Movie review: ‘Deadpool’ worth the wait

“All of us have a little Deadpool inside of us and that’s what makes the movie great.”

Every Valentine’s Day, my boyfriend and I have a tradition of seeing a new movie at the movie theater. It may seem less romantic than other possible dates for the prestigious Valentine’s Day, but he and I are huge movie buffs so theaters are perfect for us. We held debate on whether to see the Coen Brothers’ new comedy flick Hail, Caesar! Or the highly anticipated Marvel superhero comedy Deadpool. After careful deliberation, we decided on Deadpool because we both hadn’t seen a superhero movie in quite some time and we needed to witness Ryan Reynolds’ comeback first hand.

Reynolds hadn’t been in a major studio film since the flop of his role as the DC superhero Green Lantern. The film only grossed $20 million outside of its $200 million budget and garnered terrible reviews from critics; 26 percent out of 100 on Rotten Tomatoes. Since then, we haven’t seen much of Reynolds, who had to sever his DC contract with Green Lantern in order to star as Deadpool for Marvel — which is one of the reasons it took Deadpool nearly 10 years to make.

It was well worth the wait, I’d say. The quirky, comical character Deadpool spent many minutes in the movie breaking the fourth wall, engaging with the audience, and making fun of the Green Lantern; making the movie a wild ride. Reynolds’ comedic side shined through the role making it the perfect fit for him. The film held many stereotypical superhero characters, damsel in distress, revenge and betrayal, which the movie points out during the opening credits. But, I think it’s important to look past the façade of the superhero film to appreciate Deadpool.

The best part, referencing back to Reynolds’ hiatus from big studio films, is that Deadpool dealt with the division between being a superhero and just holding super abilities. He frequently doubted himself and practiced morally wrong ways of doing good, but that’s why he’s so relatable. I mean, he even had cancer and had to deal with the mental bindings of that tragedy, which made him who he is. His face is scarred for the mutations forced on him and he deals with familiar insecurities within us all. When we look at characters like Superman and Batman, although the films are fantastic, it’s difficult to relate to those characters. Essentially, they resemble Gods saving the world. Deadpool isn’t good looking, he doesn’t have the superhero persona, and he curses every other word, but all of us have a little Deadpool inside of us and that’s what makes the movie great.

I’ll be excited to watch how this franchise takes off. This is a film I’d recommend, not only for superhero lovers, but for everyone.