Irreverent and wonderful

Rating: 8/10 (11 February 2016)

Boy was this fun. Ryan Reynolds should be commended on bringing Deadpool to the screen, because not many people would be able to rise above the criticism levelled at him over the years for both Green Lantern and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Beyond that, he should be commended for the performance he gives here. He wears the classic costume with pride, kicks complete ass in the action sequences and is in general the funnest protagonists to grace the comic book screen since Peter Quill, and eclipses both Chris Pratt and Robert Downey Jr. with his sheer charm and humour.
After one of the best opening credits sequences ever made, we are treated with a cleverly interspliced story. Deadpool is hunting down his nemesis Francis, but this sequence on the bridge is cut between the origins of Deadpool's powers. The filmmakers knew we would get bored by the same formula, so they shake it up and keep us entertained. That's not to say that the origin story isn't fun. Reynolds and a wonderful Morena Baccarin have enough chemistry to engage us with their love story in the same way that Eisenberg and Stewart did with American Ultra. Ed Skrein is an adequate villain (I believe in you Ed! You can do great stuff!) with enough drips of smug malevolence to make his downfall desirable to the audience. In the present, there's some great work done by Brianna Hildebrand and Stefan Kapičić as a pair of X-Men who try to get Deadpool to join their team. Both of them are so much fun that I found myself wishing for more of them on screen. There's even a hilarious subplot about a taxi driver named Dopinder, which ends up serving the final film instead of being useless. (in stark contrast to Sicario).
What accelerates Deadpool is what everyone wanted from Deadpool - humour, fourth wall breaks and general irreverance. Masturbation, and sex jokes are both crass and hilarious (yes you can have both!) Wilson's foul mouth, wit and childish love for innuendo is absolutely irresistible, but best of all are the constant digs at X-Men films, Hugh Jackman and especially Ryan Reynolds himself. I was always holding out for the next fourth wall break and rarely did they disappoint me. I adored the Monty Python inspired jokes and they worked superbly on all fronts. The use of DMX's music is inspired and utterly wonderful.
I could find fault only with the action sequences, which are choppy, shaky and almost impossible to decipher. I also felt that having established Negasonic's powers, she was forced to sit on the sidelines to avoid overpowering the whole film. That being said, Tim Miller's directorial choices for the most part were brilliant - especially a cliché-kicking "wow that was awesome!" declaration by Deadpool after what would inevitably be an "OMG where's Wade" towards the film's climax. I'm glad that a debut director got his hands on this property, because anyone experienced in the industry might have been tempted to give into the formula.