A former Special Forces soldier, Wade Wilson continues to put his skills to use by becoming a mercenary - though most of his contracts consist of protecting young college girls from stalkers. His life doesn't seem to be going anywhere, until he meets an attractive woman named Vanessa who immediately steals his heart. Their brief fling turns into a wild and long-term relationship, until one day Wade unexpectedly collapses. The test results show he developed cancer in his lungs, liver, prostate, and brain. After realizing there isn't much hope of survival, Wade and Vanessa try to make his last days as normal as possible. Soon after the news hits, a stranger walks up to him and tells him of a program which can potentially save his life. The only catch - the program will not only heal his cancer, but it will also give him superpowers. With nothing to lose, Wade agrees. As promised, the treatments cure his body of cancer, and give him healing/regenerative powers. The bad part is, Wade finds out the program is meant to create an army of evil super powered people. Wade goes on a super powered rampage to take revenge on the program and the man responsible for torturing him and turning him into the man he became as Deadpool.
If you know anything about the Marvel comic book anti-hero Deadpool, then you know you're in for a wild ride. I have to give Ryan Reynolds credit for sticking to his guns and working hard to create a comic book accurate movie. The snarky, 4th wall breaking, mostly perverted humor is splattered throughout the entire movie - and thankfully this time Deadpool's mouth isn't sewn shut. I'm also thankful that Deadpool is one of the only recent comic book movies I can think of where it actually felt like a superhero movie, instead of an action movie with superheroes. Even though they're not my favorite, two of the only other ones I can think of where I felt that way was the original Sam Raimi Spiderman and Spiderman 2.
If you've ever read any of my previous reviews, then you probably know how normally I would be mostly against overly perverted and dark humor. There were admittedly times where I was the only one in the theater not laughing at some of the jokes, but for a character like Deadpool who is known for that kind of stuff I guess I was fully expecting it so it didn't phase me as much as it probably should have. Violence-wise, it's pretty graphic. This is not your Disney/Marvel Avengers or even the darker DC Comic's Man of Steel or the Dark Knight trilogy. This was similar to things like Punisher: War Zone. It doesn't quite come up to Tarantino level, but it comes pretty dang close. I highly caution parents to not let their kids see Deadpool until they're older.
My only other criticism of Deadpool is the pacing of the film. Someone made a comment walking out of the theater that I actually agree with, saying the pacing was weird throughout the movie. It felt rushed in the beginning, then slowed down and seemed like it found its footing, then lost it and rushed again towards the end. Overall though, I thought it was good, and I'm most likely going to see it at least one more time, but I think it was slightly overhyped.
