So…Deadpool.

Make no mistake; I may be including Deadpool in my X-Men Rankings, but Wade Wilson is hardly an X-Man (despite the best efforts of one shiny Russian giant). This is a VERY R-rated comedy. It may be a dramatic departure for Fox, but it more than pays off.

Story

It’s a tale as old as time. Boy meets girl. Girl and boy get together. Boy gets sick. Boy enters sketchy program that cures his cancer but also tortured and disfigures him horribly. And then boy goes on a massive revenge kick.

Look, the story isn’t the appeal. Deadpool works because it’s funny.

The Merc with a Mouth

We can’t dive into this film without talking about the lead. Ryan Reynolds was born to play this role.

He perfects the irreverent, meta patter of the character. Reynolds never shuts up, but I mean that in the best possible way. He also manages to nail the physicality of the character. Deadpool has to switch between slapstick and menace at a second’s notice. Sometimes, he has to demonstrate both simultaneously. Reynolds manages it with aplomb. His Wade is a guy who can make a brown pants joke and then execute three armed men with a single bullet in the same scene.

The Dramatic Cast

This is gonna be a short section, because even when this film SEEMS to go dramatic, it’s usually just setting up a particularly dark punchline. Calling these two the dramatic cast is almost a misnomer, because they’re still tied up in a lot of the humor. I refer to them as such because what actual drama the film has is tied up EXCLUSIVELY in their scenes.

Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) is a fairly generic love interest, filtered through the perverse lens of Wade’s world. She’s pretty underwritten considering the film is ostensibly a love story about her and Wade. She isn’t in a ton of the film, but she’s memorable simply because Baccarin and Reynolds have fantastic chemistry. Vanessa has like fifteen minutes screen time, total, but she gets the job done.

Ajax AKA Francis (Ed Skrein) serves as the obligatory villain of Deadpool. He’s even more underwritten than Vanessa, but without the charm and raw acting ability. Luckily, all he really has to do is make the audience empathize with Wade’s revenge quest, and that he can manage.

The Comedic Cast

These characters exist pretty much just to produce jokes. And there is nothing wrong with that, because they are mostly good at it.

Weasel (TJ Miller) is the weakest link. Miller works when he’s serving as a sounding board for Reynolds, but when he’s supposed to bring his own jokes it just doesn’t work as well. His scene where he describes Wade’s face is his big moment in the film and it feels forced.

Dopinder’s (Karan Soni) job is to get terrible advice from Wade. His mundane troubles take a hilariously dark turn when he starts to consider Wade’s counsel.

Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) is played here as a giant Russian Boy Scout. He sincerity and decency make for an effective comedic juxtaposition with Wade’s depravity and moral flexibility.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) exists mostly for age-based jokes. That sounds weak, but the delivery is strong enough it works. It more than works, because she’s arguably the breakout star of the film off only a couple of scenes.

Angel Dust (Gina Carano) tends to be the butt of jokes more than she makes them. And the jokes aren’t particularly good. I’m talking lazy dick jokes and wardrobe malfunctions. Luckily she gets some decent action beats to balance it out.

Visual Effects and Choreography

The makeup job for Deadpool the character is probably under-appreciated. It’s a tricky thing to make a recognizable actor look disfigured all over while still allowing them to emote freely. PThe mask is also an under-appreciated gem. Some minor CGI trickery lets a full face mask maintain a full range of human expression. On top of all that, Deadpool also boasts one of the most comic-accurate super suits ever put to film. I mean, it really is just perfect.

Deadpool also has some superb stunts and fight scenes. In particular, the opening highway battle is spectacular, but honestly most of the film’s action is great. It all works because they don’t go for any level of realism whatsoever. Wade is a superhuman murder machine, and they lean into it, hard.

Score

You don’t hear Deadpool’s musical identity brought up as often as Guardians of the Galaxy. But honestly, it uses music nearly as effectively. The original score is good, not particularly memorable. Where it shines is with the use of familiar songs from throughout pop culture. The juxtaposition of Wade’s ultraviolent tendencies with his penchant for female-led pop and hip hop acts heightens several scenes from the comedic to the surreal.

Conclusion

Deadpool is a different animal than just about any other superhero film. These films have rarely shied away from including humor. The MCU is notorious for turning everybody into their quippiest selves. But Deadpool is a rare beast in that it’s an outright comedy.

And somehow, that makes it one of the single greatest entries into the genre.

Deadpool isn’t quite as good as Logan and Days of Future Past. But I still feel comfortable putting it on the #3 spot on the X-Men Rankings.

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