Movie #4 of 2016:
Deadpool (2016)
Overall I think this was about what I was expecting. Not that that’s a bad thing! Deadpool is very funny, very violent, and very meta – an excellent adaptation of the comic character, as far as I can tell. I particularly liked the ways in which the movie skewed against the X-Men universe of which it’s technically a part. The separate Marvel Cinematic Universe has gotten a lot better at telling different kinds of stories that are nevertheless in the same continuity, but it could really use something like this that cuts so thoroughly against the grain in terms of tone. (I guess Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man get there to some extent, but it’s nothing like this Ryan Reynolds antihero blatantly ignoring the call to join the X-Men in order to pursue his own bloody vendetta. You still know those guys are going to join up to take on Thanos or whoever when the time comes.)
I’m a little wary of where Deadpool goes from here, both as its own franchise and with his inclusion in the main X-Men series, but this first movie was fantastic.
★★★★☆
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