Review of Deadpool (2016) by Billy V — 23 May 2018

Deadpool is a film I waited to see until the 4K home release was out. No theater, no streaming, no TV presentation. Not even the blu-ray. Nope. I waited to see this film in proper 4K. I wasn't initially sold on this movie upon its release in the theater mainly because I was never a big fan of the character in the comics and the movie came across as a film that was trying to hard to be everything comic book movies weren't. Also, it quickly became a "trendy" property and that usually triggers something in me that causes me to steer clear. But I eventually did cave in and picked Deadpool up on 4K UHD and I can honestly say that I found myself between a rock and a hard place with this release. Why, you ask? Well, let's start with the picture quality....

The 4K transfer of this film is solid, but I wouldn't call it "reference material" or anything like that. It's good, if not a bit soft in its tones, and I almost feel as if the 1080p blu-ray is as good and a little more vibrant than the 4K version. The HDR on this disc is good, but I feel it darkens the picture a bit more than I've seen HDR do in other films. Even then the characters are outdoors in pure sunlight there still appears to be a slight darkness to everything that simply isn't there on the blu-ray transfer. I can't explain it but it's certainly a little more "dark" than it should be in certain situations. I thought the 4K and HDR shined best when a scene called for the characters to be somewhere dark, such as at a bar or in an apartment with the lights off. The scenes where Deadpool's mask was shown in close quarters looked amazing as well and you can see every scale and texture of his mask. Really nice! All in all the picture quality is good, but you're not going to fall out of your seat at the quality presented on your screen.

Now let's talk about the audio experience on this disc and just how damn good it is. Seriously, this is where Deadpool really shines and I can say with full confidence that you're going to love the output of quality thanks to Dolby Atmos being included. Atmos is only an option on the 4K version of this film and is not available on the included blu-ray disc that comes with this set, sadly. But have no fear, the 1080p version supports Dolby 7.1 as well as DTS Master Audio 7.1 (which are both perfectly fine), so it isn't like you're going to be left behind if you don't have a 4K television or high end audio equipment capable of producing Dolby Atmos sound. Either way you slice it Deadpool offers a great audio experience and I'm sure you will not be disappointed with what this disc can pump out of your speakers.

As far as bonus material goes, this disc has all the usual stuff such as commentaries by the staff, deleted scenes, gag reels, featurettes, and a few other goodies, but it isn't jam packed with hours upon hours of extra content that you'd expect from a superhero flick. It gives you just enough to smile and keep busy but it seems to hold back compared to what other recent films in this genre offer. Personally, I fully believe in this day and age that studios should be piling as much bonus content as possible onto these home releases to lure people away from simply streaming these films both legally and illegally. Along with the superior audio/video quality the studios should be using extras as a trump card to make a case for purchasing the physical release. Maybe it's just me, or maybe I'm too "old school", but that's just how I feel.

I'm sure you're probably wondering how I felt about the movie itself since you read about how I avoided it at the beginning of this 4K review. I can honestly say that I enjoyed this film and found it to be action packed and fairly humorous. I felt the underlying love story was done very well and I really liked that we finally get a superhero who isn't afraid to kill his enemies outright without the thought of regret or remorse. I did feel like some of the humor was a tad forced and some of the swearing was gratuitous, almost as if they wrote the film to have excessive swearing just to have excessive swearing. I felt Logan did the same thing on a lesser scale and I can see why they did it, but sometimes less is more when it comes to stuff such as this. At times it appeared that this film was outright shouting "I'm not a traditional superhero film, so love me!", which it could have done a bit more subtly, but the fact that it's different ended up working in its favor in the end and the movie felt unique in a way. All in all I enjoyed Deadpool and look forward to seeing what Deadpool 2 has to offer.

In closing, I can say that this disc is definitely worth the purchase if you're really into the audio aspects of movies, you want to check out the bonus content, or you're a collector and absolutely must own this home release. But if you're looking to show off your home theater and want to use this movie as a way to "wow" your friends, than your better off selecting something else. Soft overtones on the picture definitely hurt this release, but I can forgive that because it comes with the blu-ray version and offers amazing audio and some fun extras. If you love Deadpool than this is the home release for you.

-Billy Vegas Twitter - @bvfilmreview.