As I was sitting on the tube heading to the Flickering Myth Studios to record the podcast review, I was mulling over just how average and forgettable Deadpool was. I was then struck by some of the early reviews that I’d seen on Twitter. Reviews that echoed the Internet’s early outcries for the film being “what we’ve been waiting for” and the comic book movie that would “shake things up”. Some went as so far as to say it was a wake-up call for all comic book movies, as if Deadpool had done something new and unique with the subgenre. I’ve since seen comments from our own readers who have said that Hollywood should stop making PG-13 comic book movies because R-rated is the only avenue for successful adaptations. There has even been a resurgence on an article Tom Roach wrote titled ‘Why Deadpool is Doomed to Fail’ – written shortly after the test footage leaked – with Deadpool fans proudly telling him that he was wrong. People are going nuts for this film.
However, I can’t help but wonder why the film is getting so much praise? What is it about Deadpool that people seem to think is so brilliant? What am I not seeing? What am I not getting?
So I read the reviews. I read a lot of them, in fact. And all of them, more or less, praised the same issues. They talked about how he breaks the fourth wall, how Reynolds makes jokes about his previous movies and about pop culture in general, how unashamedly violent the movie is, and just how unflinching it is in a world of ‘play-it-safe’ PG-13 efforts. Even those who criticised its lack of plot and poor character development gave it good reviews. Bizarrely, there were some critics who said that the movie wasn’t as funny or as clever as it thinks it is, and yet gave it a great review. That surely makes no sense? Critics praised how the film wasn’t willing to bow down to conventional standards, and that set it apart from other comic book movies.
But here’s what I keep coming back to – didn’t Kick-Ass already do this?
Released in 2010, Kick-Ass was directed by Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Kingsman: The Secret Service) and was based off a comic book written by Mark Millar, the man behind Marvel’s Civil War and the aforementioned Kingsman. The film centered around a young boy named Dave who decides to emulate the heroes he reads in comic books by dressing up as a superhero to fight local crime. Before he knows it, Dave is tangled up in a battle against an evil business tycoon and is teaming up with an established vigilante, Big Daddy, and his daughter/side-kick-in-training Hit-Girl. Kick-Ass was relentless in its violence, liberal with its foul langue and heavy with homages to comic book tropes and subtle jibes at previous comic book adaptations. It was brilliant, hilarious and beautifully shocking. It never took an easy road out, and always surprised its audience. It also caused controversy in the right-wing media by having an eleven-year old dropping the dreaded C-bomb, as well as killing several grown men (although they seemed more upset over the language, proving that South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut will always be relevant). In short, it did everything Deadpool has done – only it did it better, it did it six years ago, and it had actual jokes.
Deadpool doesn’t set itself apart from Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Man of Steel or any other comic book movie made post-Iron Man the same way Kick-Ass did. The action is the same, the origin story is the same, the look is the same, the style is the same, the humour is the same. The plot is paper thin, the villain is weak and there is little in the way of character development. Everything is the same as every other comic book movie apart from the fact he says ‘shit’ a couple of hundred times and often breaks the fourth wall. Aside from surface cosmetics, nothing makes Deadpool unique from its contemporaries, while Kick-Ass felt fresh and new in a year that also saw Iron Man 2 and Jonah Hex released. Even if it had been released the following year, Kick-Ass would have felt like something different when compared to Thor, Green Lantern and Captain America: The First Avenger. Six years on and Kick-Ass has stood the test of time, even if its mediocre sequel failed to replicate its success. If we revisit this article in 2022, I doubt we’ll be talking about Deadpool the same way we talk about Kick-Ass.
You can’t argue Deadpool‘s success, however, and I wouldn’t dream of doing so. It exceeded all expectations with a global weekend total of $260 million. Yeah you read that right, $260 million. That’s insane. It’s made more in one weekend than Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four did it in its entire run, and it cost Fox half the price to make. It broke the February opening record (beating Fifty Shades of Grey), it’s the biggest R-rated release of all-time (beating The Matrix: Reloaded), it’s the biggest R-rated comic book opening of all-time (beating 300), it’s the biggest opening weekend for Ryan Reynolds (ironically beating X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and 20th Century Fox (previously held by Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith), and it’s the biggest opening weekend for a first-time director in Tim Miller (the previous being Chris Miller with Shrek the Third). At the time of writing, it has a CinemaScore of ‘A’ and a respectable 82% on Rotten Tomatoes, which means the film could last on word-of-mouth going into its second weekend and become only the third movie since 2008 to drop less than 50% having opened to more than £120 million domestically (the other two were Jurassic World and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, fyi). I had initially predicted a global total of $350 million worldwide, possibly pushing to $400 million. Looks like I was very, very wrong.
But looking outside of the glitz and glamour of a stellar opening weekend, I still feel that Deadpool has been over-praised, over-hyped and over-rated. Going back to the critic’s reaction to the film, how can so many well-respected critics sit there and commend a flawed movie – while admitting its flawed – but praise it for being different and original when it clearly isn’t?
It brings to mind the perception of Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot. While remakes/reboots/re-imaginings of Point Break, Lethal Weapon, RoboCop, Dirty Dancing, An American Werewolf in London, Escape From New York, Scarface, Jumanji, Poltergeist, Vacation, and many more are slammed for being ‘lazy’, Feig’s Ghostbusters is being put up on a pedestal of its own and praised for being fresh and original when everything from the marketing and set photos suggests otherwise. Why is that? What sets Ghostbusters aside from all the other ‘pop-’em-out-and-make-a-quick-buck’ reboots? The director has even admitted that he’s rebooting the franchise because he couldn’t think of an original idea. Deadpool appears to be getting the same treatment as Ghostbusters, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why.
Deadpool is nothing special, and it shouldn’t be treated as such. It’s not a game-changer, but it’s also not the worst comic book movie ever made. I’m not saying Deadpool is bad, I’m just saying it’s overrated, to the point of being ridiculously overrated. Had the fans said that this is exactly what they wanted from a Deadpool movie, that would be one thing, but some people are treating this like the second-coming of the Comic Book Boom Period. To paraphrase a line from Robbie Collin’s review, Deadpool isn’t the future of superhero movies, it’s just an obnoxious detour.
Luke Owen
