Saturday, March 19, 2016

X-Men Origin: Deadpool

Pool approves.
It's been out for a month now. Everyone who wanted to see it has probably already gone, to the tune of $335 million domestically. The main point that might broadcast is that people are ready for and the market needs more R rated superheroes. Fox is looking to take the third Wolverine spin-off in that direction, and Zack Snyder is lauding the R rated cut of his Batman v Superman. Sure, the fringes of superhero/comic book movies have had their run of R rated flicks with offerings from filmmakers like Snyder, Frank Miller, Mark Millar's work with Mathew Vaughn, but Deadpool filled in a slot in the X-Men series, not only one of the main superhero series gracing the silver screen, but the first. For all its faults in cohesive storytelling across the series, Fox's X-Men is still one of the leaders of the pack. That makes Deadpool stand out. It's not family friendly, but it is a part of the family.

While R rated supers may start trending soon, its important to note that reducing the film to its rating doesn't capture what makes it good. In terms of reacting to and seeking to copy the Deadpool formula, James Gunn (who himself made R rated Superalready said best what could be said: "Deadpool was its own thing, THAT'S what people are reacting to. It's original, it's damn good, it was made with love by the filmmakers, and it wasn't afraid to take risks." Deadpool, despite its out of sequence narrative, was actually a pretty straightforward origin story for a superhero (or in Wade's case, antihero). It's a good film, even great, despite being kind of formulaic, especially as it acknowledged its own place within the genre. It's alright to acknowledge this, but don't treat Deadpool like he's something special. He's good, but he's no hero.

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