With the success of Deadpool 2 last May, it did not only prove that the first movie was not a fluke it cements Deadpool as a solid franchise. Originally I was planning on making a review for both the first movie and Deadpool 2, however, It came to my understanding that these are the kind of movies I simply cannot criticise without feeling a little hypocritical. I can make the point that the first movie was nothing more than a "Save your girl" movie and the other was a parody of Terminator. The problem is even if I made those points, I wouldn't be able to erase the fact that I was laughing my ass off the whole time watching both movies. So I'd like to instead focus on the reasons why I think the Deadpool movies are as effective as they are both as a superhero film and a comedy. Let's begin.
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Ryan Reynolds Is Deadpool Incarnate
Let's get the obvious one out of the way first. It has been said a million of times before, Ryan Reynolds is not an actor playing Deadpool, he is Deadpool. Just like Robert Downey Jr. is Ironman, Ryan Reynolds exemplifies being Deadpool in a way that is borderline obsessive if not for the fact that Ryan Reynolds is basically just a real-life version of Deadpool, well minus the being a mutated assassin thing. Deadpool and Reynolds use curse words like its second nature, both are always almost sarcastic and humorous, and both are good at observational and situational comedy. I did theater for at least 6 to 7 years straight and played a lot of roles back in the day, and if there's one thing I learned when it comes to portraying a character, it's that you are only as good as how much you truly understand who you're trying to be. The problem is that there will always be a mental cap or limit to what character you have been given. Ryan Reynolds does not suffer from this because all he really needs to be is himself. Which means all he's really doing when he's on camera is having fun, and because of that we get to have fun with him.
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Comedy in Tragedy, Tragedy In Deadpool
I am a firm believer in the idea that comedy is derived from the idea of tragedy. And thought that statement in itself is up for debate, I don't have the patience nor intellectual prowess to actually make that point. So I won't. However, I will try to explain it the best way I can. The idea of comedy in tragedy is fairly simple. (and is also kinda messed up) I'll give an analogy. Two friends are walking down the street, let's call them Jake and Matthew. While walking Matthew fell down a narrow canal hole in the most unflattering way. Jake, who saw this was shocked, but at the same time triggered a response of laughter. Matthew in response to this actually laughs as well. Matthew in this context is the idea of tragedy, something bad that literally happened towards you yourself. Jake is the comedy, the response you get seeing someone in a compromising situation. But knowing this, why did Matthew laugh as well knowing full well what happened to him? In between these two is a secret third friend, we'll call him understanding. Understanding is the inbetweener, the conscious (or unconscious) decision to accept that what has happened has happened and that a response other than laughter is ultimately futile. When you really think about it, the Deadpool story if you erased all the 4th wall breaking, humor, and pop culture references is a truly tragic tale. A borderline insane, damaged, gun for hire falls in love with an equally damaged prostitute. Gun for hire gets cancer got turned into a walking tumor mutant and his girlfriend prostitute? She gets kidnapped and eventually gets killed. And all this happened, quite frankly, because of the stupid decisions the main character himself had made. On the surface, Deadpool is a raunchy, action-comedy, superhero film but if you dig in a little deeper, you'll begin to understand that the movies are not funny because funny things are happening. They're funny because awful things are happening but for some reason, the people involved takes it in stride. Deadpool as a character works best when he's in some sort of physical and/or emotional pain and both the writers and character himself understands this. Story-wise, it does not mean however that Deadpool chases pain, it's just that pain never leaves him alone both physically and methaporically, but hey, more fun for us right?
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Context Over References
Remember all those movie movies? You know? The phenomenon started by the Wayans brothers with "Scary Movie" about 18 years ago. It spun sequels and spin-offs parodying every genre on the planet to well... less than stellar effects. Deadpool is essentially that, only it works. I'm going to use the film "Superhero Movie" as a comparison here. Superhero Movie is a movie starring Drake Bell (the guy with Josh from Nickelodeon) and is basically a parody of every superhero-film at that point but mostly Spider-man, and though it didn't really get a good reception, I rather enjoyed the flick. The main criticism of the movie though (well, I guess its the main criticism for all the movie movies) is that it often focuses more on shoving all these different references from pop culture and other different movies with no rhyme nor reason. This is something that Deadpool 2 does not suffer from, and it's not because Deadpool did the referencing less, in fact there's an overabundance of it. But what Deadpool did is that it meticulously added context to almost every reference, even the ones that fly over your head. When Deadpool said "I'm Batman" in Deadpool 2 when fighting Cable it's not funny because its a rift at a very popular trope and/or line, It's funny because its something you wouldn't really expect hearing in a middle of a fight. When Deadpool appeared at the post credit scene in the first movie as Ferris Bueller, It's not funny because its a reference to one of the most famous cult classic characters who also has the tendency to break the 4th wall. It's the fact that it basically broke the expectations we have for a post credit scene in the most creative way. The writer of Deadpool gets it. That a Deadpool joke works not because it's self-aware, it works because they actually put in the effort to add context to a joke especially the 4th breaking ones. Speaking of 4th wall breaks...
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Depth in 4th Wall Breaking
When you think about it, the 4th wall jokes are funny, but can it be annoying to the point that It could get in the way of the heavier scenes? The Deadpool films actually try to add actual substance to its scenes but isn't it a little too jarring to see someone winking at the camera every 2 seconds? Deadpool actually tackles a lot of heavy stuff, from the hardships of dealing with an incurable disease from the first movie to downright child abuse at the second one. So from a logical standpoint and also by design, wouldn't it be out of place to have 4th wall breaking jokes in these scenarios? Well, this is another thing that Deadpool manages to accomplish. They added depth to their 4th wall breaking. And to be honest, I'm not sure myself if it was done on purpose. What I meant by this is simple, the 4th wall breaking (whether it was on purpose or not) actually provided another purpose aside from comedy. Blending intense dramatic moments with goofy satiric self-aware moments as I discussed earlier is nothing new. But what Deadpool managed to accomplish here is use the 4th wall joke as a medium of depth for the characters. And they did this by simply giving the transition from a joke to a dramatic moment ample time, enough to ease the audience in on what's about to happen. So instead of the joke being obnoxious, it actually ends up indirectly helping the characters introduce more of themselves making it easier for us to like them, so when shit actually happens you care for them even more. And it actually works in reverse too. During the dramatic moments, an off-hand joke provides a nice break when it goes full borderline depression territory.
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In Conclusion
Deadpool occupies a very uniques spot in the superhero film industry. A rated-r movie franchise with an anti-hero as the protagonist, who doesn't really take himself seriously and is well aware that he's in a movie. In the landscape of the superhero film franchises and universes, Deadpool is the only one I feel that really provides a sense of levity. Not because its funny because let's face it almost every superhero comedy nowadays needs to have comedy for it to truly work. Deadpool is a caricature of all the great things about the superhero culture but it in itself is a totally different beast. Deadpool is unique not just because it's unlike every other superhero to come out in the recent years, It's unique because I feel that It's a representation of the comic nerd culture in all its great glory. As a fellow nerd, we crave specific things. Action packed well-choreographed fight scenes, awesome superhero powers, superhero landings, all that good stuff. But we also crave depth, emotional context, Intelligent commentary... and Deadpool gives as all this and so much more. Well, I've geeked out enough with this one, I should focus on other stuff from here on out. I wonder which superhero I should talk about next? Well, there is that one movie currently showing in cinema's right now... Hmmm...
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