REBELS WITH A CAUSE
As I watched this latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU,) I imagined the five screenwriters meeting over beers and pizza and tossing out to each other every ridiculous idea that an alcoholic fog might induce.
Because the narrative is a jumble of jokes, self-reverential posturing, pornographic humor, R-rated dialogue (beware parents!), F-bombs, as well as digs at the parent company Disney and lamentations over the demise of 20th Century Fox, which originated the “Deadpool” franchise and got swallowed by the Mouse House a few years ago.
Let’s be honest here: there’s not much of a story.
It has a lot to do with a villain named Mr. Paradox, who summons Deadpool to his headquarters, where he’s in charge of multiverse maintenance. And already we’re in the territory rightly claimed by Meta-loving MCU fanboys. Matthew Macfadyen, of “Succession” fame, is a riot as an officious functionary with a haughty air that aims to cut Deadpool down to size.
He gives Deadpool a choice but the reality is that no matter which of the two scenarios he chooses, Deadpool’s a dead man. Except that anyone familiar with the franchise knows Deadpool can never die.
And that is my one beef with the movie. Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool is indestructible. As is Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. And that matters in a superhero movie in which there has to be a plausible plot device where the hero is, to some degree, vulnerable. After all, Superman has his Kryptonite.
Before the story is even minutes old, Deadpool faces off against an army of tech-savvy soldiers and every single one of the helmeted villains meets with a grisly fate. Buckets of blood are spilled, beheadings and stabbings unfold with deadly precision and Deadpool merely brushes himself off like he’s just attended a chaotic garden party. He more than lives up to his self-described moniker Marvel Jesus.
As an introduction to the mayhem to come, the scene is, frankly, jokey fun. But the carnage never really lets up.
This movie is a non-stop gore fest, interrupted occasionally with exposition that attempts to make sense of a thin entry in the Deadpool franchise.
There is fun in identifying a roster of actors who have brief cameos. And one in particular (I won’t mention who) made me wistful for the early days of Marvel movies. Back then, the multiverse hadn’t been fully explored and the stories were strong enough to stand on their own.
Now it seems storylines have to be the product of a feedback loop where even the villains look to be recycled. Emma Corrin, who portrayed a young and vulnerable Princess Diana in the BBC production “The Crown,” is slumming here as a bald and pale imitation of Tilda Swinton. Although she tosses off a tidbit where she claims she was visited by a traveling magician and tells the heroes “Of course I had to kill him.” Fans of the multiverse immediately know she’s referring to Dr. Strange. And then she produces a fiery teleportal that would make Strange proud.
It's hard to take any of this seriously. But in the end Reynolds offers a welcome vulnerability that, though it doesn’t redeem a convoluted and quite violent movie (the first MCU entry boasting an R rating), it still manages to tug at the heartstrings.