It goes without saying, but we here at A Place To Hang Your Cape love a good superhero film. We love to discuss, to dissect, to dive deep into the superhero Zeitgeist and have at whatever cape-laden blockbuster comes our way. Back in February, to say we had our ribs tickled by the Merc with a Mouth’s debut feature film is an understatement. Deadpool is a refreshingly witty superhero flick, but does it fire on all cylinders?
We asked our writers to give their thoughts on what may turn out to be Ryan Renolds‘ most memorable performance!
“A surprisingly paced screenplay with tight direction and a tour de force of a performance by Ryan Reynolds. Deadpool captures the spirit of the comic book character and I had tonnes of fun watching it.” – Eric Dodds, Contributor.
“The Merc with a Mouth definitely lived up to his name. Loud, inappropriate, rude and utterly foul mouthed. I adored it from the opening sequence to the unicorn jizz ending. One of the closest comic to film adaptations I have seen. Beautiful. Good Deadpool.” – Stuie Greenfield, Contributor.
“It only took eight years but justice has been served. Deadpool’s movie is fun, hilarious, and gets a way with a lot of more adult jokes thanks to its suitably higher-rated rating. Ryan Reynolds runs away with the movie, bringing the Merc With the Mouth to life with great humour and timing, but there is enough heart in the film to cheer on Deadpool. On the negative side, the villains are as bland and wooden as Ikea furniture.” – Mark Russell, Senior Writer.
“Deadpool was the love child of a perfect casting, overwhelming fan support and genius marketing. And it not only pleased the fans at the box office, but also cinemagoers who were new to the character (or genre), and that has to be applauded. The film boasted brilliant action scenes, tongue and cheek humour and witty fourth wall breaks. All of this combined with an unconventional ‘hero’ this made Deadpool a great day out for the family at the movies.” – Zaibien Hunter, Contributor.
“Now this was the comic book movie that the grown ups wanted to see. Gritty, violent, and over the top; and that is just Deadpool himself. The humour is crude and spot on, perfectly presenting the psychotic mind that we’ve come to know and love. This just goes to show that to make a comic book movie great is not a huge budget, or over the top CGI; you just need a cast and crew that respect the source material. They care as much as we do, and that what makes it so much better.” – Connor Filsell, Contributor.
“Fantastic! A much needed caffeinated boost to the Superhero genre. Self-referential, fourth wall breaking genius. Reynolds was meant to play the Merc with a Mouth, made all the better for not being sown shut! The joke about only seeing two X-Men at a time had me in stitches! Bravo Fox/ Marvel.” – Jake Barber, Contributor.
“After the impeccable marketing for this film, it’s safe to say Deadpool lives up to the hype. Ryan Reynolds may be the most spot-on casting since J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson. This is everything you could want from a Deadpool movie: crude, juvenile, excessive, and meta as all get-out. I was amazed that Fox allowed this film to take jabs at one of their own properties and surprised they didn’t go after the easy target that is Fant4stic. Maybe a little too soon.” – James Leggett, Contributor.
“Deadpool not only redeemed Ryan Reynolds’ career for all comic book fans, it also delivered a rip-roaringly fun comic movie that broke the mould, bringing the foul mouthed, gun toting hero to the big screen with an almighty bang. It not only surpassed the hype, it wiped its ass with the competition.” – Josh Sammons, Contributor.
“♫ Heeeeeeeeeey, yeah. I wanna shoop baby!♫ Deadpool kicked arse!!! It was the little, bloodsoaked film that could! From Baraka-Pool, to leaked test footage, to record breaking awesomeness! It did everything right. And yeah, the naysayers didn’t like the fact that it was another origin story. But it was an origin story that needed to be told! Deadpool is one part hilarity, one part ultraviolence, and one part tragedy. And his tragedy lies in his origin! And it’s not like we’re not going to have sequels. Oooooh, boy, we’re gonna have sequels. Number one grossing R rated movie of all time suckas!!!” – Scott Meridew, TV Hero.
“Deadpool is by far one of the most comic book accurate movies ever released! Ryan Reynolds flawlessly captures the combination of bad assery, reckless immaturity, and fourth wall breaking humor that is Wade Wilson. This comic book adaptation undoubtably leaves fans wanting more and will keep us at the edge of our seats, just dying to see what the Merc with a Mouth will do next!” – Jesse Acevedo, Contributor.
“Hot American superhero guy. Evil, hot, British villain. Sass to boot. Excellent soundtrack. The Merc with a Mouth gave me Belly-Laughs! Just call me Angel of the morning baby!” – Sophie-Jane Davis, Contributor.
“Deadpool was pretty much everything I was hoping it would be; It’s as true to its source material as a comic book flick could be. Its funny, silly, over the top, with plenty of fourth wall breaks and references and of course, to quote the disgusted woman in the cinema behind me that obviously didn’t know what she was coming to see… ‘Well! That was just mindless violence!’ (I know; Glorious, wasn’t it?) The only real criticism I have of the movie is how clichéd the story was. It was your typical “dick kicking revenge” plot and not really anything more- I know that this acted mostly as an origin story and that’s fine, as that time period moved along as you’d expect it to. The present day part of the story, however, can be summed up in one sentence. Deadpool catches bad guy, bad guy escapes, Deadpool catches him again and *spoilers* kills him. Oh and I think there was a love story somewhere in there too. Still, it was a hugely entertaining action comedy that I happily went and saw twice.” – Alex Leptos, Contributor.
“Finally the Deadpool we deserve! Nothing short of a masterpiece – a big screen adaptation that was faithful to the character that we all know and love from the comics! The film was done in such a way that even those unfamiliar with Deadpool fell in love with him! To be honest, there’s nothing that I would say should have been changed, except maybe incorporating more of the X-Men, but Wade even addressed that issue himself! The fact that this is now highest grossing R-rated film of all time speaks for itself and thankfully that utter crap in Wolverine: Origins is being left in the dust. Where it belongs. #DriveBy” – Ryan John, Contributor.
“It works as a superhero movie, and it works a comedy movie. Even if you don’t like superhero movies, you’ll love the comedy. Ryan Reynolds is the most perfectly cast superhero since Robert Downey Jr.. Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Stefan Kapicic as Colossus are perfect sidekicks on Deadpool’s zany quest for vengeance.” – Tommy Partl, Contributor.
There you have it folks, Deadpool is a winner! It may have been lacking in villains and originality with its story, but it’s sense of fun can’t be denied.
What did you make of Deadpool? Sound off in the comments section below or send us a Tweet!
