Deadpool - A Discussion By Some Idiots

by Tarique Ejaz and Luv Mehta

DEADPOOL REVIEW (WAIT, HOW IS THIS A REVIEW IF THERE ARE NO PROPER SCORES?)

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Luv Mehta as That Overcritical Tool
Tarique Ejaz as That Overexcited Fanboy
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Luv: Let’s start off by acknowledging how difficult it was to get the movie actually made. Ryan Reynolds first came in X Men Origins, but it was a floppy sort of coming, the kind that left everyone unsatisfied.

Tarique: It did take around 10 years for the movie to finally get approved by the studio and made. The scripting was done around 4 and a half years back. It was not until that test-footage was leaked online that Deadpool was taken into consideration as a potential movie.

Luv: They had to leak both the working script and the test footage! That just shows, though, that big movie studios don’t always know what audiences want. How surprising.

Tarique: Given that 20th Century seriously wrecked the entire X-Men franchise and other superhero movies like Fantastic Four, trusting them with superhero movies had become a major issue. It is said that it was the fans writing in to the studio that actually made it happen.

Luv: I can actually get why they’d be skeptical though. Look at Serenity, the sequel movie to Firefly, made after much fan clamouring, and it ultimately wasn’t a hit. So thank god that Deadpool is shaping up to be one.

Speaking of which, how did you like it, Tarique? Did it live up to your expectations?

Tarique: To be honest, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie from the start to the end. The writers had been true to the source material and even the point where Deadpool in the movie talks to the fans directly is a reference to the fact that he is the only character in the Marvel Universe who knows that he is a comic book character.

However, after watching the movie when I considered what I had just witnessed. I realized that the plot was relatively simple. Like it was one of those movies that I would guffaw at the theater once but I wouldn’t really want to watch it again. Now for that I have two major reasons:

1. Lack of sequences or scenarios. (Because I kinda expected more given all the hype and promotion)
2. The jokes, albeit awesome, could have been a little reduced to allow the other characters to build themselves.

Luv: Well, that’s true. I’m going to have to counter you on that first point, though, since I believe plots don’t need to be simple or complex, just made well. Yeah, it was predictable all the way through, but I didn’t mind because they got the characters pretty well defined.

I LOVED Morena Baccarin’s character, for example. Having her work as an actual foil to Wade Wilson and countering him in fucked up childhoods as an icebreaker was dark and extremely funny, and I actually got the feeling that these two cared for each other a lot.

The sexy scenes with the two helped a lot, actually, since we got a taste of that primal emotion between them. Makes us feel for when they’re apart and miss each other.

Again, something you couldn’t do in a traditional PG-13 movie.

But yeah, the jokes were mostly references, which is awesome for us because we get them, but for the average Joe and Jane who come to watch the movie without any clue as to how it was made or what the studios did or how they work, the jokes would just fall flat.

Tarique: I absolutely agree with you on the part where Baccarin and Reynolds gel together on screen. She looks the part as better as she plays it. What I meant when I said that the lack of sequences or scenarios was a bit (really little though) disappointing was that it had exactly those sequences which were referenced in the trailers. Like from my personal point, I was expecting a little more. Maybe.

Luv: Oh, right, I actually agree with you on that. If someone like an Edgar Wright would have directed the movie, it would have plenty of inventive scenes and sequences, and the whole script would have been a pretty good metaphor for something like the underdogs rising up against big movie studios - oops, heartless villainous megacorporations.

I think the trailer spoiling the movie, though, was all Fox. The whole movie is a proof-of-concept, a way for them to test the waters, seeing if sharing superhero universes with a filthy R-rated movie would work, or even be accepted. I think they still view superhero movies as movies for kids, with a few adult jokes slipped in for the parents accompanying them.

But that advertising campaign was otherwise SO GOOD. Plenty of standalone clips with Deadpool being seductive and funny and so on. Maybe it reached some saturation point where we were getting kinda bored with the relentless promotions, but overall I think it really did work.

And you know what? Once I left the theatre I was pumped for a Deadpool 2. Fox has tested it and it works, now it’s time for them to give us something even more experimental and risky.

Tarique: Deadpool 2 will be taken into consideration now given that the movie is all set to be a major hit, rather a blockbuster if the ratings I saw online were anywhere true. The entire approach as to how it was made and marketed was what gave it a completely different kind of a feel. How many superhero (and not only superhero ones) movies do we see that starts off by making fun of the entire team working on the project? Ryan Reynolds literally made the role his.

Deadpool in the comics was always offensive, outright witty and extremely crazy-sort of a character and now we see a version that DOES NOT and thank God for that, deviate from the character sketch, design or persona in the big screen.

The inclusion of the X-Men at first made me feel that it would have a sort of a tie-in for the upcoming movies under Fox’s banner but nah, it wasn’t so. I'm not complaining though.

You know I still recall that scene which takes place in the earlier part on the highway where Pool is in the car, turned out and guns pointing at it, and he peeks out to say hi and the firing starts. Still makes me laugh.

Luv: What’s fun though, is hearing them say the word “mutant”. Ever since FOX copyrighted that word to use in movies, even the MCU itself has had to make do with Inhumans, ultimately removing much of the X-Men’s influence from comics as well as a petty form of retaliation - but that’s a topic for another article.

What Deadpool arcs would you like to see from the comics, Tarique?

T:I haven’t read much of Deadpool solo stories, to be honest. I remember one from Wolverine: Origins which i would love to see where Deadpool is hired to assassinate Logan and since both have healing abilities and cannot be killed conventionally, it leads to a blood-bath where, in the end, Wade is left with only his head lying on the floor, forcing him to regenerate his entire body.

What was the best scene from the movie that will stay with you, Luv?

Luv: That sounds awesome. MOVIE OVERLORDS PLEASE MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

And I think, for me, there were two best scenes. Firstly, you’ve got the opening credits, with “Some Rich Jerk” and “A Hot Chick” directed by “An Overpaid Tool” set to a still-motion sequence of a fight. Secondly, that post-credits sequence that references one of my favourite movies of all time.

What about you?

Tarique: For me, there is that scene which i had mentioned earlier. I still crack up with a giggle or two when I recall that and then those little quips uttered by Deadpool while taking on the bad guys, and the 127 Hours reference.

Luv: Well, let’s hope Deadpool 2 holds up and exceeds this movie. And how about, down the line, we get Dogpool as well?

Yes, it exists and IT'S AWESOME.

Tarique: That would be awesome if we do. Besides in the post credit scenes, Ryan Reynolds did in a way say that we will be getting Cable in part 2, if it is made. And that reference to Nick Fury was so snide in nature, given that Deadpool is most likely not to be part of the MCU anytime soon.

Luv: Haha yeah, but you never know. Spider-Man wasn’t likely once upon a time as well.

Tarique: We do hope so BUT Fox is known to be stubborn. Sony was able to come to terms with Marvel Studios. Fox would rather destroy Franchises than hand it over to Marvel Studios.

Luv: Let’s hope they don’t. And let’s pray for Dogpool.

Tarique: And before we sign off,

Chimifuckinchangas to you all!

Luv: Signing off, and if you readers haven’t see this movie already, go watch it!


Exit, pursued by an Oscar-winning bear