Deadpool

Another year, another year of films based on comic books. Through the years, we have seen a plethora of these films: Superman, Batman, Captain America, X-Men, and other incarnations of these films too numerous to mention. Suffice it to say, enough to last a lifetime. It looks like we have "Deadpool" to start out this year's never ending list of 'comic book movies'.

This is the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), who after being diagnosed with a rare cancer, and subsequently being subjected to a rogue experiment to cure the cancer that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, with his buddy Weasel (T.J. Miller) to help with a name, adopts the alter ego name Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool, with help from Colossus (Stefan Kapicic-voice and Greg LaSalle-facial performance) and Ellie/ Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life, Ajax/Francis (Ed Skrein).

Others to round out the cast are Morena Baccarini as Vanessa Carlyse, Deadpool's girlfriend, Gina Carano as Angel Dust, a baddie cohort of Ajax, Jed Rees as Recruiter, Hugh Scott as David Cunningham and Leslie Uggams as Blind Al.

Considering his lack of feature film experience, this was surprisingly well directed by Tim Miller (shorts). The staging and pacing, especially by Reynolds was simply spot on, although this was certainly a role made for Reynolds' brand of humor. I would be very interested in what this guy could do given more experience: was this just a fluke or is this filmmaker a natural? It was cleverly written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick based on characters by Rob Liefield and Fabian Nicieza. Both Reese and Wernick were responsible for the film "Zombieland" which was a fresh, original screenplay of a genre that has been worked to death--zombies. And if I were to akin any work they've done before that could mirror the same freshness of an overdone genre, it would be that of "Zombieland". "Deadpool" had that same originality that otherwise would have been a real yawner considering the amount of films generated from the likes of Marvel, DC Comics, etc. have been amazing in number. It takes true talent in writing to take an otherwise hackneyed genre and make something different from it. These two writers also have other experience as well which gives them that edge in the writing realm. As stated prior, Reynolds owns this role--maybe the casting coup of the year. Without him in the title role, this clearly wouldn't have been the film it ended up being. And for this is worth the price of admission.

Last, but not least, this, I believe, is the first film by Marvel that is rated R, and with good reason. Deadpool is an off-kilter guy with his own brand of humor, so it had to have those expletives in here, couple that with some choice boob shots--hey he's that type of guy, and this is not one for the kids. This is an adult 'comic book' based film. Got it?

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                               Rated: R                                   108mins.