As we all know, Marvel’s Merc With A Mouth, Deadpool, will finally be arriving on big screens everywhere with his own film. But, if you remember, or have done like everyone else and tried to block it out of your memory, this will not be the first time Wade Wilson has appeared in a big budget feature film. Let us take a jaunt back to 2009, and take a look at a film which really did more damage than good.
Ever since the first X-Men film landed in 2000, there was always talk of doing a solo Wolverine film. Of course, an argument can be made that all of the X-Men films have basically been Wolverine films. But it had been done very successfully in the comics, starting with the Chris Claremont/Frank Miller run in 1982. With all of that back catalogue that the filmmakers had to go through, where did they go wrong? They had the most essential piece of the puzzle in place with Hugh Jackman. And Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed/Sabertooth was a fantastic choice, although the look was a little off to me. Ryan Renolds taking on the role of Wade Wilson was absolutely brilliant. The creator of Deadpool, Rob Liefeld, once said on an episode of Collider Heroes that the reason we have a Deadpool movie now starring Ryan Renolds is because he was able to capture the audience in the first 30 minutes of this film. We’ll get to what happened to him soon, though.
While some of the casting was good, one of the main problems with this movie was the fact that there were just too many characters. Honestly, does anyone even remember that Dominic Monaghan played Chris Bradley? If you don’t, its okay. Not many people do. What about Will I. Am as John Wraith? Kevin Durand as Blob? I could go on and on. Taylor Kitsch taking on the role of fan favorite Remy LaBeau, a.k.a Gambit, was okay. But not enough was done with him, and now we have Channing Tatum to look forward to in the role. It’s almost like the producers didn’t learn from the mistakes made by previous movies like “Batman & Robin” or “Spider-Man 3”. Too many characters with no clear direction to be taken in will create a muddled mess. And what the hell was the deal with Jackman’s CGI claws? Sheesh!
But, of course, the biggest travesty to take place in this movie was the treatment of Deadpool. It boggles my mind how the producers came to the conclusion that Marvel’s resident wisecracker would be best suited for his first feature film outing by having his FREGGIN’ MOUTH SOWED SHUT!!! In that same episode of Collider Heroes, Liefeld told a story of how the producers basically told him that Gambit was the big selling point of the movie, not Deadpool. I seriously suggest you all check out that episode, its really great. Anyway, the mouth sowed shut was incredibly stupid. But also basically turning him into a weird, Baraka-type creature from Mortal Kombat fame, with the swords coming out of his arms. And having him shoot optic blasts. Ugh.
Ya know, rewatching this movie has really given me more appreciation for the X-Men movies that followed. It also make me truly appreciate Ryan Renolds for the way he always stuck with the Deadpool character. He was always the one leading the army of fans clamoring for a Deadpool feature film where they would actually do the character the way he was meant to be. And knowing that his dream was achieved and the Deadpool movie is now an actuality makes me that much more grateful that the Green Lantern movie was a steaming pile of dogs**t. But that’s a review for another time…
