MARCH 1, 2016
Imagine that you’re at your high-school reunion, and you see a former classmate you haven’t spoken to in years. You want to know about his job, his family and what’s going on in his life. And his only response to you is a series of jokes. And you say, “C’mon man, I’m really interested in what your life is like now.” More jokes. As the conversation goes on, it’s becoming clearer that he’s hiding what’s important behind that wall of jokes.
That’s what watching “Deadpool” is like.
The latest superhero film in the Marvel franchise, “Deadpool,” already a box-office smash, aspires to be the same kind of comedy/action spectacle that made “Guardians of the Galaxy” such a surprise success. The big difference between the two, however, is that “Guardians” used its humor to reveal character, while “Deadpool” uses its parade of jokes to hide it.
Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, Deadpool is actually Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), a mercenary who is suddenly struck with terminal cancer. Desperately seeking a cure, Wade secretly slips away from his fiancee Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin of “Homeland”) and undergoes an experimental treatment administered by the evil Ajax (Ed Skrein), who tortures Wade with a treatment that cures his cancer but horribly disfigures his face and body in the process.
On the advice of his bartender friend Weasel (T.J. Miller), Wade vows to find Ajax, who had said that his disfigurement could be cured. To hide his face, Wade decides to become the masked avenger Deadpool as he tracks down Ajax and tries to locate Vanessa in hopes she will accept his new face and reconcile with him.
This is pretty dark dramatic material, but screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick haven’t the slightest interest in exploring it. Instead the writing duo is much more interested in making “Deadpool” the ultimate meta movie, with characters addressing the audience directly and, in one instance, even wiping some gum off the camera lens. The yuks appear right from the opening credits, as they claim the film stars “God’s Perfect Idiot,” was written by “The Real Heroes Here” and directed by “An Overpaid Tool.” Cute. But it’s only the beginning of the onslaught of jokes to come.
I like a good joke as much as the next guy, and I have to admit that there were times at “Deadpool” that I did laugh. Because Deadpool is part of the world of X-Men (the character, as played by Reynolds, actually made his first screen appearance in 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”), there are a number of self-referential jokes — throwing darts at Hugh Jackman’s picture, wondering which Professor (“McAvoy or Stewart”) he’s being dragged off to see…and they’re kind of fun for a while.
Where “Deadpool” runs aground for me was where the film uses jokes as a substitute for character revelation. In what world does someone get a terminal cancer diagnosis, is momentarily bummed, then replies with a string of wisecracks? (And what woman would want to be with such a man?) Similarly, when he realizes that his face and body have been disfigured, it doesn’t take him long to resume delivering the hardy-har-hars. It makes no sense character-wise.
The performers are not to blame here. I’m happy for Reynolds finally getting this dream project made — I do wish they had made it differently, but it does provide him a showcase for both his considerable action and comedy skills. Baccarin gives Vanessa a bit more depth than the girlfriend role usually receives. Skrein is an okay villain, and Miller does his familiar loopy best friend schtick.
I wanted to like “Deadpool” so much, but as it went on, I began to feel a slight smugness around the edges of the script. At moments when you start to feel some emotion for the central lovers and begin to care that they get together, the film pulls back to deliver a fourth-wall-breaking nudge-in-the-ribs wisecrack, as if to say “We’re above all of this dramatic stuff, and here’s another laugh.” Yes, “Deadpool” is funny at times. But it’s not as funny as it thinks it is.
GRADE: C-
