ONCE UPON A DEADPOOL — Movie Review
By John Argote Rodriguez
“Once Upon a Deadpool” was released on December 12, 2018 and stars Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, and Stefan Kapičić with Fred Savage. “Once Upon a Deadpool” is the eleventh film in the X-Men film series from 20th Century Fox.
Before you say it yes I am aware this is a re-release of “Deadpool 2" edited down to a PG-13 rating and I’ve already reviewed “Deadpool 2" along with the first film and if you’ve read them then you know how much I loved “Deadpool 2” and it’s actually part of my top 10 2018 films, but anyways why review it again? Why not, it gives me an excuse to write more of this awesome movie and title. “Once Upon a Deadpool” is a funny title I love to write so any excuse to keep typing is a welcome.
You all know “Once Upon a Deadpool” is “Deadpool 2" just cut down to PG-13 and I love the whole concept of this, first of all it has Fred Savage as himself who is kidnapped by Deadpool who reads to him in “Deadpool 2" in PG-13 in “The Princess Bride” fashion which is an amazing movie and if you haven’t seen it, why are you here?! Stop whatever you’re doing whether it’s work, school, or reuniting with your long lost brother, stop right now and watch “The Princess Bride”, no excuses.
The whole re-release idea sounded good and exciting and the trailer and promos with Deadpool and Fred Savage were hilarious.
“Once Upon a Deadpool” is also doing a good cause by having one dollar from each ticket sales go to charity, to be exact it’ll go to Fuck Cancer.
However because of the PG-13 rating “Once Upon a Deadpool” is heavily promoting the charity name will temporarily be changed to Fudge Cancer. It’s clever Deadpool marketing that probably only Deadpool can pull off.
“Once Upon a Deadpool” will have a limited release from December 12 though Christmas Eve after previously being placed in the overpacked December 21 slot.
Though by the time this review is published “Once Upon a Deadpool” will have already finishes it’s theatrical release.
Since “Once Upon a Deadpool” is “Deadpool 2" then the obvious answer is of course the movie is awesome it’s Deadpool! Well that didn’t pan out exactly how I had hoped it would, or at least the way I’d thought it was going because I was hoping for “Once Upon a Deadpool” not to just be a cut down PG-13 version of “Deadpool 2", I thought I’d be more and that was my fault for having high expectations.
I always say never go into a film expecting something that might not even be in the film because that’s setting you up for disappointment and I fell into that trap.
Let’s get one thing clear, “Once Upon a Deadpool” was not awful it was disappointing. I thought the producers had filmed more footage then just the Fred Savage and Deadpool stuff.
Aside from the Fred Savage/Deadpool scenes, there’s nothing new, but a scene with Deadpool and an old couple sitting in a bench that was shown in the trailers and from what I’m hearing it’s a deleted scene from the DVD.
"Once Upon a Deadpool” has very obvious voice dubs whenever a character in the film says profanity because you can see when a character says hell or freak to replace fuck you can clearly see the lips and mouth say fuck, but hear hell instead and what makes all the more obvious is when altered/censored dialogue is used to replace the original uncensored dialogue the audio kind of drops, almost from high to low. I don’t know how exactly to describe it, but it’s very obvious and you’ll know when it happens cause it happens frequently throughout the film because you know it’s Deadpool the Merc with the Mouth.
“I kinda prefer Marvel movies.”
“Yeah, but you’re Marvel licenced by Fox, it’s if The Beatles were produced by Nickelback. It’s music, but it sucks.”
“Once Upon a Deadpool” does have it’s positives, for one it’s “Deadpool 2" and while it is a neutered version it still has the emotional power because I swear during my screening I heard a teenager crying during the Wade and Vanessa afterlife or heaven union after Deadpool briefly dies, so that proves it still has the emotional punch to it, or it was her first time watching “Deadpool 2" bec8now with it’s PG-13 rating she could go, but I highly doubt a teenager wouldn’t sneak into “Deadpool 2" when it was released on June.
“Once Upon a Deadpool’s” biggest advertisement and marketing is Deadpool and Fred Savage and both of these are comedy gold, whenever the film cut to them it was hilarious especially Fred’s reaction to Juggernaut ripping Deadpool in half and when Fred Savage started to freak Deadpool out. Them two was enough for the ticket price, and charity if course!
Unfortunately there wasn’t enough of them when we got deeper into the film, there was a huge time gap where we didn’t see Deadpool or Fred Savage which was disappointing as they were the selling point of the movie, but after this I’m dying to see a Ryan Reynolds and Fred Savage movie because the comedy with them was great.
Overall, “Once Upon a Deadpool” is not bad because it’s “Deadpool 2" and people who say it’s bad is a bit odd in my opinion, I’m not saying they’re opinion isn’t valid just that “Deadpool 2" is one of the best comic book films of the year and “Once Upon a Deadpool” is “Deadpool 2" just trimmed from the profanity and blood, but I understand the dislike on the edited version. It was disappointing because I hoped and thought it was more then PG-13 “Deadpool 2", but that’s exactly what it was with a few hilarious Deadpool/Fred Savage scenes added.
With that being said with Disney eventually about to acquire Fox there’s many wondering if Deadpool can fit in the PG-13 Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I still don’t know because it wasn’t a new film it’s just a edited Deadpool so I don’t think it’s fair to make judgement yet, but God do I hope something goes wrong with this deal and Disney doesn’t get ownership of Fox because that means less movies and more of the same movies not different. If Marvel had the X-Men we never would of gotten “Logan” or “Deadpool” and I love Marvel, but all their films have that MCU feel which isn’t a bad thing, it’s clearly worked for them well, 28 billion dollars well, but every studio brought something different table whether it was Sony and Fox, and with one less studio it’s hard to get excited, but that’s not “Once Upon a Deadpool” — Movie Review.
Wait till the very end of the film, there’s a heartfelt tribute to the great late legendary Stan “The Man” Lee
Grade: B-
