It took roughly a decade for pinheads at Fox to give Deadpool the green light, and now Ryan Reynolds and Co. can officially have the last laugh. The “Merc with the mouth” crushed records over Valentine’s Day weekend for an R-rated movie: $135 million in North America and $125 million overseas.
The plot of Deadpool is fairly straightforward: Wade Wilson loves a girl. Wade Wilson gets terminal cancer. Wade Wilson opts into an experiment he thinks will save his life and inadvertently gets duped by some nasty characters. Then, it’s time for revenge. Along the way he is aided by Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) and Colossus (Stefan Kapicic).
In short, director Tim Miller makes sure that fans of Wade Wilson get everything they wanted from such a movie and more for 108 minutes. It’s witty, it’s raunchy, and it’s got plenty of action and even heart. There is also a death-by-Zamboni scene that is an instant classic.
Perhaps most surprisingly was the extended screen time for Colossus. I feared he would be in the movie for about one minute due to budget constraints, but that was not the case. He even was crowned the film’s moral compass.
At one point in the film he says to Deadpool:
“Four or five moments. Four or five moments — that’s all it takes to be a hero. Everyone thinks it’s a full-time job. Wake up a hero. Brush your teeth a hero. Go to work a hero. Not true. Over a lifetime there are only four or five moments that really matter. Moments when you’re offered a choice to make a sacrifice, conquer a flaw, save a friend — spare an enemy. In these moments everything else falls away.“
What happens after this speech completely sums up who Wade Wilson is and why it would be best if he never joined the X-Men.
With that said, it must be stated that Deadpool is not for everyone and it is certainly not a movie for kids. More socially conservative viewers will certainly be disappointed with Stan Lee’s cameo (I laughed, but thought he probably should have passed on the offer for that specific scene), and anyone who is offended by sexual jokes or nudity should save their money.
There is no doubt that a sequel for Deadpool is already in the works — and this time Fox will put it on the fast track. The creative team that takes on the project would do themselves many favors by keeping a character like Colossus, an angel over Wilson’s shoulder, nearby. If they put the same amount of love and effort into the follow-up, then the sky is the limit for the Deadpool franchise.
Douglas Ernst Blog 