A One-Time Watch That is Ultimately Hollow and Overrated

Rating: 6/10 (21 February 2016)

Deadpool is alright as a one-time watch. It is different, fun for a short while and smart when it wants to be. It's biggest asset, a double entendre for those who've seen the film, is Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. The role fits him like a glove. He is awesome. The character rocks and has multiple facets to his personality. Reynolds's comedic timing is perfect and I guess he saves the film, perhaps that was the point.
The humor showcased is what makes Deadpool different. The wit, comedic elements, breaking the fourth wall, being very referential and parodying the X-Men all the while being R-rated give it an amusing edge.
My qualms with this film are that they took the term "R-rated" too literally. He may be the merc with the mouth but the foul language feels forced as if trying too hard to satisfy the kind of audience appetites that come with such a rating. It got annoying eventually as things became very repetitive. I am no prude but the language got to a point of overkill. In addition, humor and 'language' can only so much make up for a lack of story and substance. Eventually even if it is a parody of an X-Men film or an origin story, it is still filled with clichés. If it was trying to highlight the cliché-ridden origin stories and make fun of them, the wolverine films in particular, it did so but to it's detriment as it fell into the same trap. There is practically no story, substance or depth, even originality in the story to save the film, nothing memorable. It ultimately is an amusing but empty ride when you watch it the first time.
The film is quite stylized and that fits the humor. They go very well together but sooner or later it becomes a case of style over substance. The film becomes too reliant on humor, stylized violence and profanity, while hilarious and pretty darn good the first time, it gets old.
The characters aside from Deadpool weren't given much layering especially characters like Negasonic. I expected much more.
I enjoyed the humor the first time but after I watched the film again, it didn't have the same impact. It becomes a strictly one-time watch with an interesting anti-hero but nothing else of note. The humor doesn't hold up on multiple watches, the characters are bland, the story non-existent, the action sequences unmemorable and the villains nothing of note. Even as a parody of an origins film making fun of the clichés, it sinks because it doesn't shatter them rather it falls into the same category and embraces them.
The nods to Ferris Bueller were okay, for those who've seen the end credits, but even that and breaking the fourth wall eventually became stale, overkill and banality equal disappointment after all even when paying tribute or parodying. I'm shocked that this film became so big, I mean the emperor has no clothes! You may enjoy it once, it isn't awful but after all the hype dies down, it becomes just another mediocre movie that had potential.