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“Deadpool” is the cinematic equivalent of that kid in school who would always say how much he didn’t care what people thought of him, but just loud enough so everybody could hear him. It is the teenager who pretends to be too cool to care, but wants you to like him so badly it hurts. Of course, this is partially a byproduct of being a cog in the machine of the superhero movie marketing system—you unavoidably have to hit a few of the beats of the genre in order to satisfy the audience. However, “Deadpool” fails to live up to the potential of its beloved source material, subverting its own agenda by becoming a remarkably generic, by-the-numbers man-in-tights flick. “Deadpool” is about a guy who constantly pushes back against the expectations of the superhero, but the movie about him fails to match his rebellious personality. It’s a remarkably straightforward origin flick, lacking in true satire of its genre, carried almost entirely by its lead. Deadpool is a fun character, but he’s still in search of a fun movie to match his larger-than-life personality.

After years in development limbo, Ryan Reynolds finally gets a role that he was undeniably built for in this adaptation of Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld ’s Marvel creation. A lot of pushback against reviews of comic book films tends to come from those who believe the critic unaware of the source material’s inherent strengths, so it seems fair to note that I read Deadpool back in the ‘90s. I know the character has come a long way since then, but the movie iteration isn’t that far from what I remember about the man in red who refused to play by the rules.

The movie version of Deadpool will remind you, over and over again, often in fourth wall breaks, how much he doesn’t care about those rules. The majority of “Deadpool” plays out in flashback after an opening sequence in which Deadpool destroys a convoy carrying his nemesis, Ajax ( Ed Skrein ). We learn that Deadpool used to be a merc named Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds). We meet two key figures in Deadpool’s life: girlfriend Vanessa ( Morena Baccarin ) and best bud Weasel ( T.J. Miller ). Wade and Vanessa seem to be charting a course to Happily Ever After when Wilson is diagnosed with late-stage cancer. A mysterious recruiter ( Jed Rees ) offers Wilson a deal: submit to the testing of the Weapon X program (which created Wolverine), and save your life. Wilson is experimented on by Ajax (and his partner in villainy named Angel Dust, played by Gina Carano ) and becomes a mutant, blessed by enhanced fighting and regenerative powers. When Ajax leaves him in a burning building, Deadpool spends the next year training to hunt him down and kill him. Two X-Men—Colossus (a motion-captured performance by Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand)—try to intervene to keep the delicate balance between mutants and humanity from getting too violent, and end up fighting alongside Deadpool.

Debut director Tim Miller ’s background in animation—he also did the amazing title sequence for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”—makes “Deadpool” a highly energetic flick, but to say the piece is lacking in depth would be an understatement. It’s almost purposefully shallow, regularly commenting on both its existence and that of other films within the superhero universe (when Deadpool is being taken back to the X-Men mansion to meet with Professor X, he asks “McAvoy or Stewart?” and jokes about how many times it has been blown up). There’s a difference, however, between referencing a genre and truly satirizing, and the writers of “Deadpool” are too often satisfied with the former instead of the latter. At times, “Deadpool” plays like a “Scary Movie” version of an "X-Men" flick, which is inherent in the comic book but less satisfying when stretched out to feature length.

It doesn’t help that “Deadpool” vacillates wildly from being cooler than the genre it now exists within and totally embracing its broadest clichés. Some might argue that “Deadpool's" bipolar approach—alternately too cool to care and downright maudlin with its melodrama—is reflective of the character’s split psyche, but that’s not nearly developed enough to be successful. Why not reflect it structurally too instead of delivering such a by-the-numbers story? A memorable villain or even an interesting action set piece? We couldn’t put those in between the jokes? And every time it feels like “Deadpool” is going to get truly dark, edgy, or interesting, it resorts to a cheap joke. Ripping on Limp Bizkit? Calling the bald character "Sinead" TWICE? Half the jokes just don’t land, and they’re the kind of faux-edgy you hear on an open mic night when someone’s trying to get attention. In 1995.

Thank God for Reynolds. Baccarin is well-cast and I generally like Miller (especially on “Silicon Valley”), but “Deadpool” is owned front-to-back by Reynolds, who famously fought to play this character. He jumps into the role with everything he’s got, providing an energy that’s often missing from superhero flicks, and he makes even the lamest jokes more tolerable. I just wish the rest of “Deadpool” knew what to do with him.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Deadpool (2016)

Rated R for strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity.

108 minutes

Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson / Deadpool

Morena Baccarin as Vanessa Carlysle / Copycat

T.J. Miller as Weasel

Ed Skrein as Ajax

Gina Carano as Angel Dust

Brianna Hildebrand as Ellie Phimister / Negasonic Teenage Warrior

Andre Tricoteux as Piotr Rasputin / Colossus

Jed Rees as The Recruiter

Leslie Uggams as Blind Al

Karan Soni as Dopinder

Writer (character)

• Rob Liefeld
• Fabian Nicieza
• Rhett Reese
• Paul Wernick

Cinematographer

• Julian Clarke

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Film Review: ‘Deadpool’

Ryan Reynolds gets the full-throttle wisecracking showcase he deserves in this scabrously funny origin story.

By Justin Chang

Justin Chang

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At this point, a movie studio would have to torch its headquarters, donate its merchandising revenues to charity, and produce a seven-hour art film performed in Ukrainian sign language to do something that truly qualified as a subversive gesture. Until then, viewers should gladly submit to the gleefully self-skewering pleasures of “ Deadpool ,” a scabrously funny big-screen showcase for the snarkiest of Marvel’s comic-book creations — a disfigured and disreputable mercenary who likes to crack wise, bust heads and generally lay waste to the idea that he’s anyone’s hero. As a vehicle for the impudent comic stylings of Ryan Reynolds , this cheerfully demented origin story is many, many cuts above “Green Lantern,” and as a sly demolition job on the superhero movie, it sure as hell beats “Kick-Ass.” And given the resurgence of fanboy interest following a well-received trailer at last year’s Comic-Con (plus the benefit of Imax showings), “Deadpool” should show plenty of life at the box office, especially if its well-earned R rating functions less as kiss of death than as badge of honor.

Fast, ferocious and inevitably a bit too pleased with its own cleverness, this Fox-produced offshoot of the “X-Men” series nevertheless can’t help but feel like a nasty, nose-thumbing tonic next to the shinier delegations of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as represented by Disney’s “Avengers” franchise (and its various subfranchises) and Sony’s not-so-amazing “Spider-Man” movies. Better still, “Deadpool” knows exactly how to use Reynolds, an actor whose smooth leading-man good looks have long disguised one of the sharpest funnyman sensibilities in the business, as fans of “The Proposal,” “Definitely, Maybe” and the underrated “Just Friends” can attest.

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It’s not the kind of star profile that immediately screams “blockbuster” (that’s a compliment), and admittedly, Reynolds’ peripheral first appearance as Deadpool, in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009), offered little hint of what he could really do with the role; happily, this wholesale reboot seems to inhabit a superior alternate reality where that dreadful earlier movie doesn’t exist. Deadpool does drop a few “X-Men” references here and there, and they’re crude and irreverent in the extreme, whether he’s joking about fondling Wolverine’s privates or dismissing Prof. Xavier as a creepy pedophile — all of which he offers up as evidence of his spectacular disinterest in contributing in any way to the ever-expanding glut of superhero movies.

That’s nonsense, of course. Even with its nastier tone, grislier action and more sexually explicit banter, “Deadpool” turns out to be a comic-book enterprise through and through, but served up in a shrewdly self-mocking guise; it pulls off that very postmodern trick of getting away with formulas and cliches simply by pointing them out. The opening credits sequence features what might be described as an honest cast list, even going so far as to introduce first-time feature director Tim Miller as “An Overpaid Tool.” That eagerness to break down the fourth wall was present in the original Deadpool comic books by writer Fabian Nicieza and artist/writer Rob Liefeld, and scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (doing wittier work than you’d expect from their scripts for “Zombieland” and “G.I. Joe: Retaliation”) stay true to the same spirit as they cut cheekily between two time frames, using Reynolds’ smartass voiceover to paper over the cracks.

Before he turns into an ugly, cynical mercenary named Deadpool, Reynolds’ character is a hunky, cynical mercenary named Wade Wilson, who spends most of his time at Sister Margaret’s Home for Wayward Girls — a front for the scuzzy dive where his best friend, bartender Weasel (T.J. Miller, “Silicon Valley”), keeps the beer flowing and the weapons moving among his down-and-dirty clientele. It’s here that Wade meets a beautiful, gold-hearted prostitute named Vanessa Carlysle ( Morena Baccarin , “Homeland,” “Gotham”); recognizing each other as damaged kindred spirits, they begin screwing in earnest, zipping and unzipping their way through an extended sex-scene montage that plays out over a year’s worth of racy holidays. (“Happy Intl. Women’s Day,” Vanessa coos as she adjusts her strap-on, though that’s about as far as the movie goes in terms of even hinting at Deadpool’s famously pansexual appetites.)

Wade and Vanessa are deeply in love, but their bliss proves short-lived when he receives a terminal cancer diagnosis. This being an origin story, his only recourse is to submit to a bizarre experiment performed by the sadistic scientist Ajax (Ed Skrein), ignoring the rule that one should generally steer clear of medical professionals named after Greek warriors and household cleaners. Ajax subjects Wade to a series of increasingly grim procedures, accompanied by hideous torture techniques, in an attempt to force a genetic mutation that will rid him of his cancer. While successful in that regard, the procedures unfortunately also rid Wade of his face, turning him into a bald lump of scar tissue who looks less like Ryan Reynolds and more like a 150-year-old John Malkovich in desperate need of wrinkle cream and sunblock.

Now gifted with Wolverine-style self-healing abilities and an endless lease on life, Wade wants his old body back, and so he dons a rubbery red-and-black suit (the better to hide the bloodstains) and the identity of Deadpool. What follows is a fairly straightforward shoot-and-blow-’em-up revenge picture, starting with a visceral car chase/standoff that occupies much of the film’s early going and midsection. “I’m just a bad guy who gets paid to f—k up worse guys,” Deadpool snarls in one of his many to-the-camera asides, which he frequently uses to drop jokes about masturbation and defecation, plus random references to the Spin Doctors, “The Matrix,” Sinead O’Connor, Judy Blume, the “Taken” movies and any other stray bits of pop-culture effluvia that happen to pop into his mottled, misshapen head.

If it all sounds terribly arch and juvenile, it is. It’s also startlingly effective: Somehow, through sheer timing, gusto and verve (and an assist from Julian Clarke’s deft editing), Reynolds gives all this self-referential potty talk a delirious comic momentum — reaching a peak when he’s trading quips with Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), the wizened, sightless old woman who functions as his caretaker, housekeeper and sparring partner. Additional punching bags turn up in the form of two X-Men allies: Colossus (Stefan Kapicic), basically an overgrown Arnold Schwarzenegger hood ornament, and sullen goth girl Ellie Phimister, aka Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), whose mutant powers include conjuring massive fireballs and sending angry tweets. The two of them exist mainly to keep Deadpool in line, and also to help him battle Ajax and his impossibly strong lieutenant, Angel Dust (Gina Carano).

But in the end, these supporting players are so much background noise — drowned out, on occasion, by the repetitive sounds of explosions, gunshots and body slams, and also by the constant wham (and Wham!) of the soundtrack. Baccarin, after getting to play Rosalind Russell to Reynolds’ Cary Grant early on, is ultimately treated in line with the “Hot Chick” moniker she’s given in the opening credits. Miller has fun staging all manner of vehicular and architectural chaos, but mostly stays out of the way of his script and his star. The movie exists entirely as a star vehicle for Reynolds, and perhaps its canniest stroke is the way it both conceals and demolishes his physical beauty — a small price to pay when an actor’s tongue is this gloriously sharp. “I look like a testicle with teeth,” Deadpool snarls. And as long as he’s around, you’ll have a ball.

Reviewed at 20th Century Fox Studios, Jan. 30, 2016. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 107 MIN.

• Production: A 20th Century Fox release and presentation, in association with Marvel Entertainment, of a Kinberg Genre/the Donners’ Co. production. Produced by Simon Kinberg, Ryan Reynolds, Lauren Shuler Donner. Executive producers, Stan Lee, John J. Kelly, Jonathan Komack Martin, Aditya Sood, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick.  
• Crew: Directed by Tim Miller. Screenplay, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick. Camera (color, Panavision widescreen), Ken Seng; editor, Julian Clarke; music, Tom Holkenborg; music supervisor, John Houlihan; production designer, Sean Haworth; art director, Nigel Evans; set decorator, Shannon Gottlieb; set designers, Randy Hutniak, Sheila Millar; costume designer, Angus Strathie; sound (Dolby Atmos), David Husby; supervising sound editors, Wayne Lemmer, Jim Brookshire; sound designers, Craig Henighan, Lemmer, Ai-ling Lee, Warren Hendriks; re-recording mixers, Paul Massey, Will Files; special effects coordinator, Alex Burdett; visual effects supervisor, Jonathan Rothbart; visual effects producer, Annemarie Griggs; visual effects and animation, Digital Domain, Atomic Fiction, Weta Digital; visual effects, RodeoFX, Luma Pictures; stunt coordinators, Robert Alonzo, Philip J. Silvera; associate producer, Thane Campbell Watkins; assistant director, James Bitonti; second unit director, Robert Alonzo; second unit camera, Roger Vernon; casting, Ronna Kress.
• With: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T.J. Miller, Gina Carano, Leslie Uggams, Brianna Hildebrand, Karan Soni, Jed Rees, Stefan Kapicic, Randal Reeder, Isaac C. Singleton Jr.

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Review: ‘Deadpool,’ a Sardonic Supervillain on a Kill Mission

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By Manohla Dargis

• Feb. 11, 2016

Jokes and bullets are tossed like confetti in “Deadpool,” a feverishly eager-to-please comic-book movie about a supervillain who suits up like a superhero. In uniform, the title character, an ordinary mercenary turned freakishly powerful mercenary, may look a little like Spider-Man, at least to the comic-book agnostic. But Deadpool is far more psychotic than heroic, which he cheerfully establishes by painting the screen red with one kill after another. He points, shoots, jokes (repeat), often while cracking wise right into the camera.

Movie Review: ‘Deadpool’

The times critic manohla dargis reviews “deadpool.”.

The movie is the latest entry in the incessantly expanding comic book movie universe, which is crowded with beautiful physical specimens battling hordes of bad guys. The specimen in this case is Ryan Reynolds, whose performance feels like career rehab (or penance) for “Green Lantern,” the 2011 dud he fronted for DC Comics. Here, he plays Wade Wilson, a breezily amoral hired gun who, after some story filler, turns into Deadpool, an antihero who likes to address the camera between kills. Breaking the fourth wall is old stuff, especially in comedy and, like pokes in the ribs and stage winks, can be a way filmmakers signal to the audience that we’re all in this together.

The filmmakers do a lot of winking and rib poking; they sell “Deadpool” so hard that you might wonder if the studio has started to pay on commission. The sales pitch starts with the opening credits, which consist of a series of genre clichés — “hot chick,” “British villain” and “comic relief” — instead of the usual headliner cast and crew names. It’s one of the best sequences in the movie, partly because it’s a bit complicated. At that early point, the audience can pretend (wink, wink) that it doesn’t know whether “Deadpool” is going to deliver on each of those clichés, from the requisite babe (Morena Baccarin, appealing and age appropriate) to the regulation British baddie (Ed Skrein). But what else would an entertainment juggernaut deliver in a movie like this? Surprises?

The opening credits are worth lingering over because they’re enjoyable and because they’re a clever pre-emptive strike. By immediately announcing the clichés that they will soon deploy, the filmmakers at once flatter and reassure the audience even as they lower any expectations that what follows will be new or different. You can almost hear the studio suits whispering in your ear: “Come on, we all know that these kinds of movies rely on silly stereotypes — that’s part of the fun!” And seriously who doesn’t like fun? Yet to laugh (as I did) at these self-mocking credits is to give in to a somewhat compromised pleasure. Because, among other things, you are also laughing at your willingness to settle for the same old, same old, which suggests that the joke is on you.

It is or it isn’t. Much depends on whether you’re down with the comic-book film imperative no matter what transpires on-screen; whether you find Deadpool’s Jim Carrey-style logorrhea hilarious or tedious; whether you think watching people (oops, fictional characters) get roughed up, impaled, shot, tortured and liquidated in scene after scene for laughs is just another night at the movies. It also depends on whether you don’t mind that “Deadpool” soon makes good on its opening credits. Because, as promised, the filmmakers trot out the usual character types (the hot chick, the comic relief, etc.), along with the familiar beats, even as they briefly fold in some nicely played home-front melodrama which, for a few scenes, makes “Deadpool” genuinely more ambitious than most works of this kind.

These sections push the story forward, laying the foundation for the existential divide that defines every superhero, even a putative roguish outlier like Deadpool. And while the tears salting these scenes may be cynical given the movie’s embrace of a what-me-worry nihilism, they offer a necessary break from the strained patter and violence. They also show that the director, Tim Miller, and Mr. Reynolds can do more than hit the same bombastic notes over and over again. It’s no surprise that the teams hired to bring a property like “Deadpool” to the screen know how to keep the machine oiled and humming; it’s the ones who somehow manage to temporarily stick a wrench in the works, adding something human — a feeling instead of another quip — who are worth your attention.

“Deadpool” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Bangs, booms and splatter. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes.

An earlier version of this review referred incorrectly to Marvel’s connection to “Deadpool.” While the Marvel name is on the movie because it created the character, the movie was made by 20th Century Fox.

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‘deadpool’: film review.

Ryan Reynolds stars as a superhero not quite like the others in the latest — and certainly raunchiest — Marvel movie, directed by Tim Miller.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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For the multitudes who feared that, after Fantastic Four, Fox might simply be rummaging too far down into Marvel’s basement in search of a few more scraps of lucre, the joke’s on them. It takes a little while to get in gear — or perhaps just to adjust to what’s going on here — but once it does, Deadpool drops trou to reveal itself as a really raunchy, very dirty and pretty funny goof on the entire superhero ethos, as well as the first Marvel film to irreverently trash the brand. Just what anyone suffering from genre burnout might appreciate at this point, as well as a big in-joke treat for all but the most reverent fanboys, this film looks to be hitting the market at just the right time — with Christmas releases now in the rearview mirror — to rake in some sweet returns.

Given the surprising amount of nudity, raw sex jokes and nonstop underlined and bold-faced, racy dialogue, it’s amusing to picture the countless pubescent boys who will be plotting a way to get into this extremely R-rated romp. Not only does Ryan Reynolds give it his all, shall we say, but the conversations here mostly resemble the sort of thing you’d expect to hear around last call at a Bakersfield biker bar. Or, more to the point, what you’d get if you mashed up the dialogue from the two previous scripts written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Zombieland and G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

Release date: Feb 12, 2016

Last seen decapitated and heading down the chimney of a nuclear plant at the end of X-Men: Origins in 2009, Wade Wilson/Deadpool has always seemed like a tough nut to crack in terms of centering a mass-audience film on him. A brash and brazen mercenary, he’s an anti-hero with a film noir lead’s taste for the louche and low-down, as well as a character who, in narrative terms, stands out due to his predilection for breaking the fourth wall. Whether he could make the grade as the leading man of a franchise of his own was always a question, which partly accounts for the prolonged wait-and-see on Marvel’s part.

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Other reasons for hesitation lay in the character not being a superhero like all the others and, if the pic were to be done right, the necessity of an R rating — a place Marvel has never gone before. How to reconcile the brand’s image and fan base with such material? The answer probably lies in the fact that Marvel is so successful now, and so far down the line with their various franchises, that shaking things up was seen as permissible and maybe even a good move. Or perhaps executives aware early on of what was happening with Fantastic Four said, “Opposite direction! Now!”

At first, with some strained/cheeky opening credits (“a moody teen,” “a gratuitous cameo”) followed by an emotional-investment-free highway action sequence notable for its splatter gore content, things don’t look promising — just wiseass-y and needlessly violent. Who is this guy in red and black spandex with white fabric where eyes should be, who fights with two katanas, spins in the air in slo-mo and has wounds that heal at once? Shoot this guy full of holes and he’ll be back at you within seconds. “I may be super, but I’m no hero,” he cracks. Why should we care?

Flash back two years and things seem no better, save, perhaps, for the dude’s face, which now plainly belongs to Reynolds. A grown man who hangs at a skateboard park, Wade Wilson is a former Special Forces operative whose watering hole is a dive called Sister Margaret’s Home for Wayward Girls, where the guys are all former soldiers of fortune who never hit the jackpot and the gals look like Hooters rejects. Wade and a bitter hooker named Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) hit it off and get it on in a kinky montage that’s more out-there than what most Hollywood-made R-rated stuff ever serves up.

It’s right around here, and immediately afterward, when Wade is diagnosed as having late-stage cancer, that, ironically, the film really starts to click. When a doctor mentions the possibility of going to Chechnya for special treatment, Wade responds, “Isn’t that where you go to get cancer?” and you finally begin to sense that there might be something to this verbal speed-freak character after all.

The positioning of the flashback seems simple but serves the movie extremely well, especially with the arrival of Ajax (Ed Skrein, deeply evil), a doctor and head of something called the WeaponX workshop, who takes Wade on as a reclamation project and turns him into a fighting machine who can never die. Ajax’s sadism during the painful transformation process knows no bounds and, at the end of the ordeal, he takes particular pleasure in introducing Wade to his new face, which resembles ground beef (Vanessa’s measured reaction to beholding it is, “It’s a face … I’d be happy to sit on”).

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Now a freak behind his mask and form-fitting outfit, Wade/Deadpool has it out for Ajax, but their ultimate face-off, previewed in the opening scene, must wait until after Deadpool teams up with two unlikely cohorts: the metallic giant Colossus, who does what he can to protect him, and a rebellious teen who can’t possibly live up to her name, Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand). For his part, Ajax has his own one-woman hit squad in Angel Dust (mixed martial arts champ and Haywire star Gina Carano).

The final showdown is very small potatoes by Marvel standards and, of course, predictable, but compensates with humor, which is what floats the entire project. The script has the feel of something gone over again and again and yet again to double the number of jokes each time. The machine-gun approach doesn’t always hit, but it does enough so that, in the end, the number of laughs is pretty high.

Beyond even what Robert Downey Jr. has done in the Iron Man series, Reynolds lets fly here in a manic, sly, self-conscious way that leaves you not quite knowing what hit you: the irreverence slides quickly into lewd comic territory; the inside jokes about Marvel in particular and pop culture in general come fast and furious; the fourth-wall breakage is disarming; and the actor’s occasional fey, high-pitched voicings add yet another strange element. As in the presence of motor-mouthed comedians, you either sit there stone-faced or eventually capitulate to the cascade of weirdness and the fertility of wayward minds unleashed.

A longtime commercials and visual effects executive and creative director, Tim Miller hasn’t so much directed his first feature as liberated much of what has been bubbling under the surface of superhero films for a long time; it answers a lot of the questions you were afraid to ask.

For the record, Deadpool features one of Stan Lee’s best Marvel cameos — it’s actually funny.

‘Independence Day: Resurgence' Trailer Invades Super Bowl 50

Production companies: Marvel, Kinberg Genre, The Donners’ Company Distributor: Fox Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T.J. Miller, Gina Carano, Leslie Uggams, Brianna Hildebrand, Karan Soni, Jed Rees, Stefan Kapicic, Randal Reeder, Isaac C. Singleton Jr. Director: Tim Miller Screenwriters: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick Producers: Simon Kinberg, Ryan Reynolds, Lauren Shuler Donner Executive producers: Stan Lee, John J. Kelly, Jonathon Komack, Martin, Aditya Sood, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick Director of photography: Ken Seng Production designer: Sean Haworth Costume designer: Angus Strathie Editor: Julian Clarke Music: Tom Holkenborg Visual effects supervisor: Jonathan Rothbart Casting: Ronna Kress

Rated R, 108 minutes

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Deadpool Review: Ryan Reynolds Delivers a Superhero Game-Changer

Ryan Reynolds shines alongside a brilliant supporting cast in the outlandish Deadpool, which ups the ante for all superhero movies.

Imagine, if you will, that all of the movie superheroes represent students in a class. The Marvel heroes represent that kid who has it all. You know who I'm talking about. The most popular kid in school who is also the quarterback of the state-champion football team, has a 4.0 GPA, dates the hottest cheerleader, and maybe he even volunteers at the hospital to boot. Basically, he's the kid you want to hate because he has it all, and yet you just can't, because he's so awesome. Warner Bros.' DC Comics heroes represent something like the brooding valedictorian, incredibly focused but super-serious, almost to a fault. 20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise, naturally, would represent the class outsider, which brings us to Deadpool . Sure, Deadpool is part of the X-Men franchise, and he's just as much of an outsider as the rest of them, but he's so much more than that. He's the kid with the leather jacket who mouths off to his teachers, smokes cigarettes under the bleachers and rides a motorcycle to school. He's the opposite of the quarterback. Everyone hates him, but secretly, way deep down, they all want to be like him, in some way shape or form. Deadpool doesn't fit in ANYWHERE in the current spectrum of superhero movies, and that's precisely what makes this R-rated movie so brilliantly special.

Before I unleash heaps of praise on the movie itself, I have to give some props to 20th Century Fox for not only giving the green light to this superhero movie , but for letting first-time director Tim Miller , writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick , and star Ryan Reynolds make the R-rated movie that this anti-hero truly deserves. It would have been disappointing, but not ultimately surprising, if Fox had insisted on a PG-13 movie, so they could cater to the widest possible audience, but I just simply can't imagine what a PG-13 Deadpool would look like. What I did see is so incredibly unique and audacious that watering it down for PG-13 would be the equivalent of watching censored porn on CBS. It just doesn't make sense.

I say this without hyperbole of any kind: Deadpool has the greatest opening credit sequence in years, decades, possibly ever. I don't even want to tell you anything more than that, because even the tiniest of details will ruin this flat-out brilliant sequence, but rest assured, you haven't seen anything like it. Ever. This sequence does set up a few things that are worth pointing out, though. It lets you know, right away, that this movie shatters any superhero mold that has come before it, while also setting up a unique story structure that, on paper might seem confusing/convoluted, but still has a deft flow. Without going into too much detail, for most of the first half of the movie, we go back and forth between Wade Wilson's ( Ryan Reynolds ) past and present. The opening sequence that kicks the movie off in glorious fashion is actually about halfway through the actual story, after Wade has fully transformed into the Merc With the Mouth . From here, Wade tells a meek cabbie named Dopinder ( Karan Soni ) his backstory, revealing the events that lead him up to that moment.

The flashbacks set up Wade's unique occupation as an urban mercenary anti-hero which introduces an entirely compelling underworld that is rife for exploration in any potential prequels. A bar known as Sister Margaret's, which is run by the hilarious Weasel ( T.J. Miller ), serves as the home of this underbelly. This unique establishment reminded me a lot of the Hotel Continental in John Wick , the secretive home for assassins like the title character and others of that illicit ilk, except Sister Margaret's is far less of a polished and prestigious place, and more like a rowdy biker bar. Despite his dangerous trade, Wade seems entirely content, living with his equally-bizarre girlfriend Vanessa ( Morena Baccarin ), when, out of nowhere, cancer strikes Wade down. While Wade and Vanessa try to think of how they can fight this disease, which has spread throughout his body, Wade is approached by a recruiter (Jed Rees), who claims he can cure Wade of his cancer and give him powers beyond comprehension. With no other viable options at his disposal, Wade decides to take this mystery man's offer and is taken to an underground testing facility, where he meets the villainous Ajax ( Ed Skrein ) and Angel Dust ( Gina Carano ). Eventually (and I'm skipping a LOT here on purpose), Wade is hideously transformed, mutated and left for dead, which sets Deadpool off on his vengeful journey.

A lot of fans were disappointed that this movie didn't bring back Daniel Cudmore as Colossus. The movie, after all, is set firmly within the X-Men franchise/universe, and there are numerous references to these mutants, including a few classic meta jokes, throughout the movie. When you see this version of Colossus, though, you'll realize why they chose Stefan Kapicic to provide the Russian voice for Colossus/Piotr Rasputin and portray this behemoth (who is well over 7 feet tall) in motion-capture. Colossus is joined by Negasonic Teenage Warhead ( Brianna Hildebrand ), a stand-offish teenage girl with incredible powers and quite possibly the coolest name in the history of names. I don't want to say much about how these X-Men mutants get involved with Wade, but suffice it to say that it opens up several possibilities for how these characters might be integrated into the franchise as a whole, after the prequel trilogy wraps up with X-Men: Apocalypse . There are rumors that Negasonic Teenage Warhead is one of The New Mutants , another X-Men spinoff announced last year, with Josh Boone ( The Fault in Our Stars ) at the helm.

There's a very good reason why Ryan Reynolds fought for more than six years to get Deadpool off the ground. Quite simply, the Merc With the Mouth is THE character he was born to play. No one else could deliver the kind of rapid-fire one-liners Wade/ Deadpool is known for in the comics, while still having the chops to pull off the movie's more serious moments. His performance is just superb, on his own, but he compliments all of his co-stars, in much different ways, so brilliantly as well. If there is any sort of "flaw" in this movie, it's that a small portion of the jokes just didn't land, but there are honestly so many of them that I'm surprised their comedy batting average, so to speak, is so incredibly high. The story is uniquely crafted by the movie's "real heroes" (See: opening credit sequence) Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick , who subvert the superhero genre in glorious ways, much like how they turned the zombie genre on its ear in their 2009 classic Zombieland .

You won't find many veteran directors, let alone first-time filmmakers, who will stick with a project for over six years, like Tim Miller did with Deadpool , but I'm really glad he did. He simply knocks it out of the park with fantastic action set pieces while pulling off a tricky pace and making it all look so easy (which I'm sure it was not, at all). One can only hope that he'll be sticking around for Deadpool 2 , which will surely be officially announced in the weeks and months ahead, since Deadpool is projected to earn between $55 million and $60 million in its opening weekend. For an R-rated movie in February, those are incredible numbers, but when word spreads that this movie definitely lives up to all of the massive hype, I wouldn't be surprised if the opening weekend is even higher. Deadpool represents a watershed moment in the ever-changing superhero landscape, a movie that doesn't cater to the masses but still knows its audience incredibly well, and delivers in every way imaginable. An R-rated superhero movie is about as rare as a unicorn riding a rainbow, but Deadpool succeeds because it knows the boundaries its breaking, and it does so with a flair so audacious and unconventional. It's a breath of fresh, yet foul-mouthed, air that manages to stand out in an overcrowded superhero genre. Simply put, the Deadpool hype is real, and it's magnificent.

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Though it threatens to buckle under the weight of its meta gags, Deadpool 2 is a gory, gleeful lampoon of the superhero genre buoyed by Ryan Reynolds' undeniable charm.

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Gory, profane, sexy superhero story great, but NOT for kids.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Explores how someone can be "super" but not a "her

Lots of iffy/questionable behavior, but Wade clear

Extremely strong, bloody, graphic violence: decapi

Wade and Vanessa (who's initially a prostitute) fl

Frequent strong language used in nearly every scen

iPhone, Chevy Suburban, Apple.

Adults drink in a pub; some are drunk. Adults smok

Parents need to know that Deadpool is a superhero story aimed at -- and most appropriate for -- mature audiences only. It has lots of graphic violence, sex (including partial nudity), adult humor, and nonstop strong language. Unlike most other Marvel superhero films, which only hint at romance,…

Positive Messages

Explores how someone can be "super" but not a "hero" and how mutants/people with extra abilities struggle with the tension between being selfless/helping others and following their own agenda. Ultimately promotes teamwork, alliances, collaboration, and love.

Positive Role Models

Lots of iffy/questionable behavior, but Wade clearly loves Vanessa and will do anything possible to protect her (and she loves him, too). The X-Men help Deadpool even though it's not their fight, and he's not yet a member. Colossus tries to explain to Deadpool that being heroic/a superhero boils down to a few momentous choices in life.

Violence & Scariness

Extremely strong, bloody, graphic violence: decapitations, brains oozing out of shots to the head, torture that leads to moaning (and eventually Deadpool's mutant transformation), and lots of gory injuries, explosions, and hand-to-hand fights.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Wade and Vanessa (who's initially a prostitute) flirt, kiss, and make love in a montage that includes nudity (bare breasts visible), different positions, and lots of role/food play. A scene in a strip club also show's women's breasts. Wade is naked during a fight; his butt is visible, and there are possible quick glimpses of his genitals.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent strong language used in nearly every scene: "f--k," "motherf--ker," "s--t," "a--hole," "ass," "bitch," "p---y," "d--k," "douche," "c--k," and mashed-up insults like "s--t show," "d--k t-ts," "douche pool," and "c--k whistle."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

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Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Adults drink in a pub; some are drunk. Adults smoke cigarettes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Deadpool is a superhero story aimed at -- and most appropriate for -- mature audiences only. It has lots of graphic violence, sex (including partial nudity), adult humor, and nonstop strong language. Unlike most other Marvel superhero films, which only hint at romance, include just a few curse words, and skip the gore, Deadpool is decidedly grown-up, bloody, and raunchy by comparison. Expect words like "f--k" in nearly every scene, plus "s--t," "a--hole," "bitch," and much more. The violence is close-up and bloody, ranging from torture and decapitation to dismemberment, brains oozing out of skulls, brutal hand-to-hand combat, and more. A racy sex montage includes naked breasts, as does a scene set in a strip club; there's also a scene where Deadpool fights while naked -- both his butt and quick, obscured glimpses of his genitals are visible. Adults also smoke and drink. All of that said, the story does ultimately promote teamwork, collaboration, and love. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 159 parent reviews

Look at review

Amazing anti-hero movie for older teens, what's the story.

DEADPOOL follows Wade Wilson ( Ryan Reynolds ), who's already in costume as he tells viewers how he ended up becoming a masked vengeance seeker. Motor-mouth Wade explains that he's a former special forces soldier who used to hire himself out as a private mercenary, doing things like threatening young stalkers for a living. Then he falls for Vanessa ( Morena Baccarin ), a former prostitute -- with a heart of gold, of course -- who's just as wickedly funny as he is. When Wade's diagnosed with incurable metastatic cancer, he takes up a mysterious visitor's offer for a chance of survival: to be experimented on (and tortured) until his body mutates and heals itself. Wade's sarcasm and caustic wit angers experimenter Ajax ( Ed Skrein ), who ends up torturing Wade until his skin looks burned and disfigured. After escaping, Wade feels too insecure to approach Vanessa and instead reinvents himself as Deadpool, with the goal of getting revenge.

Is It Any Good?

Those who thought Deadpool might just be a smidge more violent than your standard Avengers or X-Men movie, know this: It's NOT for middle schoolers. The adult language, the sex/nudity and innuendo, and the gore are too plentiful to recommend even for avid young high schoolers. But for adults and mature older teens who enjoy the Marvelverse, Deadpool is a fast-paced, entertaining origin story that winks enough at the genre without straying too far from the winning formula that even the credits acknowledge (starring "some idiot," "hot chick," "moody teen," "British villain," etc.).

For one thing, Reynolds was born to play this loud-mouthed, acid-tongued anti-hero with the ability to crush heads and crack up audiences in Marvel's decidedly adult action-comedy. With his action skills, athletic build, and well-honed comic timing, Reynolds was an ideal pick for the nonstop joker who breaks the fourth wall, makes lewd references to Wolverine, and wants nothing more than to look normal again so he can go back to his beloved Vanessa. Best known for her TV work ( Firefly ), Baccarin is equally well cast as Deadpool's tough, fiery, loving partner. And T.J. Miller is hilarious as Wade's only real friend, an arms dealer named Weasel.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the amount of violence in Deadpool . How much is shown, and how is it different than the violence in other superhero movies? How does Deadpool's humor affect the impact of the blood and gore? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

Why do you think the filmmakers decided to make Deadpool so much edgier than the typical superhero movie? Is there a risk in making this kind of movie inappropriate for younger comics fans?

How does the movie portray sex and romantic relationships? Are Wade and Vanessa in a healthy relationship? Does Vanessa's past matter to Wade? How about to audiences?

Is Wade/Deadpool a role model ? How does he compare to other reluctant superheroes like Wolverine and Tony Stark?

How does the movie convey the idea that teamwork is important? Does it emphasize any other positive character strengths ?

Movie Details

• In theaters : February 12, 2016
• On DVD or streaming : May 10, 2016
• Cast : Ryan Reynolds , Morena Baccarin , Gina Carano
• Director : Tim Miller
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors
• Studio : Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Topics : Superheroes
• Run time : 108 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity
• Last updated : May 10, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure , Comedy , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• February 12, 2016
• Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson/Deadpool; Morena Baccarin as Vanessa; T.J. Miller as Weasel; Ed Skrein as Ajax; Karan Soni as Dopinder; Stefan Kapicic as the voice of Colossus; Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead

Home Release Date

• May 10, 2016

Distributor

• 20th Century Fox

Movie Review

With great power comes great responsibility. That’s what Spider-Man taught us, anyway.

Unless, y’know, you don’t want all that responsibility. Because hey, you’ve got great power! Who’s going to make you be responsible if you don’t wanna?

It’s not like Wade Wilson ever asked to be a superhero. Back before he went through his (ahem) change , Wade was just a former special ops expert (read: he was dishonorably discharged) trying to make ends meet by threatening, beating and maiming people upon request. “I’m just a bad guy who gets paid to f— up worse guys,” he says, and it’s true.

But then Wade ran smack into two things that changed his life forever: Vanessa, whom he fell in love with, and cancer, which he didn’t. It was strangely ironic that one came so swiftly on the heels of the other. Had Wade never met Vanessa, maybe he wouldn’t have minded the terminal disease so much. I mean, it’s not like the guy was doing much with his life anyway. But now, when he has so much to live for, it seems like a terrible cosmic joke to suddenly be so close to death.

So Wade does what any guy who lives in the Marvel universe would do: He signs up with a shady organization that promises to conduct a bevy of super-secret procedures on him. If successful, Wade will be a new man—and perhaps in more ways than just being cancer-free. And if they’re not, well, he’ll be dead. But no deader than he’d be without ’em. What does Wade have to lose?

His soul, as it turns out. This shady organization isn’t just trying to avoid government red tape or hide some back taxes. It’s trying to create an army of evil super-soldiers in the hopes that they’ll … well, do all sorts of evil, super-soldier stuff.

And the procedures are just torture. I mean that quite literally. The juice given to Wade only reacts under the most stressful of situations: If Wade suffers through enough stress, the chemicals will cause his body to mutate, which’ll destroy the cancer and give him superpowers. And the clinic’s head tormentor, Ajax, can’t stand Wade. Which makes conditions ideal for generating the stress we were just talking about.

It seems at first like Wade’s doomed to spend whatever time he has left in a cacophony of pain, but he does finally mutate. The cancer vanishes, and his body is chemically blessed with the ability to heal super-rapidly. Injuries still hurt him, but everything from paper cuts to severed hands will heal in a jiffy.

Unfortunately, the mutation also completely ruins Wade’s complexion—a big deal for someone as handsome and shallow as he. And after the clinic burns down around his ankles, Wade feels insufficiently pretty to go back to Vanessa.

Time to go find Ajax and make the guy fix his face—even if Wade has to kill every single one of Ajax’s evil super-soldiers in the process.

Positive Elements

We’ve covered that Wade—Deadpool when he’s in costume—is not a great guy. But his love for Vanessa is no lie. They’re strangely (if a bit dysfunctionally) compatible, and their mutual affection is what drives this story along. While they have scads of premarital sex during their courtship (which we’ll rail against a bit later), at least Wade proposes, wanting to make an honest woman of her.

Much more admirable is Colossus, a massive metal man hailing from Russia. One of the official X-Men, Colossus takes his role as a superhero seriously. He tries to be magnanimous to his enemies and courteous to the public. He attempts again and again to pull Deadpool into the light of truth, justice and a better way. He encourages Deadpool to join the X-Men in the hopes that some group counseling might help the guy shape up and fly right.

It all falls on Deadpool’s dead ears, of course, but let’s give Colossus cred for trying.

Spiritual Elements

In a montage, we see Wade and Vanessa celebrate various holidays with sex—except Lent, where they’re shown peacefully sitting side by side and reading. In the opening credits, someone is said to be “God’s perfect idiot.”

Sexual Content

OK. When it’s not Lent, the camera can’t seem to get enough of staring at sexual movements and suggestive skin. We see Wade and Vanessa participating in obvious, noisy, intentionally humorous and oft-repeated sex. They also talk a great deal about the sex they’re having or the sex they plan to have, invoking all manner of sexual organs, positions and stimuli. When proposing to Vanessa, Wade offers her a Ring Pop—which he’s been apparently storing in an unmentionable place.

Vanessa, it should be said here, is an exotic dancer and prostitute. Indeed, Wade pays her for their first encounter. And while he insists they spend most of that “date” talking, they end it doing, shall we say, more physical activity. We see Vanessa work at a strip club wherein women writhe about in various stages of undress. At least one dancer, fully nude, is shown from the front, while others are seen bare-breasted. Wade’s body is also showcased. He battles a bad guy while nude. And elsewhere, the camera zooms in on his bare backside and ogles his spandex-wrapped front side. We see Deadpool yanking down an adversary’s pants, revealing a portion of posterior.

There are conversations—and scenes—involving masturbation. We hear lots of talk about genitalia, oral sex, porn and sex toys. Obscene things are done with a stuffed unicorn. We see some pretty raunchy flirting and creepy stalking. One scene might be interpreted as winking at pedophilia.

Violent Content

As a special-ops guy, Wade already accumulated “41 confirmed kills.” By the time he confronts a crucial guy in Ajax’s operation, he’s tallied 89 (“Soon to be 90,” he says darkly). This is clearly not a man who adheres to Batman’s no-kill ethos, and we see him dispatch his foes in a variety of splattery ways.

He shoots several people in the head (with three of the bloodiest kills completed with one messy bullet), stabs and slashes others with a sword and, it’s suggested, mows one dude down with a Zamboni. Somebody gets flung into a freeway sign, splatting like an uncooked egg across its surface. Deadpool burns a man with a cigarette lighter before killing him. And he just keeps on pulling the trigger, even when better heroes than he beg for him to show a little mercy.

In the clinic, Ajax uses a variety of methods to spur Wade’s mutation, including beating him bloody (while he’s strapped to a gurney), submerging him in goo, forcing him to float for hours in ice, and waterboarding him. Wade and other patients are regularly shown to be bloody and bruised. He and others are locked in a tank that regulates the flow of oxygen in such a way that it constantly feels like you’re suffocating—and Wade is forced to stay in that container for a full weekend. Things get no better for him once he develops his ability to heal quickly: He’s stabbed in the chest and shoulder with a huge iron bar that’s fashioned into a hook so he can’t get free. He’s shot several times, and he peers, at one juncture, through a bullet hole in his wrist. (He makes his Deadpool suit red to keep his enemies from seeing him bleed.) Both of his hands and his leg are grotesquely broken while he’s fighting Colossus. In handcuffs, he saws off his own hand to escape. A bullet pierces his backside.

Cabbie Dopinder apparently kidnaps his more successful, more handsome cousin and is holding him captive in the trunk of his taxi. A collision suggests that the guy gets killed. (This after Deadpool suggests that Dopinder should kill his cousin and kidnap the guy’s girlfriend—who just so happens to be the love of Dopinder’s life.)

Crude or Profane Language

About 75 f-words, 40 s-words and a pool of crudities, including “a–,” “b–ch,” “h—” and “p—.” We hear the n-word. God’s name is misused, at least once with “d–n.” Jesus’ name is thrice abused.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Wade spends a lot of time in the bar that Weasel owns. He enjoys ordering a frothy drink bearing a crude name (just to make Weasel say it), and he buys everyone a round at one point. Partyers drink. Vanessa serves the stuff at the strip club. There are a couple of references to cocaine. Someone smokes a cigarette.

Other Negative Elements

Wade is shown using a urinal. He jokes about defecation.

Marvel has been incredibly successful in making the world embrace its legion of superheroes. And from Spider-Man to The Avengers to The X-Men , they’ve come to rely on a teen-friendly movie rating to keep families coming back for more.

Not that Deadpool would ever agree to such a strategy.

Never mind that this flick is being distributed by 20th Century Fox instead of Disney’s Marvel. Given the comic book company’s recent history, there may be certain fans who look at Deadpool’ s R rating and wonder … Does it have just a wee bit more language? Just a touch more violence? How bad could a Marvel superhero movie be?

So I will answer: Bad. Really bad.

The tone of the movie is surprisingly light and witty—an inside joke of sorts, both an homage to and sendup of all things superhero done inside Marvel’s own studios. But the flick dives to the level of its hard-core rating in the first 10 minutes and keeps drilling down from there. It doesn’t just ease over into “restricted” territory—it flies past the barrier at supersonic speed as if trapped in a defective Iron Man suit. And that’s a shame, because much of the movie’s sly sense of humor doesn’t depend on foul content at all.

But cut out all the crazy content and you’ve got about a 20-minute movie.

With great power comes great responsibility. That’s what Spider-Man taught us. But Deadpool is as irresponsible as they come.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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There’s a lot of huffing and puffing in Deadpool, but the only one who can blow down your resistance to yet another screwed-up citizen of the Marvel universe is Ryan Reynolds. Armed with an unlimited arsenal of delicious snark, Reynolds has a blast playing Wade Wilson, the Special Forces operative turned mercenary turned cancer patient turned medical experiment turned Deadpool, a scar-faced mutant with a penchant for superhero drag and a mouth on him.

As played by Reynolds, Deadpool looks at the camera and talks right to us. Nothing is sacred, including the opening credits which refer to the film’s creative team as “tools” and “asshats” and name-check Reynolds as People ‘s Sexiest Man Alive. Screenwriters  Rhett Rheese and Paul Wernick turn the comic created by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza into their personal playing field for R-rated dirty talk and viscera-ripping violence. The PG-13 timidity of so many Marvel movies has made some of us hungry to see depraved crazies at the controls. Now we’ve got them. Deadpool has no off-switch. This dude keeps cracking wise even when he’s plotting vengeance against Ajax (Ed Skrein), the villain who made his face look like corn-beef hash.

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That’s one of the reasons Deadpool wears a mask and keeps away from Vanessa ( Homeland ‘s Morena Baccarin), a strip-joint hooker to whom he has pledged his heart. Believe it or not, Baccarin and Reynolds make you care about this hot couple from hell. And T.J. Miller gets in his licks as Deadpool’s bartender buddy from his Wade days. Newbie director Tim Miller keeps the action coming in gory chunks, mixing in appearances from bad-girl Angel Dust (Gina Carano) and two X-Men — Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand). Deadpool keeps ripping the studio for cheapness since it only provided two X-Men, but provides a nasty Wolverine impression you won’t want to miss.

I gotta tell you, this movie’s junky feel is part of its charm. Sure it goes on too long and repetition dulls its initial cleverness. Still, Deadpool is party time for action junkies and Reynolds may just have found the role that makes his career.

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Deadpool review – crude superhero laughs

Ryan Reynold’s smart-talking antihero makes a profanely amusing addition to the X-Men universe

“A fourth wall break inside a fourth wall break? That’s like… 16 walls.” This relentlessly self-referential antihero romp comes on like a slightly smug corporate riposte to Matthew Vaughn’s altogether more anarchic Kick-Ass , flipping the bird at its own heritage (the opening titles tell us that it’s produced by “Ass-hats” and directed by “an overpaid tool”) and cracking wise about how confusing these comic-strip timelines have become, and the cheapskate nature of the ever-expanding X-Men universe . Ryan Reynolds is the potty-mouthed avenger whose life is ruined when enforced mutation robs him of his Hugo Boss chops, leaving him looking “like Freddy Krueger face-fucked a topographical map of Utah”. Limb-lopping sweary ultra-violence ensues, offering a fairly consistent stream of dirty cheap laughs as Deadpool gets rear-ended by bullets and butt-plugs alike, while those around him lose their hearts and heads – but mostly their heads. Inevitably the final act descends into the usual punchy/smashy orgy of collapsing buildings that is a dreary franchise requirement. But for the most part it’s crudely disreputable fare, buoyed up by ironic bubblegum tunes (a Guantanamo-style torture montage to the strains of Mr Sandman is a nice touch) and driven by Viz -style “shit biscuit” profanity.

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Deadpool review: Deadpool isn't reinventing the superhero genre. It's making it better.

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Loving a new Ryan Reynolds movie, and having that movie be Deadpool , feels like the inverse of a paper cut. It's like snuggling a chocolate chip cookie–scented golden retriever in a pillow fort at Chrissy Teigen and John Legend's house.

The whole thing feels so damn nice and natural because it's been such a long time since Reynolds has done anything anyone cared about. Not to mention since 20th Century Fox, despite its unintentional but strong argument that the movie rights for all Marvel characters should go back to Marvel , managed to spin something so wickedly fresh and aggressively raunchy that it gives you faith in the studio's next couple of superhero films.

Deadpool is essentially the world's first superhero fan movie.

The film is an inside joke aimed to please devout comics nuts, the people who've followed the sardonic, self-aware mercenary with a penchant for cock jokes through the pages of various Marvel comic books. But you don't need to be an expert on the source material to keep up, because there's no pretense with Deadpool , no deeper concern than having ultraviolent fun.

In both the comics and the new movie, Deadpool's primary reason for existence is to point out how lame superheroes can be while turning villains into human shawarma. And director Tim Miller and screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick eschew the idea that there must be anything grander to a superhero story than that. In contrast to, say, Captain America: Winter Soldier — which was touted as a "political thriller" — they don't feel any pressure to insist that Deadpool is deep.

Miller, Reese, and Wernick instead offer a dare: to love a superhero movie that unabashedly embraces everything we really love about superhero movies — ridiculous violence, wry one-liners, and a hero we can honestly root for. Fans of Deadpool know the character as a rude, lewd figure who's fully aware of his place in the world of superheroes and who routinely skewers his status rather than exalting it, and the movie expertly captures that spirit.

But even though Deadpool seeks to make fun of its own genre — mainly by pointing out how silly superheroes can be — that doesn't mean it isn't a superhero movie, because it so very is. Maybe the best kind.

Make no mistake:  Deadpool is a superhero movie — and a damn good one too

There are several moments in Deadpool when we're reminded that the title character isn't a superhero, and that the movie isn't a traditional superhero film. Deadpool curses. He kills people. He knows the difference between Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy's respective turns as Professor Charles Xavier in various X-Men films.

But at first glance, the movie's plot could very well pass for a methodical reconstruction of Captain America or Spider-Man rather than the deconstruction it seems to be. It hits all the beats of a superhero film.

Deadpool, a.k.a. Wade Wilson (Reynolds), is a highly skilled assassin who has no real direction in life; he doesn't care about anything other than his next kill. Everything changes when he finds true love — but then he's hit with the life-altering gut punch that goes by the name of cancer. And when his newfound mutant powers kick in and disfigure him into something resembling a golem made out of ringworm, he seeks vengeance on Ajax ( Ed Skrein ), the man he believes made him this way.

If this were any other film, any other predictable 107-minute journey in which a hero exacts revenge on the man who wronged him, this origin story wouldn't be worth watching. But this is Deadpool .

What breaks Deadpool free from the standard superhero-film template is a scrappy performance from Reynolds. Eight years ago, Reynolds (now 39) was on the path to be a leading man and an Avenger after transforming rom-coms like The Proposal and Definitely, Maybe into megahits, but his career hit a rough patch after the 2011 clunker Green Lantern .

There's something poetic about Reynolds's casting in Deadpool . It's impossible to watch the movie without knowing how bad his career floundered after Green Lantern , as there are a couple of outright references to it in the film. And it's fitting that a man who has every right to be bitter with the superhero industrial complex is playing a comic book character who was created to buck it.

Reynolds is back in superhero shape, and Deadpool — perhaps the first explicit superhero paean to the male figure — takes every chance to remind us of that fact. It's as if we're the senile old woman in The Notebook, and the only things that could bring us back to the present are Ryan Reynolds's thighs.

The man of many muscles commits to a goofy freedom in Deadpool , with no worries about throwing himself into the movie's rambunctious physical comedy, even though it involves a weird baby hand and emoting through a red mask with diamond white eyes to talk about Wolverine's smooth testicles.

Reese and Wernick give Reynolds plenty of filth to play with, and they honor Deadpool's salacious source material. But even with the raunch and gore, there really isn't anything about the character's origin story or his movie that sets Deadpool apart from the rest of the superhero filmdom. That isn't a bad thing. Thanks to an uncanny ability to hit all the usual superhero beats and a charismatic and hilarious performance by Reynolds, Deadpool more than satisfies.

Deadpool understands its antihero so well

When you look at the best superhero movies, the motor that drives them is a fundamental understanding of the central character. In the Dark Knight trilogy, Christopher Nolan knew what motivated Batman's violence. In The Avengers, Joss Whedon figured out the familial dynamic of the titular team. And in Guardians of the Galaxy , James Gunn and Nicole Perlman homed in on the fear of loneliness felt by Star-Lord and the rest of the Guardians.

That same kind of understanding exists in Deadpool .

Deadpool (the character) was created in the '90s — an era when comic books were bent on pushing the limits of violence, sex, and cynicism. And perhaps his greatest power is knowing he's a comic book character. Deadpool regularly breaks the fourth wall, and that self-awareness allows him (and his creators) to worship and mock, love and hate the genre he's trapped in.

While Reese and Wernick pepper Deadpool 's script with fan-focused inside jokes, there's never a moment where you feel punished if you didn't read the source comics. At the same time, the movie maintains a fidelity to fans looking for everything they've come to expect from the character. That's a testament to Miller, Reese, and Wernick's storytelling. They've made a real effort to grasp the character's quirks.

Miller's action sequences are as crackling as they are hilarious. His shots are composed clearly, and the action is unfussy — perhaps chaotic, even — but everything is easy enough to follow. And the violence and gore are mitigated by a prickly sense of humor; one sequence even has Deadpool shot in the butthole.

The film's jokes are pristine raunch, covering everything from oral sex with Freddy Krueger to the odor of Mama June — the kind of off-color jeers Dane Cook wishes he could write. It delves into the depths of pop culture, and its dialogue sounds like the slapdash, cognizant cadence known as Whedon-speak, but juiced up on testosterone.

When Deadpool 's comedic gore collides with its salty humor at the proper angle, magic happens. It's magic that captures the spirit of the character, but it also pushes him and the genre into unknown and welcome territory.

Deadpool 's irreverence makes up for the film's flaws

Deadpool 's frenetic pace and chaos strives to be a comic book brought to life. And it mostly succeeds.

The film's biggest weakness, if it has one, is in its supporting characters — there's just not a lot for them to do. Deadpool's fellow superpowered beings — Colossus ( Stefan Kapicic ), Negasonic Teenage Warhead ( Brianna Hildebrand ), and Angel Dust ( Gina Carano ) — mostly just stay out of his way, though Colossus and Negasonic each have their moments. T.J. Miller is effective as Deadpool/Wade Wilson's BFF Weasel, but he feels like he was just ported over from HBO's Silicon Valley , where he plays a startup bro. Ajax, the movie's main villain, is sinister (and good-looking), but his mutant ability — not being able to feel pain — doesn't make him feel like much of a threat.

And it would have been nice for a superhero movie that vocally wants to subvert the genre to present Morena Baccarin 's Vanessa, the love of Wade's life, as more than just your standard superhero girlfriend. Baccarin is winning in the few moments we see her, but it's a shame that she spends the majority of her scenes comforting or sexing Wade.

Meanwhile, Deadpool 's look reveals its low budget. While the film's price tag hasn't been officially revealed, it was reportedly around $50 million (compared with, say,  Ant-Man 's $130 million ). Without cash to burn,  Deadpool doesn't have the gloss of your typical superhero jaunt — the fight scenes are smaller, the superpowers are less dazzling, and the sets are limited.

But Deadpool 's irreverence and DGAF attitude is admirable. Deadpool isn't the Avengers. He's a one-man show. And that one man deserves at least one more show. Or at least one more cock joke.

Deadpool opens in theaters Friday, February 12.

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Deadpool & Wolverine

Wolverine is recovering from his injuries when he crosses paths with the loudmouth, Deadpool. They team up to defeat a common enemy. Wolverine is recovering from his injuries when he crosses paths with the loudmouth, Deadpool. They team up to defeat a common enemy. Wolverine is recovering from his injuries when he crosses paths with the loudmouth, Deadpool. They team up to defeat a common enemy.

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• Trivia In X-Men (2000) , Wolverine says of the team's suits, "You actually go outside in these things?" to which Cyclops responds, "What would you prefer? Yellow spandex?" The live-action Wolverine would not appear in his signature yellow costume until this movie, 24 years after the release of the first X-Men movie. Director Shawn Levy said, "Like the rest of the world, I've waited two decades to see Wolverine in a whole movie with Deadpool, and I don't know if this is our last shot at Wolverine on screen, so I was going to make goddamned sure we get the old yellow and blue just once, and that we get it right." Hugh Jackman said, "How did we never do this? It looked so right, it felt so right. I was like, 'That's him.'"

Deadpool : [to Wolverine] Don't just stand there, you ape. Give me a hand up.

[Wolverine draws his claws]

Deadpool : Nope, I'm actually okay, thank you very much!

• Crazy credits The Marvel Studios logo is in red and black and yellow, Deadpool and Wolverine's colors.
• Connections Featured in Nerdrotic: Marvel Admits FAILURE - The Marvels Killed the M-She-U, and That's a Good Thing (2024)
• Soundtracks Happy Birthday Written by Mildred J. Hill and Patty S. Hill
• When will Deadpool & Wolverine be released? Powered by Alexa
• Why is Marvel Studios trying to fold the X-Men into the MCU? With the Quicksilver character in both series in different centuries with different storylines, and with Josh Brolin playng both Cable and Thanos, it wouldn't make sense. Wouldn't it just be easier to make a new X-Men movie in the MCU?
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We Rewatched Deadpool 1 And Here's What We Noticed

"Deadpool" carved out a niche for itself when it was released in 2016. After several years of development, the Ryan Reynolds-led feature finally made it to the big screen and immediately impressed audiences. Known for his big mouth and crude humor, Deadpool's first solo flick was filled with plenty of jokes, innuendos, and some great action shots (even if Deadpool kept forgetting his tools). In a time when many were used to more family-friendly superheroes like Captain America, "Deadpool" changed movies and marked its place in superhero cinematic history as a film for which it was better to leave the kids at home.

Wade Wilson, Deadpool's alter ego, gave audiences plenty of controversial moments to laugh about, from offhand pop culture references to fourth wall breaks. The movie hardly got through a scene without comparing someone to a certain Irish singer, mentioning a well-known religious movement, or referencing an infomercial everyone remembers. While we caught most of these on our first watch, there are new secrets and meanings to explore since the film's release. Changes in Deadpool's Marvel Cinematic Universe status, interviews from the cast and crew, and the release of deleted scenes give new context to the R-rated superhero comedy. Let's break down everything to notice now as you rewatch "Deadpool."

Deadpool is obsessed with Wolverine

"Deadpool" opens with a reference to one of the most popular X-Men: Wolverine. As Deadpool sits on a freeway bridge at the beginning of the movie, swinging his legs in the breeze, he speaks to the audience in a classic fourth wall break. He lets us know that he may have traded favors with someone whose name rhymes with "Polverine" so he could have his own movie. Deadpool continues the bit, switching to an Australian accent to comment on this individual's body. When Vanessa pulls off his mask later on in the movie, he's wearing a paper cut-out of Hugh Jackman's face.

While initially a fun Easter egg that comments on Jackman's time as Wolverine and the dynamic between the characters, the reference is even more relevant years later. The third "Deadpool" installment, "Deadpool and Wolverine," brings Jackman back as Logan seven years after he retired from the role. When the announcement was made, fans went wild, excited to see the two together on the screen in the "Deadpool" universe. The film's promotional art features a Deadpool and Wolverine friendship necklace, and early photos revealed that Wolverine wears his iconic yellow suit.

While we all caught and laughed at these references in our first watch, they mean so much more now that Jackman is entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Wolverine alongside Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool.

The city and freeway were all VFX

One of the best action sequences in "Deadpool" is the freeway chase. Cars, motorcycles, tunnels, and more play into this amazing setpiece, but despite looking like it, the scene wasn't actually filmed on real city streets. While the VFX work makes for an incredibly believable scene, it is literally all visual effects. Even the cityscape isn't real — it's a combination of Chicago, Detroit, and Vancouver. 

Due to the difficulties of finding a location that would let the production film the sequence, the decision was made to use physical props and film against a greenscreen. Visual effects supervisor Jonathan Rothbart and the VFX team crafted cars, motorcycles, and entire freeways digitally using motion capture and different static objects like treadmills and car interiors, while dividing the city itself into 12 parts.

Some pf the visuals that were used, particularly the multi-cam freeway shots, were filmed in Detroit and integrated into the scene. "We set up these LED panels all around the car using the Detroit plates," Rothbart told  fxguide . "I lined them all up in the seven camera view and edited it so we had certain chunks we would use for each part of the sequence and then could map it out." This allowed the team to get the lighting just right for different aspects, like the tunnel scene. 

The deleted cancer tour scenes showed Wade's desperation

There were plenty of scenes from "Deadpool" that ended up on the cutting room floor. After Wade's cancer diagnosis, he and Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) try to enjoy life before he eventually follows up on the offer of experimental treatment presented to him by a mysterious man with a business card. However, a deleted sequence titled "Cancer World Tour" shows the couple's desperation and the efforts they make before that. 

In the deleted scenes, Wade and Vanessa are in Mexico, their last stop on a trip around the world to try to cure Wade. While it turns out that the doctor is running a sham, using chicken organs to make patients believe he's removed unremovable tumors, the sequence emphasizes what the pair go through, adding to Wade's desperation as he seeks out the treatment the business card promises. It also shows that leaving Vanessa to pursue the treatment is really a last-ditch effort to stay alive and that he doesn't want her to get her hopes up like she does on their world tour.

The scenes also provide a better idea of Wade's fighting style before his mutant genes are activated. He scuffles with the shady Mexican doctor, eventually killing him with a scalpel in front of everyone in the waiting room. It's messy, and Wade looks shocked that he does it — a completely different reaction than the mercenary we've known up to that point.

Deadpool's heart hands take on new meaning

Ryan Reynolds has plenty of celebrity friends, but one may be more well-known than the rest: Taylor Swift. The Grammy-winning musician is pals with Reynolds and his wife Blake Lively, even including their children's names in her songs. 

During the final action sequence in "Deadpool," Wade uses his hands to make a heart for Vanessa while they lie on the ground. This is a common symbol in the Swiftie community because the singer uses it in her concerts. The scene seemed like a cute gesture in a fun movie, but with the casting rumors surrounding "Deadpool and Wolverine," it may mean something more now.

Among the many rumored cameos in the third "Deadpool" film is that Swift will portray Dazzler, a mutant who uses sound vibrations to make energy. Another rumor suggested that Swift was in the film, but not as Dazzler. Director Shawn Levy won't comment on the rumors. "You're going to have to wait and see," he told  The Wrap . In a 2022 interview with Entertainment Weekly , Reynolds stated that he "would do anything for" the singer, and would be on board with her having a cameo in the movie. He also told the Vancouver Sun about the Swift rumor, "Yeah, I've heard that one," adding, "Every single one of these secrets and spoilers will be revealed on July 26."

The other post-credits scene was slightly different

Like many movies, "Deadpool" played into the post-credits scene trend. If audiences stuck around, they'd see Deadpool in his bathrobe admitting that there wasn't a budget for a fancy additional scene before telling the audience to go home, in a spin on a similar sequence at the end of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." After a brief screen highlighting the 13,000 jobs the movie created, the mutant is back to tell you that Cable will be in "Deadpool 2." If you left the theater after the first fake-out, chances are you missed the big announcement for the villain of the sequel. 

An alternate version of this sequence provides an even funnier take. The other version included as a DVD extra features Deadpool fighting with the boom mic as he shares the Cable secret. He comments that Cable is a favorite character of his and that he thinks Newt Gingrich could handle the role. It also notably does not include the comments about "Sam Jackson" and his character in the MCU, which include calling Nick Fury's outfit "a saucy little leather number." His language about picking up after yourself in the theater is certainly more vulgar in the unused version. Had the creative team chosen this cut of the post-credits sequence, we may not have received a fun shout-out to the MCU, but we would not have missed out on Deadpool's additional views on Cable.

This is why Deadpool forgets his guns

The "Deadpool" script saw several rewrites and modifications after its initial leak in 2010. Part of this included scene cuts due to requested budget reductions from the studio, which is why the movie may not feel as action-packed as other superhero projects. "We had to carve something like $7-8 million out of the budget in a 48-hour window," writer Rhett Reese stated to i09 . This was almost 10% of the script, which meant the bulk of those edits came from shortening the action sequences.

One of the slashed scenes included an extension to the final fight between Deadpool and Francis/Ajax (Ed Skrein). The scene was originally set to start with an intensive gun battle, possibly moving through the building from floor to floor. With that portion of the action cut, the writers still give it a nod in the final version of the film since Deadpool has already gathered and packed his guns in the previous scene. The joke about Deadpool forgetting his bag of guns in the cab? That was written to help remove the gun fight without completely undoing other scenes. "We basically had Deadpool forget his guns as a means of getting around it," Reese shared. 

There really was a cure for blindness

As Deadpool heads out with his duffle bag of guns to save Vanessa, he tells his roommate Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) that if he doesn't come back, there is a large stash of cocaine hidden in her floorboards. He also says that alongside that stash is a cure for blindness. It feels like a cruel joke, considering Blind Al is actually blind, but it's only after "Deadpool 2" came out that we could truly appreciate and understand the joke.

After Vanessa is killed at the start of that movie, Wade struggles to cope, going down a spiral of self-destruction. He sneaks back into Blind Al's house to snag a bag of cocaine from his hidden stash, which he later uses to get high before attempting to blow himself up. When he moves the bag, a box labeled "The Cure for Blindness" is, in fact, visible in the stash. He wasn't lying to Blind Al at the end of the first movie, but whether or not it's the cure she might be hoping for remains to be seen. 

Ryan Reynolds acknowledged "this little Easter egg" in the "Deadpool 2" home video commentary (via Comicbook.com ), saying, "The cure for blindness, from the first movie. Cocaine, right next to the cure for blindness. I wonder if eagle-eyed people will catch it."

There could have been two Twilight references in the movie

"Twilight" fans may have been quick to notice the nod to their favorite franchise during their first viewing of "Deadpool," but audiences later found out there could have been a much bigger reference to the popular vampire series. While trying to find Francis, Deadpool pauses after pushing someone into a tower of boxes. A woman takes the chance to jump on his back. As he easily throws her off, he calls her a spider monkey, which is what Edward Cullen calls Bella Swan when she is on his back as he climbs up trees. Anyone who's seen "Twilight" likely noticed this reference right away.

Bill Corso, the makeup designer for "Deadpool," shared the unused second reference with Collider . Gino Carano, who portrays Angel Dust in the movie, wanted to wear yellow contacts to mimic her character's appearance in the comics. She even made some "big beautiful yellow" lenses to show off the possible look. "She just looked like she was in a 'Twilight' movie," Corso said. "But we made her really cool lenses that actually look really neat and do change her look." If the makeup artist spotted the resemblance, there's no doubt "Twilight" fans would have noticed Angel Dust's yellow eyes as well. 

The lab fight scene was much longer

There was originally more action in the scene where Wade escapes Francis's lab after his mutant genes activate, but like others, it was shortened. Fans can watch the extended version of the sequence on the DVD extras as Wade and Francis duke it out while the warehouse goes up in flames.

While the longer scene doesn't necessarily add much to the narrative of "Deadpool," it does give audiences a better look at how Wade initially uses his new power, especially when compared to his fight in the "Cancer World Tour" deleted scenes. This is Wade's chance to see what his new body can do, but he ultimately doesn't know how to wield it yet. In the extended version of the scene, we see the truly barbaric nature of Francis, and how tired Wade has made himself by not conserving energy.

Before spearing Wade, Francis performs a series of maneuvers as Wade is confined to the floor, which shows how the antagonist has the upper hand in the fight. This includes kicking him square in the jaw and easily spinning him around to pin him to the ground as Wade tries to get up. Francis is unrelenting in his attack, only spearing him when it's clear that Wade can't get up. It foreshadows the power Wade can have once he understands his new body more and once he's back in his own element, while highlighting just how strong Francis is.

The Chinese New Year reference is wrong

During Wade and Vanessa's holiday montage, the couple celebrate each holiday in their own special way. However, there's a bit of a discrepancy in the holiday order, with the Chinese New Year coming after Valentine's Day. In response to Wade's "Happy Chinese New Year," Vanessa replies, "Year of the Dog." If it is the year of the dog, it doesn't fit with the order of events in the movie, since 2006 and 2018 were both years of the dog. The dates of the Chinese New Year in those respective years don't quite correlate with the holiday order presented in the montage.

In 2006, the Chinese New Year was on January 29. In 2018, the new year was on February 16. While 2018 fits more with the timeline, Vanessa's hair growth poses a problem. On Valentine's Day, she has short hair, while on Chinese New Year she has chin-length hair. Since her hair growth is used to show the passage of time, the length doesn't match. 

If we take Vanessa's comment as merely an innuendo about their sexual position, then we can look at the 2016 Chinese New Year, since that is the year the film was released and presumably takes place. But in 2016, the Chinese New Year was on February 8 — which still doesn't work with the order in which the holidays are presented.

Nathan Fillion's cameo was deleted

Among the other deleted scenes is a great cameo by Nathan Fillion, who confirmed in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that he was meant to show up in "Deadpool," but the scene was cut. Fans can watch his appearance on the home release deleted scenes. The actor appears as a bathroom attendant, offering Deadpool something to dry his face with. 

Fillion's cameo could have been amazing for several reasons. There was a rumor that the actor was in the running to play Cable in "Deadpool 2," especially after the first teaser heavily featured posters from Fillion's series "Firefly" in the background. A cameo in the first movie would have only further fueled those rumors, which ended up debunked.

The cameo could have also provided another funny callback to Ryan Reynolds' other superhero persona: Green Lantern. While other Green Lantern Easter eggs are present in the film, like a trading card of Reynolds' portrayal from the 2011 movie, a Fillion cameo would have been the icing on the cake. Throughout the 2010s, the actor voiced Green Lantern in several animated "Justice League" movies. It would have also been fun to look back at now, with the confirmation that Fillion is playing Green Lantern in James Gunn's "Superman."

Deadpool Review

02 Oct 2015

We have, of course, met Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool before — scrapping with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, retractable swords melded into his arms and, in a leftfield creative decision, his mouth sewn shut. The “Merc With A Mouth” reduced to simply the merc, his reason for being taken from him, the character rendered impotent.

This Deadpool is different (and more like the comics) — talkative, quick-witted (if knob gags can be classed as wit) and with a fondness for breaking the fourth wall. The film’s set in the same universe as the X-Men franchise, but has an anarchic spirit that sticks a middle finger up to Bryan Singer’s oh-so-serious sensibilities. And smirks to itself as it does so.

The film starts with Wade Wilson already having chosen his super-name, in costume and midway through a scrap on a freeway. That’s interspersed with flashbacks showing him pre-disfiguring mutation, falling in love, being diagnosed with terminal cancer, through to being tortured by Ed Skrein’s main antagonist Ajax (named after the cleaning product). It’s a smart structure, one that neatly sidesteps the major issue with origin stories: the suited-up main attraction being absent for the first hour.

What Deadpool is up to is less important than the quips he makes as he’s doing it.

In this case, because you don’t have time to dwell on it as it’s playing out before you, it also disguises how slight the main mission is (a fight, a kidnapping, a rescue attempt, roll credits). But Deadpool is a perfect example of a character who doesn’t need world-threatening danger to foil. Wolverine or Superman require something interesting to do — for the most part, what Deadpool is up to is less important than the quips he makes as he’s doing it. Of course, that means those quips had better be good.

And this is where the film isn’t entirely successful. It’s at its best in its moments of meta-humour — Deadpool wondering whether it’ll be James McAvoy or Patrick Stewart in charge at the X-Mansion, or bemoaning the budgetary reasons that mean the only two X-Men he ever gets to actually meet are metallic giant Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) and sullen youngster Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand). But its comedic currency tends to the less cerebral, and your reaction to the relentless stream of jokes about masturbation and oral sex will depend how high Van Wilder: Party Liaison is on your list of favourite Ryan Reynolds films. (The closer to the top, the better, naturally.)

With comic-book films currently so popular, and after Green Lantern failed to ignite a franchise for him, it’s obvious why Ryan Reynolds has tried again. But in such a crowded market, the question is whether Deadpool can make his smutty voice heard.

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Deadpool & Wolverine Runtime: How Long Is the Movie? Film Length Detailed

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Deadpool & Wolverine is all set to hit theaters on July 26. There is much anticipation and hype about the upcoming MCU film as not only will it feature the returns of Ryan Reynolds ’ Deadpool and Hugh Jackman ’s Wolverine, but it is also expected to have a significant impact on the wider MCU timeline.

Due to the amount of excitement surrounding the film, fans can’t help but ask about its length and runtime . Here’s everything you need to know.

How long is the Deadpool & Wolverine movie?

Deadpool & Wolverine has a reported runtime or length of 127 minutes, which is 2 hours and 7 minutes.

As per an AMC listing , the movie has a 127-minute runtime. So, fans can expect to see a lot of things happen throughout the story. This could include Wade Wilson and Logan’s bickering dynamic that evolves into an uneasy alliance and possibly an unlikely friendship, the two heroes meeting variants of themselves, and also confronting and stopping the threat posed by Cassandra Nova.

However, with the number of cameos rumored to take place in Deadpool & Wolverine, it remains to be seen how the 127-minute runtime will manage to fit in each and every character.

‘DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE’ runtime is confirmed to be 2 Hours and 7 Minutes pic.twitter.com/8xfWsKpSzt — ScreenTime (@screentime) May 16, 2024

The reported 127-minute runtime of Deadpool & Wolverine makes it the longest movie in the Deadpool film franchise. The first Deadpool film was 108 minutes (1 hour 48 minutes) and Deadpool 2 was 119 minutes (1 hour 59 minutes).

Deadpool & Wolverine is directed by Shawn Levy from a script penned by Ryan Reynolds , Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells, and Levy. Reynolds and Hugh Jackman star as Deadpool and Wolverine, respectively. The supporting cast includes Emma Corrin, Matthew Macfadyen, Morena Baccarin, Karan Soni, Rob Delaney, and Leslie Uggams.

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The post Deadpool & Wolverine Runtime: How Long Is the Movie? Film Length Detailed appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More .

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Deadpool and Wolverine 'changed radically' once Hugh Jackman came aboard

Director Shawn Levy tells EW he and Ryan Reynolds originally had ideas that "were more sequelly to the first two 'Deadpools.'"

EW's 2024 Summer Preview has dozens of exclusive looks at the most anticipated TV shows, movies, books, and music of entertainment's hottest season. Continue to visit  ew.com  through May for more previews of what you'll be watching, reading, and listening to in the months to come.

Ryan Reynolds and his Free Guy director, Shawn Levy , have been formulating their plan for a third Deadpool movie since their time making 2022's The Adam Project . But their brainstorming took a sharp left turn when Reynolds got a phone call from an old pal.

"Everything changed radically on the day that Hugh called Ryan," Levy tells Entertainment Weekly , referring to Hugh Jackman . "We had been workshopping a lot of ideas about possible stories for a third Deadpool movie. Those were story ideas that were more sequelly to the first two Deadpool s, but None of them imagined such a seismic shift. I can safely say that the story completely changed and, in fact, came to us very, very quickly starting that day."

It also didn't hurt that Levy is also friends with Jackman. The two worked together on 2011's Real Steel , 2014's Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb , and 2021's Free Guy .

Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios/2024 MARVEL

Now, for the first time since 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine , Reynolds and Jackman are sharing the screen as their characters from Marvel comics, Deadpool and Wolverine — hence the straightforward title of the film (in theaters July 26). This is also the first time both figures are bringing their R-rated antics to Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe of the Avengers. After hanging up his katanas and red-leather suit, Wade Wilson (Reynolds) is prepared to live the simple life. But when the Time Variance Authority, the multiverse organization dedicated to protecting the sacred timeline, plucks him out of his reality, Wade realizes he still has a greater purpose.

Appearing in nine X-Men films already as the adamantium-clawed berserker, Jackman seemed content to retire the character after 2017's Logan , which offered a finite ending to his story. Though, fans — including Reynolds — always held out hope of seeing Wade and Logan together for a proper film after Origins , which even the actors poke fun of on occasion. "Everyone assumed that Hugh's return was the result of me or Ryan pestering or pitching him relentlessly," Levy says. "But even more miraculously, this was the result of a Hugh Jackman epiphany. He wanted to do this team-up of Logan and Deadpool, and so it really was a sky-opening gift from the heavens type of phone call that changed everything."

Deadpool and Wolverine finds a version of Logan who "let down his entire world," as Mr. Paradox ( Succession 's Matthew Macfadyen ) intones in the film's trailers . "This is still Wade dealing with certain issues, but it's very much two characters, two heroes, and two haunted men hoisted together in a shared journey," Levy adds.

 Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios

There are a number of other characters who surround both Wade and Logan on their odyssey — some we know, some we don't (at least, not officially). Emmy nominee Emma Corrin ( The Crown , Murder at the End of the World ) arrives on the scene as Cassandra Nova, an immensely powerful psychic who's also sort of but not quite the twin sister of Professor Charles Xavier, the leader of the X-Men as portrayed in past films by both Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy . A bunch of familiar faces from the past two Deadpool movies also make comebacks: Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna), Colossus (Stefan Kapičić), Peter/Sugar Bear (Rob Delaney), Dopinder (Karan Soni), and Shatterstar (Lewis Tan).

Then there are those roles that have been leaked, either in the press or by paparazzi, which Levy declines to comment on. One name he does acknowledge is Aaron Stanford, who's back as the fire-wielding mutant Pyro after playing the character in 2003's X2 and 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand . Fans first caught a glimpse in the Deadpool and Wolverine trailer that arrived at the Super Bowl .

"I'll say we didn't start off with a wishlist," Levy says of all these special appearances. "From the day we started devising this Deadpool and Wolverine story, we let the story dictate the characters, not the other way around. Aaron and his return as Pyro was an outgrowth of that, and that applies to pretty much all the characters you'll see in the movie."

Despite the massive ensemble packed into this multiverse-hopping, F-bomb-dropping, fourth wall-shattering extravaganza, the filmmaker emphasizes this is a true two-hander between Reynolds and Jackman. "As a two-hander, oil-and-water story, this movie draws inspiration from the great films in that genre," he says. "That means everything from Midnight Run [1988] and 48 Hours [1982] to Rain Man [1988] and Planes, Trains and Automobiles [1987], these quests that pair a duo of mismatched characters. The joy we get as an audience watching that relationship evolve."

Want more movie news? Sign up for  Entertainment Weekly 's free newsletter  to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Related content:

• New Deadpool & Wolverine trailer has claws, Cassandra Nova, and F-bombs: 'Let's f---ing go!'
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“Is it because it’s not woke”: Alarmingly Low Rotten Tomatoes Score of Ryan Reynolds’ IF Couldn’t Even Beat Henry Cavill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

J ohn Krasinski and Ryan Reynolds teamed up together to create an iconic movie titled IF which could have been quite an interesting tale. With Emily Blunt, Steve Carrell, and, Awkwafina joining the cast, the movie had great potential, but something turned out to be missing.

The reason why we say that it “could” have been a huge blockbuster is because of its early ratings. Although the film hasn’t been released yet, the early reviews are here and people did not like the movie too much. It seems that the critics hated the film even more, judging by the movie’s current ratings.

Ryan Reynolds’  IF  Could Have Been Something Bigger!

With John Krasinski being the director of the film while also starring alongside Ryan Reynolds,  IF  had quite an iconic reception when the trailer for the film was released. Gathering millions of views, people around the world loved the idea and waited excitedly for the release of the movie.

The story follows the life of a girl who discovers that she can see everybody’s imaginary friend! Emphasizing the IF  part of the title, the story showed people reconnecting with their forgotten IFs. Despite an intriguing storyline and Ryan Reynolds in one of the lead roles, the film did not manage to get good scores after its initial release.

“You just wait”: Ryan Reynolds Seems Ready to Outclass Timothée Chalamet’s Dune 2 With Deadpool’s Popcorn Bucket

IF  was released in France on 8 May 2024 and is set for a U.S. release on 17 May 2024. Despite the film not being released, early reviews have led to a critic score of 54% on Rotten Tomatoes!

Wanting to quickly defend the film, people took to X to talk about how the critic score is always low. Stating that they were going to watch the film anyway, a range of fans actually ended up praising the movie on Twitter:

On the other hand, Henry Cavill’s  The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,  which was a box office flop, has a higher rating than IF ! The scale of these ratings is truly too large, but it seems that people want to watch the film anyway.

“He looks cool as Cable”: Brad Pitt’s Reaction to Playing Cable in Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool Franchise Will Give You Hope For His Potential MCU Debut in the Future

As far as Ryan Reynolds is concerned, the actor is excited about two things:  Deadpool & Wolverine, and torturing his best friend Hugh Jackman. Talking about their upcoming MCU film, Reynolds called out Jackman as a liar!

When Ryan Reynolds Called Hugh Jackman A Liar!

Being best friends on and off screen, we all know about the bromance between Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds. Starring alongside each other in the upcoming MCU film  Deadpool & Wolverine,  the world couldn’t be more happier.

With Hugh Jackman reprising his role of Wolverine after giving up his Adamantium claws in  Logan  back in 2017, the world is kind of annoyed but also impressed with the MCU. Not wanting the MCU to ruin Logan’s legacy, fans are still processing the return of Jackman as Wolverine.

IF Review — A Heartwarming Blend of Animation and Live-Action That Surpasses Expectations

To add fuel to the fire, Reynolds revealed in an interview with AP Entertainment that Jackman was a liar since he hid his return from fans!

“Now, I think, I think we all can see that Hugh is a liar, you know? That a bald faced horrible coward and a liar. Uh, here he is, back again back again. You know, you have to find out how he comes back because that’s one of the most fun aspects of the movie.”

With Reynolds teasing that Wolverine’s return is the fun aspect of the movie, it seems that Marvel Studios has indeed planned something big for the film. With Shawn Levy as director,  Deadpool & Wolverine  is set for a release date of 26 July 2024 in theaters across the U.S.

Hugh Jackman Had a Bad Feeling About His Botched Wolverine Stunt in X-Men Movie That Ended in an Unpleasant Incident

On the other hand, Ryan Reynolds’  IF  received a critic score of 54% on Rotten Tomatoes and 6.9/10 on IMDB upon its release. The film will be released on 17 May 2024 in theaters across the world.

Deadpool & Wolverine Opens the R-Rated Door for Another Crucial Marvel Character

Deadpool & Wolverine will be the first R-rated MCU film and this opens the door for other characters to get an R-rated adaptation.

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Who is ghost rider and his history in the mcu, ghost rider has already proven the pg-13 limits the spirit of vengeance, ghost rider is the mcu's path to hell.

Deadpool & Wolverine has fans looking forward to the Merc with a Mouth jumping into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When Deadpool was under the ownership of 20th Century Fox, the character was allowed to be as R-rated as he wanted to be. When Ryan Reynolds Deadpool was coming to the MCU, fans were worried that he would be held back to fit a PG-13 rating, yet this is not the case. Deadpool & Wolverine is going to be the MCU's first hard R-rated film and fans couldn't be more excited. Opening up the door to R-rated movies allows the MCU more freedom to explore new characters and there is one Marvel character that the MCU should give an R-rated adaptation.

R-rated superhero movies have gained a strong track record of success, especially Deadpool and Logan. It's not that being R-rated instantly makes a movie better, but some characters are objectively better when given the freedom to be violent or crude. Characters like Daredevil and Punisher flourished when Netflix allowed them to be as dark and violent as they needed to be. The MCU has been struggling recently, with many fans divided on the most recent entries to the franchise. Ghost Rider is a character that fans would love to see in the MCU and the only way that can be done is with an R-rating.

Agents of SHIELD Still Surpasses the MCU in One Crucial Way

• Ghost Rider has been adapted in live-action multiple times, including two films with Nicholas Cage and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D used the Robbie Reyes version of Ghost Rider and he was played by Gabriel Luna.

Ghost Rider first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #5 in 1972 and was created by Gary Friedrich, Roy Thomas, and Mike Ploog. Johnny Blaze, the original Ghost Rider, was a stunt driver in a circus until his adoptive father developed cancer. This caused Johnny to look for answers in the occult. As he dove further into the world of the dark arts, he ended up summoning Mephisto. Blaze made a bargain for his soul to save his father from cancer, but this meant that Mephisto just killed him differently. As Blaze lashed out at Mephisto and drove him away, Mephisto bonded Blaze to a malevolent spirit called Zarathos. Bonded with this spirit, Ghost Rider began to punish evil wherever he encountered it, serving vengeance against evil and protecting innocent people. Johnny can transform any vehicle into a flaming, super-fast version and some Ghost Riders have even transformed animals . His most powerful weapon the the Ghost Rider's Penance Stare. When the Rider stares into his victim's eyes, he forces them to experience all the pain that they have given to others.

While Ghost Rider has never been officially in the MCU, the Robbie Reyes version of the character appeared in multiple episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. This series was deeply connected to the MCU for its first couple of seasons, even having crossover characters and stories. Yet, the main MCU movies refused to ever acknowledge the existence of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, making it harder and harder for fans to figure out if the show was actually considered to be canon. Yet, the release of the Official Marvel Timeline confirmed that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D was in fact not canon , leaving Ghost Rider out of the MCU also. While there are constant rumors about Ghost Rider in the MCU, there is still no official announcement on when or if he will be appearing.

Unexpected Marvel Heroes and Villains Who've Tasted the Ghost Rider's Power (And What They Did with It)

• Nicolas Cage's first Ghost Rider and its sequel, Spirit of Vengeance, both tried to show the danger and fear of the Ghost Rider, but could not be truly dark and scary.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D created a compelling version of the Rider, but it still felt like it lacked the same body horror and intense stories from the comics.

Ghost Rider may not have an MCU appearance, but non-comic book fans are already familiar with the character thanks to Nicolas Cage's outings as the character in Ghost Rider and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. These movies saw a flaming rider deal with various criminal elements and while Nic Cage captured the spirit of a man possessed, the movies failed to embrace the more horrific elements of the comics. Ghost Rider is a dangerous and visceral character whose powers by their very nature are violent. He wields flaming chains, burns people with his touch, and unleashes horrific psychological torture on people. It's impossible to bring these aspects to life within the confines of a PG-13 movie.

Even Ghost Riders' transformation from Johnny Blaze, or Robbie Reyes, calls for a significant amount of gruesomness. Both the Ghost Rider movies and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D did a decent job of showing the Ghost Rider's transformation, as his face tears and melts away to reveal the flaming skull underneath, but an R-rated movie could make this one of the most memorable scenes in the MCU. When the Ghost Rider emerges, it not only represents the fear that his enemies should feel, but it shows how Blaze of Reyes both have to "die" and have their sins burned away for the Ghost Rider to emerge and wield his tremendous power.

How Many Ghost Rider Movies Are There?

• Ghost Rider can make it easier for the MCU to introduce groups like the Midnight Sons and characters like Mephisto.
• Ghost Rider's connection to demonology and dark magic can help to unite the MCU's Darkhold story.

For a long time, fans of the MCU have suspected that Mephisto is lurking around the corner at many events in the MCU. Every time something strange or mystical happens, fans are looking to see Mephisto appear and claim ownership of the deadly situation. Johnny Blaze is the perfect character to bring the MCU to Hell and finally introduce the Red Devil himself. Ghost Rider's story is tied to Mephisto, one cannot exist without the other. For the MCU to dive even further into the dark arts, Ghost Rider can be the gateway to that path. Agatha and her spinoff are a great start, but Ghost Rider and Mephisto can further elevate the story of dark magic in the MCU. Even Robbie Reye's connection to the Darkhold can help tie the Ghost Rider to characters like Agatha or Scarlet Witch, possibly leading to her resurrection.

Ghost Rider is one of the most requested characters for the MCU to introduce and Deadpool & Wolverine provides the opening it needs. Deadpool & Wolverine is hoping to show that R-rated films are viable, even in the MCU. This will hopefully allow for other characters like Ghost Rider to follow the same path. Ghost Rider needs an R-rated adaptation, even Nic Cage thinks so , it would be a disservice to the character for the MCU to have another PG-13 version of the Spirit of Vengeance.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Created by Marvel Studios, the Marvel Cinematic Universe follows heroes across the galaxy and across realities as they defend the universe from evil.