat baffling why there is so much fuss on the matter - both the Blade trilogy and the Crow movies are based upon comic books and are R-rated, and decades old. If anything Deadpool could be seen as a throwback to when comic book movies were made for fans, by fans, rather than to drive the multi-billion dollar cinematic universes that seem to be dominating Hollywood at the moment.
Quite literally from the opening credits to the post credits scene, one thing is made very clear about this movie - it does not take itself seriously, yet in one of its closing moments you realise the movie has fooled you all along when it reveals the heart at the core of its story, a heart of which you realise you care about. This technique is often used in movies, but to varying degress of impact; you care about the character because you are emotionally invested in that character. Deadpool achieves this through its use of comedy - by laughing at Wades misadventures, mishaps and outragous moments you become emotionally invested in his character. Yes Deadpool is a comic book movie, a revenge movie, an action movie and a comedy movie, but deep down its love story.
We were warned!
While at times the limiting budget does become apparant, as do the limitations of the licence used, Deadpools two major action set pieces are impressively staged with enough scope to serve both the narrative and the on screen action. Ultimately the movie is composed of very few locations and/or sets, with a story that is so simple it could have been written on a napkin, but its through the character interactions and the expertly handled staging of the locations that the movie leaps off the screen. Despite not being explicitly identified as such, the location for the movies final showdown appears to be a grounded, damaged Hellicarrier from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, despite that Fox's X-Men cinematic universe is assumingly unrelated chronologically to Marvels cinematic universe. The movie does not use a CGI model of a Hellicarrier, its shape is just inferred, but its the confidence that the team had in inferring the presence of the Hellicarrier that shows what can be acheived evenon a small budget.
The movies opening action set piece, and that which is used for almost half the movie, inbetween Man of Steel style flashbacks, is the well publicized highway location from Vancouver, Canada. Rather than feeling overly familar from its use in the trailers, the location helps ease the audience into the world of Deadpool. After dispatching his intended targets Deadpool has to deal with X-Mens Colossus in hilarious fashion, a hero vs (anti) hero duel which concludes in a way only a fight with Deadpool could. Deadpool is lewd, rude and unashamedly crude, and while it may not be the big budget, explosive, child friendly blockbuster we've come to expect from these movies, the movie does show off director James Gunn's point perfectly - because Reynolds and Miller trusted in what they created we the audience can enjoy what they created, time and again.
Here's to hoping that Avatar's Stephen Lang is snatched up for the role of Cable for the sequel and that the chemistry between him and Reynolds proves as hilarious as it has in the comic books. And depending on Tom Hollands Spider-Man, maybe Fox and Marvel Studios could extend the Marvel Studios cinematic universe to include the X-Men universe and give us a big screen taste of hugely popular Deadpool - Spiderman comic books.
Final Verdict
4/5 - Don't take it too seriously and you'll enjoy it.
Deadpool 3 September 6th, 2024
More about Deadpool 3 (movie)
Official plot synopsis for Deadpool 3 has yet to be revealed.
Directed by TBA, Deadpool 3's release date is September 6th, 2024.
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