In a typically uneventful time of year for the movie industry, Marvel's latest offering “Deadpool” has earned a record-breaking $135 million for an R-Rated movie over its opening weekend. Much of the credit is due to the film's marketing campaign, which released short and hilarious clips on the internet over a number of months preceding the film's release. Most memorably, in a clip released on April Fool's Day, Ryan Reynolds as the movie's protagonist, Deadpool, made his first grand appearance by apparently killing TV star Mario Lopez violently with a chair, making it known loud and clear the film would be Rated-R. From this point on, anticipation began to build for what seemed to be not-your-typical superhero movie.
Of course, “Deadpool's” success lies in the content of the movie itself. Like a Quentin Tarantino film, everything about this movie is extreme. While the best description of watching “Deadpool” in theaters is a laugh-out-loud experience, this isn't where its originality lies. 2010's "Kick-Ass" introduced the concept of an adult superhero comedy to great effect. “Deadpool” goes a step further with its unhinged sense of self-awareness. This feature is what made the original comic book notable in the first place, where Deadpool often "breaks the fourth wall" by speaking directly to the reader. The film's writers take full advantage of this, allowing Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool to single-handedly take the audience along with him for an over-the-top, gory, and raunchy quest for vengeance with his nonstop witty commentary.
In a certain sense, “Deadpool” represents the coming-of-age of the modern day superhero movie, a genre that I would say began with Marvel's “X-Men,” released in 2000. Almost every superhero movie made previously had an element of goofy campiness that was a throwback to the "Kapow!" days of Adam West's Batman. “X-Men” showed us that superhero movies could actually be cool. Christopher Nolan took this concept to its greatest heights with his critically acclaimed and movie buff favorite Batman trilogy. Most superhero movies produced since have heavily relied on the Nolan Batman formula, with a heavy dose of realism and grittiness. These days, it seems like we can't go a few months without another superhero movie of this type, most likely another release in Marvel's endlessly expanding and money-making “Avengers” saga. While I enjoy these films as much as the next fan, I can't help but feel a growing sense of boredom, with the same old strategy employed over and over again.
“Deadpool's” self-awareness is so refreshing because it touches upon the inherent paradox of this recent trend. Despite the quality of Nolan's Batman trilogy, at the end of the day, it's hard to ignore the fact that the hero runs around fighting crime in a highly inconvenient bat getup. At a certain point, a superhero movie's attempt to distance itself from its fun-loving origins in comics just seems silly. “Deadpool” shows us that not every release has to be a super-serious standoff between clearly defined embodiments of good and evil. By embracing the reckless spirit of comics, and reshaping it for a generation of adults who appreciate its spirit of creativity, “Deadpool” lives up to the title of a superhero movie more faithfully than any other recent attempt.
