Thursday, February 25, 2016

Deadpool


DIRECTOR: Tim Miller   LEAD CAST: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein  SCREENWRITER: Paul Wernick & Rhett Reese  PRODUCER:  Simon Kinberg & company  EDITOR:  Julian Clarke  MUSICAL DIRECTOR:  Junkie XL  GENRE: Action/Adventure  CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Ken Seng  DISTRIBUTOR: 20th Century Fox  LOCATION:  USA RUNNING TIME:  108 minutes
Technical assessment:  3.5
Moral assessment:  2
CINEMA rating:  V18
MTRCB rating:  R16
Pre-Deadpool Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) was a special forces operative who was dishonorably dismissed.  He becomes a hired kill-all-you-can mercenary who sets no limits how he kills whom, then meets hot chick Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), a hooker with a past as murky as his.  A deadly blend of sex and sympathy draws them closer together, and then it’s year-round non-stop carnal bliss for the two.  One day, taking a break from Vanessa’s addictive charms, the otherwise hunky Wilson collapses in the bathroom and later on is diagnosed to have terminal cancer in his lungs, brain, prostate, and liver.  Desperate for a cure, he leaves Vanessa and agrees to submit himself to a government funded experimental treatment in the hands of a doctor named Ajax (Ed Skrein). The experiment not only cures his cancer, but also gives him superhuman strength and the power to self-regenerate—but he becomes horribly disfigured in the process.  When he finds out that the “experiment” was actually designed to turn him into a super-slave, and that his deformity is irreversible, he leaves Vanessa to spare her from the sight of him dying.  Thus, the mask, the superhero costume, and the monicker “Deadpool”.  He then launches a testosterone-driven hunt for the sadistic guy Ajax who made him uglier than the phantom of the opera.
As far as CGI action goes, Deadpool is tops; just like any Marvel superhero movie, it aims to dazzle its audience with new tricks, new choreography, new ways to torture the enemy, new excuses to bare the hero’s abs—and it does succeed in entertaining the fans and many film critics.  Reynolds (who didn’t quite hit it with Green Lantern) obviously enjoys being Deadpool, spewing witticism, sarcasm and adults-only expletives, and trying to be funny in the middle of hacking an opponent to death.  He also enjoys baring his abs and that forbidden region south of his navel in a bid to maximize the movie’s R rating.  Unlike most movies with a high body count, Deadpool makes no attempt to disguise the gore, so that when heads are axed and torsos impaled and sliced like watermelons, well—you see red all over the screen.   
Towards the end, Deadpool attempts a redemptive message—love sees beyond the externals—but coming after 105 minutes of the protagonist’s undiluted badassery, it feels put on.  Deadpool the character has been described as “technically a superhero, but one with a mean streak and a potty mouth.”   (Just how potty is potty?  Please refer to http://www.christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/2016/deadpool2016.html).  Deadpool himself is dead right when he says “I am not a hero”, so what is he?  A pathetic cancer victim who finds love too late and is therefore to be pitied?  A wisecracking murderer who enjoys killing people to heal his wounds?  A superhero figure reimagined for box office profits is more like it, proven by the gimmick as the credits roll—Reynolds reappearing minus the Deadpool costume, chiding the audience to go home.  Talk about cutesies.  Don’t say we didn’t warn you.