by Brian LeTendre
By the time I saw Deadpool on Monday, the news of its record-shattering weekend was already well-documented. It's the highest-grossing debut of an R-rated movie, it destroyed Valentine's Day records, and it's already made almost five times its budget back in about four days. So, Deadpool is a success. But is it any good?
It's actually really good, but probably not for the reasons you think. Sure, Deadpool is funny, and there is plenty of violence, profanity and nudity to justify that R rating. But the three reasons I loved Deadpool were the characters, the love story and the small-budget filmmaking skills displayed by Director Tim Miller.
By the time I saw Deadpool on Monday, the news of its record-shattering weekend was already well-documented. It's the highest-grossing debut of an R-rated movie, it destroyed Valentine's Day records, and it's already made almost five times its budget back in about four days. So, Deadpool is a success. But is it any good?
It's actually really good, but probably not for the reasons you think. Sure, Deadpool is funny, and there is plenty of violence, profanity and nudity to justify that R rating. But the three reasons I loved Deadpool were the characters, the love story and the small-budget filmmaking skills displayed by Director Tim Miller.
Let's take the characters first. We all know Deadpool is the character Ryan Reynolds was born to play, and he absolutely does not disappoint in this movie. He is Deadpool.
But you know who else freaking rocks? Colossus. Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Angel Dust. And Vanessa, played by Firefly alum Morena Baccarin. They're all fantastic, but Colossus and Vanessa stand out as really great characters.
Which brings me to the love story. Baccarin's Vanessa is the perfect match for Reynolds' Wade Wilson, and the love story at the core of this movie is one that you'll actually care about. It's not doing anything mind-blowing, but the chemistry that Reynolds and Baccarin have is fantastic, and it sells the story.
Which is a good thing, because the story in this movie is paper-thin. The more I thought about it, the more I admired how Director Tim Miller and writers Rhet Reese and Paul Wernick did so much with so little. There are only a handful of locations in this movie, and the story could not possibly be any simpler. But the way that tell that story, and the actors they're telling it with, make Deadpool feel a lot bigger than it actually is.
This movie reminded me of everything I loved about Punisher: War Zone. It never forgets that it's a comic book movie, and it tells a good story without having to pretend the universe is at stake.
But you know who else freaking rocks? Colossus. Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Angel Dust. And Vanessa, played by Firefly alum Morena Baccarin. They're all fantastic, but Colossus and Vanessa stand out as really great characters.
Which brings me to the love story. Baccarin's Vanessa is the perfect match for Reynolds' Wade Wilson, and the love story at the core of this movie is one that you'll actually care about. It's not doing anything mind-blowing, but the chemistry that Reynolds and Baccarin have is fantastic, and it sells the story.
Which is a good thing, because the story in this movie is paper-thin. The more I thought about it, the more I admired how Director Tim Miller and writers Rhet Reese and Paul Wernick did so much with so little. There are only a handful of locations in this movie, and the story could not possibly be any simpler. But the way that tell that story, and the actors they're telling it with, make Deadpool feel a lot bigger than it actually is.
This movie reminded me of everything I loved about Punisher: War Zone. It never forgets that it's a comic book movie, and it tells a good story without having to pretend the universe is at stake.
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