Deadpool (R)
20th Century Studios; IMDb; Marvel; Rotten Tomatoes; TV Tropes; Wikia; Wikipedia
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Caution: potential spoilers.

This came out in 2016, but I didn't see it until 2021. I'm not really familiar with Deadpool from comics or any other media. He did make an appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, though I don't remember that movie well enough to recall anything about that appearance. So this movie is pretty much my first experience with the character, and I have to say I like him. He makes it clear that he's not a hero, just a guy who fights worse guys than himself. He's definitely not the kind of guy who refrains from killing his enemies; he kills them a lot. But he's really badass about it, while simultaneously being really funny, both in things he says to other characters and things he says to the audience. Oh yeah, he does a lot of fourth wall-breaking, which is something I've always enjoyed. (It's no wonder he's known as the "merc with a mouth".) And I really liked the opening credits.

So, Deadpool's real name is Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds). The movie flashes back and forth between the present, when he's seeking revenge against a bad guy named Francis, and two years ago, when he fell in love with a woman named Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). A year later they get engaged, but then learn that Wade has cancer. Wade is later approached by a mysterious man who says his group can cure him. At first Wade declines the offer, which seems pretty shady, but later he accepts it. It turns out the "cure" is really just a lot of different kinds of torture designed to activate Wade's dormant mutant genes. The process is conducted by Francis (who calls himself Ajax). In the end, Wade is left permanently disfigured, but gains the ability to heal any medical problems he might ever have. When he tries to escape Francis's facility, he burns the place down, and is left for dead, buried under the rubble. Unbeknownst to Francis, he survives, and starts searching for Francis to get him to cure his disfigurement. Along the way, he makes a costume for himself, and starts calling himself Deadpool (for a somewhat amusing reason).

The only people he shares his secret identity with are his old friend, a bartender called Weasel; and an old blind woman named Al (with whom he lives). There's also a cab driver who appears a couple of times, named Dopinder (Karan Soni). Anyway, after Deadpool kills a bunch of bad guys while trying to get to Francis, he's stopped from killing Francis himself by a couple of X-Men, Colossus and his trainee, Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Later, Francis kidnaps Vanessa to draw out Deadpool, and Colossus and Warhead join Deadpool in rescuing her from Francis and his primary henchwoman, the super-strong Angel Dust.

And that's probably all I need to say about the plot. I've left out a lot of details, which are mostly a lot of fun. I can say I liked all the music in the movie. And I liked how badass both Angel Dust and Negasonic Teenage Warhead were. And I liked the post-credits scene a lot. (It parodies the post-credits scene from another movie, but I won't spoil which movie that is.) And I'm probably forgetting lots of stuff I wanted to say. So as usual, my review doesn't do the movie justice. But it's freaking awesome and hilarious... if you're into this kind of thing.