We have, of course, met Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool before — scrapping with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, retractable swords melded into his arms and, in a leftfield creative decision, his mouth sewn shut. The “Merc With A Mouth” reduced to simply the merc, his reason for being taken from him, the character rendered impotent.
This Deadpool is different( and more like the comics) — talkative, quick-witted( if knob gags can be classed as wit) and with a fondness for breaking the fourth wall. The film’s set in the same universe as theX-Men franchise, but has an anarchic spirit that sticks a middle finger up to Bryan Singer’s oh-so-serious sensibilities. And smirks to itself as it does so.
The film starts with Wade Wilson already having chosen his super-name, in costume and midway through a scrap on a freeway. That’s interspersed with flashbacks showing him pre-disfiguring mutation, falling in love, being diagnosed with terminal cancer, through to being tortured by Ed Skrein’s main antagonist Ajax( named after the cleaning product) . It’s a smart structure, one that neatly sidesteps the major issue with origin stories: the suited-up main attraction being absent for the first hour.