By Elias Mena
Deadpool was most definitely a one of a kind movie experience. To date I have yet to see a film that features such a loud mouthed and wisecracking character that possesses so much wit that he can even break the fourth wall. Adapted from the Marvel Comics character, Wade Wilson AKA Deadpool is a foul-mouthed mercenary who becomes subject to some experiments enabling him indestructibility and regenerative powers. Coupled with his already lethal tactical combat skills along with his humor, and this film makes for an entertaining and unique cinematic experience.
Colors
In Deadpool, the titular character’s colors are red and black. This seems relatively normal for a superhero film, such where the world is also filled with vibrant colors as well. For this film, however, this is not the case. Deadpool’s red costume stands out immensely from the colors of his environment. His red costume and white eyes are easily the center of attention when he is on screen. His surroundings are usually smoggy looking and filled with a lot of dull whites, grays, and blacks. Even fellow mutants of the X-Men Teenage Warhead and Colossus’ colors look dull in comparison to Deadpool’s. This is likely to give the effect that Deadpool is a vibrant and colorful character in terms of personality. It gives the effect that he sticks out in the world like a sore thumb because of his unorthodox forms of combat and his flamboyant personality.
Dialogue
Deadpool’s dialogue is different from your standard hero in any well-known action film. When the villains in the film have Deadpool dead to rights and spew threats at him, Deadpool opts to instead ridicule and patronize them instead of defiantly proclaiming he’ll break free. For example, when the film’s villain Francis (AKA Ajax) menacingly threatens Deadpool with torture, Deadpool fools the audience by looking scared only to tell Ajax that he has something stuck in his teeth. This is something that the film excels at doing in order to turn Deadpool into a brave and heroic character albeit in an unorthodox manner. His most unique form of dialogue occurs when he directly speaks to the audience. For example in an early scene in the film, while deadpool is singing along to the background music playing in the film (Fourth wall breaking), He looks up to the camera and tells the audience that he loves the song. This is something that can’t be done in most movies but because of the nature of the character, helps to give the audience a greater sense of engagement to the film.
Composition and Cinematography
In the film as I mentioned before, Deadpool frequently breaks the fourth wall. At one point he finds an action figure of Deadpool from X-men origins Wolverine and comments how horrible a portrayal that was of himself. He even makes fun of Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern, the actor who Deadpool is played by. There is another point in the film where Deadpool confronts some goons. He looks behind himself straight into the audience and says ”This is gonna get ugly” and then he grabs the camera and pans it away from the shot. You are left with random onlookers watching what is going on and the sound of grunts and struggle as Deadpool fights the goons. Once done, He grabs the camera again and then he places it back to the shot. From there you can see that he has killed the goons and the struggle was won by him. This is fantastic and unique in that it truly gives off the feeling that Deadpool is telling us his story from his own perspective and that this isn’t a movie but more of a day in the life kind of composition. Deadpool also narrates and interjects certain points of the film before time before telling the viewer to wait for when it’s time to explain about the scene he just gave a preview to. The camera angle also opt for placements to be realistic. For example if Deadpool is sitting on a ledge, the camera won’t be suspended in the air but on the ledge with him capturing the shot of him from the side. On the other hand, if the camera is in mid air, Deadpool acts as though he is talking to either himself or the audience, almost as if we are in a bubble. The composition of the story has a us believe that Deadpool is a hero and definitely not a villain, however given the way he is treated by the heroes and villains tells us something else. Deadpool can be considered to be more of an anti hero because of how he targets the villains in a non heroic way.
Characters
The way Deadpool acts as a character is flamboyant, funny, and pretty cool in terms of the action scenes. He even often skips and sings along when on his way to kill. Despite this, he is reckless and is uninterested in the well being of others save for a few people he cares about. The villains regard him as a pest and the heroes regard him as a menace to society that possesses the potential to be a competent crime fighter. Ajax will stop at nothing to dispose of Deadpool as he is the thorn on his side for the whole plot of the movie. Colossus, on the other hand, keeps trying to reason with Deadpool and is always trying to recruit him to the X-Men. Teenage Warhead considers him to be a loser and is off-put by him mostly due to her age, which is a stereotype in the movie. Deadpool’s development shown as he becomes vengeful, besides that he doesn’t change much from before he was altered to after he became a mutant. This is evident when he has Ajax and is about to shoot him, Colossus intervenes and tries to prevent it but Deadpool does it anyway causing Colossus to throw up. Ajax is a stereotypical villain. He rubs things in Deadpool’s face and constantly trying to thwart him. He is sophisticated but is also very cut throat. This is evidenced when he takes Deadpool’s wife Vanessa and attempts to do to her what he did to Deadpool, making him a mutant. Ajax like Deadpool is a mutant, what makes him special is his inability to feel any pain. Colossus is a very noble Russian member of the X-Men. He doesn’t believe in killing his foes but rather subduing them and turning them into justice. This is seen when he faces off against Angel Dust, who he is initially against even fighting because she is a woman but she is able to take him down due to her super strength. After underestimating her, he agrees to face her but somewhat holds back. Weasel is one of the best characters besides Deadpool himself because of his humor. Weasel often teases Deadpool and doesn’t hold back when talking about things that can potentially offend Deadpool (such as his deformed features). Weasel is the perfect sidekick, the human best friend who will always have his buddy’s back no matter what the circumstances may be. He is even credited with naming Wade’s alter ego, Deadpool.
Sound & Effects
The sound in Deadpool is a hugely important aspect of the film. Not only is the actual soundtrack unique and fitting for Deadpool’s character (Old school mixed genre music), But Deadpool’s constant talking and animated behavior call for it constantly. You can tell that CGI is a huge factor in this film as well, with his mask moving along with his face as well. Colossus is made almost entirely of CGI and is rendered on the screen fully powered up (a giant metallic man). Special effects are what complete this movie and when combined with sound make it a full package in terms of entertainment. Every time you can see Deadpool fire off one of his bullets with his little face insignia on it in slow motion you can appreciate the dramatic nature of the combat. But then it becomes dark once you hear it pierce through someone and then the body thud on the floor. The best part and icing on the cake of it all is when Deadpool comes by and make light of the situation, while possibly even acknowledging the audience. In a sense, the combination of Reynold’s acting the sound and the effects, it helps the viewer become sort of desensitized to what is occurring and sort of just lightly take in what just happened on screen.
Conclusion
Deadpool as a film is one of the most ambitious I have ever seen. It tells the story of a man with a vengeance that behaves like a 10-year-old child. The film blends together great acting, unique story telling, and cinematography, and some of the best sound I’ve heard recently in an action or comedy movie. What separates Deadpool from the rest of the films is the consistency of the character and the gimmick of the movie. The film was released on valentine’s day weekend and the poster for it features Deadpool making a heart sign with his hands. He also “kills” Mario Lopez who is interviewing Ryan Reynolds in a movie trailer. This was the studio’s way of announcing that unlike other Marvel movies, this particular one would be rated R. The film as a whole in terms of narrative comes across as all over the place and that I feel was something done completely intentional by the creators to be able to stay true to the character of Deadpool. He will often hop from one event to another and then back to the first original event again in order to be able to explain something specific that was done or said. This is the same as when a child is telling you a story and skips something important only to have to go back to it. As a whole experience, I feel that Deadpool was an enjoyable movie that was further bolstered by some good production. The plot was good and didn’t leave anything unanswered, yet you were left wanting more because of the personality and wisecracking persona that is Deadpool. Even the ending credits were enjoyable to watch because they were made up of Deadpool’s demented child-like doodles. I feel that there was definitely a risk to be taken because of the budget likely needed to be able to create this film as well as the unorthodox direction of production and composition this movie needed to take, but it all turned out to be a risk well worth taking when everything was all said and done on the day of the grand premiere.
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