Review of Deadpool (2016) by Jeff N — 21 Nov 2016

I'm happy to see the scores for this movie be so high because, frankly, this had the makings of being a movie that people just wouldn't "get." I have to say that, while I'm not surprised it was successful, the records "Deadpool" broke in its opening weekend have absolutely stunned me.

One, it's a rated R movie. That alone should have tamed any expectations. Two, it made more money in its opening weekend than "Man of Steel," Batman Beyond," any "X-Men" movie, "Iron Man," "Captain America: First Avenger," "Spider-Man," "The Incredible Hulk," and even "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," the disaster of a movie that had the completely wrong first incarnation of Deadpool.

From a comic book fan perspective, this movie represents a complete change in generations. I was a huge Avengers fan and stopped collecting in the late 80s. When I was a collector, artists were becoming the big reason to like comics.

Frank Miller, John Byrne, etc. When Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld came onto the scene as I was leaving the hobby, I missed out on the whole multiple-covers, poly-bagged, trading card, overly-collector-driven disaster of comics that exploded with the X-Men reboot, X-Force, Deadpool introduction, etc.

Over the years as I dabbled back and forth into the hobby, I read about Deadpool, Cable, X-Force, etc. and found it intriguing, but once the artists mentioned above moved on to create Image Comics, and Rob Liefeld, the douchebag creator of Deadpool, began his series of back and forth love/hate situations with fans, his colleagues, his stupid Spike Lee Levis 501 jeans commercials, etc.

, I could tell that I had little interest in investing myself in this idiot's work. His artwork was unique and I never quite understood it, but I was never as critical of it as many people are. The Internet has volumes of hate for this guy.

If you regularly read his Twitter feed too, it's clear this idiot has never learned his lesson. He's a moron of the highest order. Despite Rob's strong denial, Deadpool is, in fact, a blatant rip-off, structurally, of DC's Deathstroke with a dab of Spider-Man.

Deathstroke's real name is Slade Wilson. Deadpool's is Wade Wilson. The costume is designed similarly with pouches, swords and guns. Sure the personalities are completely different, but I attribute that to Fabien Nicieza and subsequent writers like Gail Simone.

The appeal of Deadpool has always been his 4th-wall interaction with readers, his insane anti-hero antics, his vulgar humor, etc., all completely different comics than the ones I collected. While I appreciated the jolt that gave to the industry, which was getting kind of stale, I believe it single-handedly killed kid interest in the genre.

It became an industry for adults, which has an ever-diminishing audience. Look at the sales numbers today and the past 20 years, and that is very clear. Liefeld's era ruined comics. That being said, for everything Deadpool isn't in terms of his look (which is Liefeld's fault), he is very unique in personality and character development.

The brilliant writers over the past 20 years have built upon that initial insanity and kept him relevant. Frankly, it's overdue that he had a film, especially since Spawn had a movie in the late 90s.

However, it's good that Fox waited. It's even better that they yielded to how horrible of a depiction they did in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and allowed Ryan Reynolds and the brilliant writing team in this film to go full Deadpool, no questions asked, no limits, nothing.

The brilliance of Deadpool IS the writing (sorry, Rob). There is not a better way to have made a Deadpool movie than this film. Ryan Reynolds IS Deadpool. He was born to play him. Physique, humor, age, everything.

His love of the character and his commitment to get this movie made was redeemed with this massive opening weekend. The movie never falls into a boring state. It's consistently funny. It's action-packed.

It's got the perfect immersion in the X-Men world. It sets up perfectly for a sequel that will obviously include Cable and, hopefully, lead to an X-Force movie. It is the breath of fresh air that the X-Men franchise needed, especially after we see what appears to be an awful translation of the Apocalypse storyline.

Just like in the comics, Deadpool is taking the movies to a vulgar, more sophomoric version of the status quo. People believed it was a breath of fresh air back then, even if it ended up ruining the genre.

While I believe this was the perfect Deadpool movie that could have ever been made, could seeing movies made from this 90s generation of comics also kill off the comic movie industry as they appeal more to adults? The similarities are.

..ahem...uncanny.