Offbeat but not subversive

Rating: 7/10 (20 February 2016)

Acknowledging the generic nature of your film is one thing, but it's only a half-step towards avoiding being generic at all. For all its off-the-wall innovation, "Deadpool" is still a perfect fit for the Marvel movie mould: take a wise-cracking superhero with a helpless sexualised love interest, a 2-dimensional "British" villain, and an assortment of bizarre sidekicks, and sprinkle with explosions. Spelling this template out in the wacky opening credits is not defence enough against its conformism.
"Deadpool" attempts to subvert long-established Marvel standards through breaking the 4th wall - a technique which loses its potency in constantly occurring, seemingly more often than actual dialogue - and its absurd jokes. This at least is a success - irreverence piles up as sexual abuse victims, drug addicts and cancer sufferers are all thrown under the bus in the name of Offbeat Humour. Nonetheless, inevitable cringe-inducing superhero epigrams make appearances too. Pop-culture referencing is another tenet of Marvel films and this manifests itself abundantly, to the delight of Marvel aficionados in the audience. Superhero films have always cornered the market in special-FX budgets and cinematography, and "Deadpool" is no exception: the action sequences really are breathtaking, the violence fortuitous. The aberrant 15-rated certificate is made full use of with F-bombs and gory lacerations littered like bullet casings throughout.
Even though it punches above the level of previous Marvel features, "Deadpool" still suffers from the usual pitfalls of plot holes, predictable story arcs, poor emotional pacing, and stock characters. What redeems it is its superior sense of humour, irreverent tone, and subtle boundary-pushing in the form of 4th-wall-breaks and gratuitous violence.