Deadpool ★★★

Ryan Reynolds stars as the iconic Deadpool, a Marvel mutant with regenerative abilities, a wise-cracking potty mouth and a terrible skin condition.

From the very moment Deadpool begins, it stops taking itself seriously. The opening credits list not the names of anyone that worked hard to make the film, but titles such as ‘British Villain’ and ‘A Hot Chick’ (I paraphrase… I think). Magazine covers of Ryan Reynolds as the ‘sexiest man alive’ and a trading card of his unloved appearance as Green Lantern go further to cement this movie as very tongue-in-cheek and very self aware. The latter is very important.

This isn’t a clever film; it’s not even a brilliant superhero film. The plot is incredibly simple, and there are barely any characters (and even less character development). But it knows its limitations and it knows exactly who its target audience is. Rather than appeal to the widespread audience at large (as seen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine), they’ve delivered exactly what people hoping for a Deadpool movie wanted. In terms of creating a faithful adaptation of the Deadpool comic, they couldn’t have succeeded more.

So yes: it’s rude, it’s crass, it’s littered with knob and fart jokes and gratuitous swearing. It also regularly breaks the fourth wall, in a very successful and organic way (not an easy task, particularly if used throughout a film). If this was all it was, I wouldn’t enjoy it. I don’t particularly enjoy films such as ‘The Hangover’. But everyone involved in Deadpool seems to enjoy it so much — from the director and writers to Ryan Reynolds himself — that their enjoyment shines through. You only have to look at the extensive marketing for the film, and the very existence of the film and it’s R-rating, in fact, as proof.

Don’t go into Deadpool expecting a groundbreaking, artistic masterpiece. It isn’t. But it also isn’t trying to be; it’s trying to be the very best Deadpool film it can (even with a limited budget, as the film jokes). Unlike many films this one knows its target audience; it knows why it was made in the first place. It may not be a brilliant film, but it’s a fantastic Deadpool movie.