Deadpool

Here's the thing. I was entertained; let's get that out of the way. I laughed. Stunts and action were well choreographed and easy to follow. The casting is fun. I enjoyed it, and I'm interested to see part 2. Now let's talk about its problems, because BOYYYYYYYYYYY, it has problems, and in the case of Deadpool, it's WAY more interesting to talk about those. Problem #1: The cult of Deadpool. Certain superheroes transcend having a fanbase. They have a cult behind them. Batman. The X-Men. The Punisher. Though he's not a hero, Joker. Say anything less than verbal fellatio about these characters, and you will be met with a psychotic cult of fans who make it their life's mission to either get you to retract your blasphemous statement, or rue the day you said it. Political debates don't get as heated. And for an outsider, that can be a turn-off. This cult thinks so highly of Deadpool, treats him like such a transformative, innovative property, that it raises the expectations of the movie to anyone not familiar with it. I stayed away from this movie for four years because Deadpool fanatics WOULD. NOT. SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP. about it. I don't wanna be like that if I end up liking the damned thing. And considering how much of a deity these fans treat him, I don't know that I'll ever like it as much. And that leads into problem #2. I'm sorry, Deadpool fans, but it's time you faced the facts. This movie has all the originality of the seventh Ramones album. There is NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, original about this movie whatsoever. "Oh, but the humor! It's so edgy!" What are you, fourteen? Saying "fuck" and "dick" a lot does NOT make something edgy. Vulgarity =/= edgy. Did your sense of humor stop evolving after South Park? Yeah, there's some funny moments to be found, but acting like this pushes the boundaries is insulting to humor that DOES. You know what edgy humor is? Humor that PROVOKES HERETICAL THOUGHT. Humor that forces you out of your comfort zone and into facing uncomfortable truths. Saying "son of a fuck" and seeing Morena Baccarin peg Ryan Reynolds is not edgy. It's just dumb. "He breaks the fourth wall! It's so different!" Breaking the fourth wall is a concept as old as movies themselves. It gets its name from stage plays, where the fourth wall is the invisible one that we, the audience, can see through, and the actors have to pretend exists. Deadpool referencing the fact he's a movie, or characters from other movies, Ryan Reynolds himself, is nothing new. Animaniacs and Garfield constantly broke the fourth wall. The final episode of Moonlighting was a fourth-wall-breaking mindfuck. Hell, the movie acknowledges it with the post-credits gag aping Ferris Bueller. Wayne's World, Monty Python's Meaning Of Life AND Holy Grail, Blazing Saddles, Gremlins 2 ... the list goes on and on. The plot is unoriginal (wow, a revenge story? AND a girlfriend gets kidnapped?), the Russian that has broken English, the climactic fight in an industrial or abandoned area, the wise-cracking sidekick, the use of in media res ... there is not an original element in this movie, period. Now, is that, by itself, a bad thing? No! Woody Allen made a career making the same damned movie 50 times. Other than changing singers, AC/DC's made the same album 20 times. The phrase "Die Hard on a _____" exists for a reason. Being unoriginal is not a sin. If it was, I'd have a hard time justifying my love of slashers. What is a sin is how these two flaws come together. The Cult of Deadpool insists that it IS original, that there is nothing like this to be found anywhere in the annals of fiction. I'm sorry, but that is objectively wrong, in every possible sense. This is a fun movie. It's a good movie. But it's not an ORIGINAL movie. As long as you go into this movie expecting fun and only that, you'll be fine. But the moment you buy into the Cult of Deadpool's hype, you're gonna find yourself disappointed that isn't anything more.