"Does anybody really like Ryan Reynolds?"
My friends and I had a lengthy discussion about this before we went to see "Deadpool", the latest in Marvel's seemingly-endless stream of superhero movies. We came to the conclusion that no, nobody likes Ryan Reynolds. In fact, it was only the film's excellent Rotten Tomatoes score, along with the extremely cheap matinee price at our local theater, that convinced us to go and see it.
Let me preface this by saying that I really wanted to dislike this movie. After seeing "The Avengers: Age of Ultron" last year, I decided that Marvel had finally run out of ideas and was now coasting by entirely on brand recognition and its special effects budget. Like many others, I was tired of the same old formula: an all-star cast, epic production, a save-the-world storyline, a couple of quippy one-liners and Marvel references... you know the drill.
Well, I'm happy to say that, just as the trailers promised, "Deadpool" is not a pointless rehash of action sequences and stale ideas. Instead, it is a film that not only loves to take risks but one that goes to great lengths to avoid falling into the cliches established by its predecessors. 
Whereas most other Marvel films culminate in an epic battle where the entire universe is at stake, "Deadpool" is content with a small, human story about a man who loves his fiancée. Gone are the tiring old themes about mutants' place in society and the morality of superhero justice; "Deadpool" just wants to tell us a simple, fun story without diving into the mess of ethics and implications that other films use to add a sense of realism. In fact, one of the things I most enjoyed about the movie is that it isn't trying to be realistic. Everything from the plot points to the action scenes themselves has a lighthearted, comic book feel. Because of this, we can watch as Reynolds slices his way through mobs of disposable enemies without worrying too much about whether the action looks real or not.
And speaking of Reynolds... well, he's actually pretty good. The film acknowledges early on that Reynolds is not everyone's favorite actor, and keeps this fact in mind throughout its duration. As Deadpool, Reynolds does little to defy our expectations: he is petty, obnoxious and ridiculously smug. His raunchy one-liners are hit-or-miss (the misses are especially noticeable during the film's opening segment), and his many fourth-wall breaks are silly and self-satisfied. After watching the first ten minutes, it becomes clear that this film is trying very hard to break with the status quo, and that it is not afraid to congratulate itself for doing so.
The strange part about all of this is that, well, it just kind of works. Once I got used to the zany, fast-paced direction and Reynolds' lovably-douchey persona, the movie was a ton of fun to watch. As I mentioned early, the non-stop humor is not going to be for everyone. As somebody who genuinely enjoys masturbation jokes, I will be the first to point out that this film features a few too many of them. But for every joke that falls flat, there are at least three or four that hit the mark, and the rapid-fire pacing of the film's humor ensures that another laugh is always right around the corner. More importantly, though, the film does not simply throw jokes at us for the sake of doing it; in fact, humor plays a pretty important thematic role. Given that the villain is a man who has absolutely no sense of humor, it's hard to deny that Deadpool's ability to laugh things off lies at the center of the film's moral code. 
From somebody who is not a big Marvel fan, I thought that this one was worth the price of admission. It's funny, it doesn't get bogged down by superhero tropes and it features a playful sense of self-consciousness that keeps the action fresh even though it's the same action we've been seeing for over a decade now. "Deadpool" gets a 7/10 for being an entertaining way to spend an afternoon, and an important change of pace for the modern superhero genre. 
