"Daddy needs to express some rage."

Rating: 8/10 (15 February 2016)

Deadpool, aka "The Merc With A Mouth" made an appearance in Wolverine: Origins, played by Ryan Reynolds. The bits with Reynolds had him without a mask, but still the sassy attitude. He later appeared near the end, a bastardization of the character, this time played by Scott Adkins. This guy was known as Weapon XI, the next evolution of Wolverine? I'm still not sure because that film was a mess of epic proportions. The use of Deadpool in this film is a travesty and fans were obviously upset.
Reynolds, who has been a champion of the character for years now, has tried and tried again to get a Deadpool feature film going. He has finally succeeded and now we have a 'proper' version of the character, one that fans seem to love and Reynolds is actually happy with. Deadpool is not your ordinary comic book character, for starters, he knows he's a comic book character. The film version knows he's in a film, he knows about the previous version of Deadpool and even the previous comic book character Reynolds played, The Green Lantern. I feel that some people may have had enough with the super hero genre, but Deadpool, much like Guardians of the Galaxy, is just unique enough to breathe some fresh air into an already bloated genre.
Wade Wilson, Reynolds, is a mercenary for hire. While at his best friends bar, he runs into a beautiful woman, Vanessa, played by Morena Baccarin. They instantly hit it off and fall in love. He pops the question, expecting a long, loving life with the girl of his dreams. Things don't seem to work out for him though, as he is unexpectedly hit with cancer. Hitting the liver, lungs, prostate and brain. Not wanting to drag her through the heartbreak of watching him die, he vanishes. While gone he is presented with a new experimental program that could cure his cancer and make him super. Experiments never go accordingly to plan and Deadpool is now born. A mutant with healing properties, enhanced strength and scarred skin making him one of the ugliest men alive. Now he's out for revenge, to get the man who did this to him and hopefully make him right again.
Deadpool had an uphill battle, a hard R rating, an unknown character outside of fanboys and Ryan Reynolds, a guy who desperately needs a hit. The film only got the greenlight due to an extremely positive reaction to leaked test footage, which has made it into the actual film, and it seems even more people want to see the film because it is doing extremely well. Does this mean we'll eventually see an influx of r rated super hero films? Maybe. But I doubt any of them will have the pure fun and energetic charm that Reynolds brings to this picture. Reynolds is a perfect Deadpool, he brings the character to life with the spot on comedic timing and self awareness. He brings his usual improv swagger to the role, if you're familiar with his comedic roles prior, it is on all cylinders here. With the R rating, he's able to let the risky profanity filled one liners fly. Some might feel it's a bit too much at times, others will say it fits the tone of the film perfectly.
That R rating is well deserved as well. The film is full of profanity, nudity and extreme violence. People are decapitated, skewered, burned, crushed, blown-up and pretty much anything else you can imagine. This film is not kid friendly, despite the fact that there were a few children under the age of 14 in my showing. Despite the violence in the film, it is indeed very cartoon-like. Deadpool cuts his own arm off, cgi blood sprays on the face of another character, then he eventually grows a new arm. Most of the film sees bad guys simply be shot, with precision from the man in red.
With a somewhat modest budget, for a superhero film, of only 58 million, the film waits to use the majority of that budget for the last act. The film jumps back and forth between the present and the past. As for as origin stories go, it's pretty run of the mill. Experiment gone wrong and hero seeks revenge. Seems almost like Wolverine and a lot of others. The familiarity of the film didn't bother me because it had a lot of fun with it. A lot of films feel held back by their origins story, Deadpool isn't one of them.
Despite some of the juvenile humour, Deadpool is a lot of fun. A lot of bloody, violent, profanity filled fun.