Deadpool – the Reddit of movies?

Critics have been predicting comic book movie fatigue ever since Marvel’s The Avengers back in 2012, yet audiences are turning out in droves to increasingly stale comic based blockbusters.

Many had hoped that Deadpool, the eighth installment in the X-Men series and the directorial debut of Tim Miller, would provide something radically new. The source material from which it could have borrowed is vast and diverse, but writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have instead delivered a formulaic origin story and a forgettable villain. Whilst it might begin mid-action, it spends far too much time in flashbacks to the protagonist's past: Wade Wilson, a mercenary for hire, unlocks mutant powers in an attempt to cure his terminal cancer and becomes Deadpool. The film follows his attempts to hunt down the man who disfigured and tortured him in an experimental weapons programme.

Ryan Reynolds, who plays the titular antihero, gives a performance that perfectly captures Deadpool’s wacky sensibilities. The ensemble cast, however are mixed: as Weasel, Wilson’s best friend, T. J. Miller plays the same character he plays in HBO’s Silicon Valley; Morena Baccarin provides much needed romance as Vanessa, and her relationship with Wilson, although accelerated (through a sequence of interesting sex scenes), is surprisingly believable for a comic book film. Two lesser-known X-Men make welcome appearances in the film: Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), providing counter-balance to Deadpool’s crude humour.

Comics readers will know that Wade Wilson can be a complex and interesting character; unfortunately, Deadpool offers none of this. Unnecessarily obscene, always dark, and never clever, the self-aware comedy and repeated breaking of the fourth wall are an attempt to appeal to the worst kind of demographic. Full of obscure references and awful jokes about topics ranging from genitals to murder, Deadpool is nothing more than the Reddit of movies.