My Favorite Scene: Deadpool (2016) “Deadpool vs. Colossus”

RED BAND CLIP WARNING (NSFW)

Deadpool was a wildly successful surprise in 2016 because it gleefully embraced the character and gave comic book fans and movie fans in general a hysterically inventive impish bag of just plain wrong. Deadpool’s hyper violence and super embrace of its R-Rating isn’t an indication that all super hero films need to be R-Rated, but Deadpool is an R-Rated character and one that Ryan Reynolds gets to a disturbing degree. After seeing the character maligned in the regrettable X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Reynolds made it a personal crusade to get an unplugged Deadpool onscreen and was rewarded with huge box office and a Golden Globe nomination.

Deadpool doesn’t work because it’s hyper violent and contains possibly the most amazingly inventive bag of swearing I’ve ever beheld (and I-no joke-used to live on the docks). It works because THAT is who Deadpool is, and Reynolds manages to still make the sociopathic fourth-wall-breaking mutant relatable, sympathetic, and somehow endearing despite the mayhem he leaves in his wake. Picking a favorite example of that is tough, but I love the contrast between Colossus, occupying the opposite end of the moral spectrum in the X-Universe, and Wade. Watching Deadpool literally pulverize himself while trying to beat up Colossus may be the hardest I laughed in a film that consistently entertains start to finish. Deadpool 2 has a tough act to follow.

Trailer Time: Deadpool Trailer #1 (2016) *….ok so this is happening*

I have very little in the way of explanation that can take Deadpool and introduce him to people who have never heard of him.  Ok, let’s try….  He’s a mutant.  He’s a ….well, he heals very well, kills very well, thinks he’s a character in a comic book, is insane in a way that makes the Joker look rational and he’s very, very talky.  Which is ironic, because FOX used Reynolds as Deadpool in X-Men: Origins Wolverine and sewed his mouth shut and used him as a zombie villain.

Since then Reynolds had Green Lantern bomb on him (which I do not hold him responsible for), and then seemingly had a kind of psychotic break.  He decided he was going to make a Deadpool film for the hardcore comic Deadpool fans (of which I am not one….Deadpool is something for tiny doses).  He launched a one-man campaign, often in costume, to get the weirdest, truest version of Wade Wilson on-screen and it looks like he just may have succeeded.  Make no mistake, this is the tamest, most G-rated trailer I think they could possibly make for this film and there’s a red band trailer on the Deadpool film website if you want a better idea of what this film is going to be like.  I’ll tell you this, though, I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything remotely like what is going to come out on February 16. 2016.