His Name Is Francis

As per usual, this review will contain spoilers.

We live in an age where the comic book movie is king. Many would argue that Marvel got the ball rolling in regards to the modern age of superhero films with 2008's Iron Man though as I've written about before I think it's fairer to say that they actually began the modern age ten years earlier with 1998's Blade. That said howevere had it not been for the success Bryan Singers X-Men in 2000 and the Sam Raimi smashing it with 2002 Spiderman then there may never have been an MCU so Marvel have alot to thank both Fox and Sony for in that respect.

Since the first X-Men movie there have been many, many superhero movies for comic book fans and casual cinema goers to salivate over and as I've written before there have been some exceptionally good, some OK and some that we could really have lived without (X-Men Last Stand, Spiderman 3, Iron Man 2+3, I'm looking at all of you). It has for the most part been a golden age for the superhero genre and the vast majority of the films that we have seen made have been based on Marvel properties. Well of course I say Marvel properties but as we all know that is not always the case after the big sell off of rights to certain characters that Marvel went through many years ago. Now I've covered the rights issue before so I don't think we need to cover old ground there, besides if you're a comic book lover then you know all about it and if you have never heard of the rights issue then I'm assuming you can happily live without worrying about who owns what.

There have of course been some DC movies but outside of Christopher Nolans Batman trilogy they have all quietky fallen by the wayside whilst Fox, Sony and Marvel/Disney have gone about their business of saturating the market with as many comic book movies as they can. This is a sutuation that DC and Warner Bros are looking to remedy as they play catch with the MCU by bringing us the DCEU (don't ask), a plan that began with Man of Steel (which for the record I really did not like) and will continue with this years Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad films which will lead onto at least two Justice League films as well as solo outings for the likes of Wonder Woman, The Flash and Aquaman. When you consider all the films that Marvel are currently working on to take us beyond 2020 and those that Fox are still putting together in respect of potential X-Men sequels the output of thee films certainly shows no sign of abating, though unfortunateky I think we may have seen the last of the Fantastic Four for some time.

So there has never been a better time to be a fan of superhero movies and even I the biggest cynic I know has stuff to get excited about although I still maintain that Affleck will make a terrible Batman and I have no desire to watch that film. No for me this year is all about X-Men Apocalypse which is the follow up to X-Men Days of Future Past which in my opinion, for whats thats worth, is the greatest superhero movie ever made, and that is high praise indeed considering I am at heart a DC fanboy and hold Tim Burtons Batman with a ridiculous amount of high regard. In all honsety as a DC guy I should be stoked to see the Dark Knight Returns make it onto the big screen but after Man of Steel and the casting of Affleck I just cannot find it in myself to raise any sort of anticipation for the forthcoming smackdown.

So as a DC guy, well primarily a Batman guy if I'm being honest which I know is a tad cliche, I like to think that I know my stuff in respect of the DC universe, no questions though please as I'm certainly not claiming to be an expert by any stretch of the imagination. With that said however I do have some Marvel knowledge which primarily surrounds the X-Men as I was a collector of the X-Men relaunch comic book from the 1990's. Outside of Professor X's mutant team however I just about get by with tidbits regarding Spiderman, The Hulk and a couple of other Marvel titles. With this in mind I will put my hands up and admit that I knew next to nothing about the character who's film this post is about and so with all the preamble aside let us discuss Deadpool.

As I have stated above I know little about Marvels merc with a mouth outside of the fact that he is a mutant with the ability to regenerate which makes him, not unlike Wolverine, pretty much indestrucible. I also know that again like Wolverine he went through the Weapon X Programme though on more of a voluntary basis than Logan. Then other thing that makes Deadpool stand out is the way in which he breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the reader as he is fully aware that he is a fictional comic book character. Now whilst there are others that do this nobody has made it a main selling point like Deadpool has and it has become one of his trademarks.

With all of this in mind I went into watching Deadpool with a fairly clean slate and no particular expectations as to what to expect. Actually thats not entirely true as I had seen the 'leaked' test footage froma couple of years back and having read just how much Ryan Reynolds wanted to bring Wade Wilson to the big screen and do him justice I was hoping that the movie would truly dowhat we had all been promised it would. It certainly looked promising from all of the marketing videos, tweets and so on that we had been inundated with over the past few months though I will admit that I gave the trailers a miss which is my usual tactic for films that I do not want to have spoiiled before viewing. It was also fair to say that whatever Deadpool we get in this new film it was certainly going to be a helluva lot better than the abomination that was Deadpool in the Wolverine Origins movie. The biggest sin there of course was the way that they sewed up his mouth, taking away the number one feature of Mr Wilson, hes not called the merc with a mouth for nothing.

On to the Deadpool film and right from the opening credits it is clear that not only are we going to get the film that we all expected but that this is most certainly like no other superhero movie we have ever seen before. Not unlike other films of the genre we begin with a continous shot moving in and around a freeze frame of the opening shot of the film though even this is most definately like none that has come before as the shot in question is of Deadpool viciously assaulting a group of heavily armed men as they fly through the air as the vehicles they are traveling in go spiralling through the air. Over the top oif this shot we are treated to credits such as Moody Teenager, British Villian, Gratutious Cameo and Produced by Asshats in place of the usual list of names of the actors who star in the film.

Once the credits are done and the film starts proper we get right into it with Wade Wilson in full of Deadpool mode as he takes a taxi to the middle of a highway where he takes a seat at the side of the road whilst waiting for the aforementioned British villian to arrive. This then leads us headlong into the driving/fight scene that we saw during the credits, the scene is also similar to the one that was created for the test footage that got everyone excited when it hit the internet. The level of violence and bad language here sets Deadpool apart from anything that has come with the comic book label before and allows you to sit back and relax with a warm glow knowing that the next hour and forty minutes are going to be awesome. Well either that or you are going to be deeply offended and leave in disgust, if you do not appreciate blood, guts and pottymouthed characters a plenty then this really is not the film for you.

Anyhoo, as Deapool would say, the plot of the film is that the British villian Ajax, whos real name is Francis (take note of this as it will become important later), is the man responsible for Deadpools current condition and therefore Deadpool has been trying to hunt him down to force him to turn him back to how he was. We find out more about Deadpools past by way of flashbacks that we cut to throughout the film. It turns out that he was a former special forces soldier who now does the dirty work of others for money, kind of like a modern Robin Hood if Robin swore, told dirty jokes and killed people. From there he meets a woman by the name of Vanessa who has the female version of him is his ideal match. Thsi leads to a years worth of sex between the two of them which will leave you looking at certain holidays in a different way, the less said about International Womans Day the better.

Things are going well until Wade is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Following an encounter with the Recruiter (aka Agent Smith) Wade signs up to a programme which he is led to believe will cure his cancer and turn him into a superhero. It soons becomes clear that the doctor in charge, which of course is Ajax, is actually just torturing his patients and he reveals that what he is actually doing is unlocking peoples dormant mutant gene and then creating super powered slaves for his own cause. Through conversation we discover that he has had all the nerve endings in his body removed so that he cant feel any pain, in fact this goes one step further as he feels no emotion either. Eventually Wades healing factor is uncovered but this comes at a cost as his skin becomes deformed, so deformed in fat that later in the movie his friend Weasel describes it as looking like 'Freddy Krueger face-fucked a topographical map of Utah'.

Wade eventually breaks free but is then left for dead by Ajax, who by this point is being referred to by his real name Francis by Wade who has discovered his real name via a dry cleaning label he stole from the doctor. There are then several scenes where Wade who has now become Deadpool works his way through Francis' network of men to try and make his way up to the boss in order to be returned to normal so that he can return to Vanessa who also believes he is dead. This of course leads us to the confrontation from the films opening where Deadpool takes out all of Francis' men before having Francis himself at his mercy before being interrupted by Colossus and fellow X-Man in training Negasonic Teenage Warhead which as Deadpool says 'Negasonic Teenage... what the shit? That's the coolest name ever'. We learn that Colossus has history with Deadpool and we also get to see the X Mansion and the Blackbird jet just to make sure we understand that Deadpool very much lives within the same world as the X-Men, both franchises of course being owned by Fox which means we may very well get a crossover at some point in the future.

Francis escapes and kidnaps Vanessa which leads to Deadpool, Colossus and Negasonic going into battle with Francis and his forces which in turn leads to the climatic battle between Deadpool and his arch nemesis. Colossus tries to talk Deadpool out of killing Francis but thankfully the film makers don't try to redeem the character and instead he blows Francis' brains out.

As is the norm with superhero movies in this day and age the viewer should stay in their seat as the end credits roll as there is a post credits scene which in this instance is a homage to Ferris Beullers Day Off and during which Deadpool informs us that not only will there be a sequel but that it will feature none other than Cable. Not unlike the post credit scene in Days of Future Past (which featured Apocalypse) the casual movie goer will likely have no clue who Cable is but believe me this is a big deal and should excite you for more Pool in the sequel, a film I am already eagerly awaiting.

Now breaking down the plot in the way I have makes it seem that Deadpool is not all that different to the superhero films that have come before and I will admit that the story of revenge against those that have done our hero wrong is fairly standard fare but trust me when I say that Deadpool is as far removed from the films of this genre that have come before as you can get, and its not all down to the bad language or the in your face violence.

There are so many things that make this film unique, there is of course the fourth wall breaking which we get on multiple occasions, in fact there is one fourth wall break within a fourth wall break which as we are told is sixteen walls. There is also multiple jokes made at the expense Hugh Jackman, Wolverine, Green Lantern, Ryan Reynolds and many other pop culture icons all of which are right on the money and just work. There are so many instances in this film that made me laugh that nothing I can say will do them justice as you really have to be there to find them funny.

It's not that often that you can sit through a film that leaves you with an enormous sense of wellbeing as you leave your seat and head for the exit but Deadpool is most certainly one of those films. It ticks every single box that its marketing promised it would and for me it is the truest movie to its source material that the superhero genre has seen. Yes we have seen some great Batmen and Christopher Reeve was about as close to the perfect Superman as you can get. Over in the world of Marvel Hugh Jackman has been a pretty damn fine Wolverine and Robert Downey Jr has made Iron Man his own but the issue is that all of these characters have decades of history and have changed several times and therefore there is always going to be fans who prefer a different variation on the character than that which is on the screen. Deadpool however was only created in 1991 and whilst this makes him 25 years old this year the extensive history is not there like it is with others. The character of Deadpool has also not changed to the extent that other superheroes have and therefore there are less versions of the character that the film has to take into account (I believe this is correct but as stated I am by no means a Deadpool expert).

As I have said before Days of Future Past is my favourite superhero movie of all time and when I reviewed it I gave it a score of 9.5 out of 10, knocking off a half point for its over reliance on Wolverine over other characters. So where does Deadpool sit in the grand scheme of my movie going life? Well I came out of the cinema wanting to see the film again and wanting to find out when it is released on bluray so that I can add it to my collection and thats surely the ultimate goal of any studio when they put a film together. Deadpool has jumped its way into my top ten films of all time and I will even go further by saying that I now have joint favourite comic book movies of all time as Deadpool just like Days of Future Past gets a very well deserved 9.5 out of 10. It doesn't get the full mark (no film I have reviewed ever has) because of the fact that I cannot share this film with my kids for the next 8 years. You see because of the content Deadpool has a rating of 15 here in the UK although I am at a loss of how the hell the BBFC came to that conclusion as in my opinion it is very much an 18 and I certainly wouldn't allow my kids to watch it before they get to that age but then maybe I'm just getting old.

In closing I cannot recommend this film enough as it really is that damn good. In fact despite it only being February I would go so far as to say that this is highly likely to be not only the best comic book film of the year but it may well be THE MOVIE of the year. Yes I realise that that is a huge claim to make but thats how much I enjoyed Deadpool. Now I realise that this review contains spoliers but not enough to ruin the film as nothing I can say can convey the jokes or anything of the other things that make this movie great so if you haven't seen it then go watch it as soon as you can. If you have already seen it then just go watch it again, afterall its better than waiting for Dawn of Justice.