Deadpool Is The (Anti)Hero We’ve Been Waiting For
The red band Deadpool trailer was released this week to a cacophonous explosion of fan love. It’s every bit as foul-mouthed and fun as long-time fans could have hoped for, and more than makes up for the limp noodle of disappointment that was Wolverine‘s Deadpool.
It might seem contradictory for me to be so excited about this, as I’ve become increasingly bored of the “super GRITTY blah blah blah isn’t afraid to GO THERE blah blah blah so EDGY” trend that has been threatening to suck every last ounce of humor and fun out of the entertainment industry. But with Deadpool, the whole point is that his character really should be edgy and, well, go there. Wherever ‘there’ is.
Deadpool looks like it’s going to be an unabashed joy ride of profanity, violence, and depravity. It’s going to be amazing in large part because the filmmakers aren’t doing that under some horribly misguided attempt at “gritty realism.” This movie evokes Paul Verhoeven’s* works in many ways. It acknowledges that violence and sex are there specifically to titillate the audience, and in doing so ironically respects the viewers more than films that titillate while claiming to be more mature and evolved than older comic and fantasy works. It’s a very refreshing attitude after hearing so many creators in recent years whine that their dark and masochistic snooze fests are just “realistic” rather an attempt to garner enough notoriety to boost sales.
And in a time when both comic book and movie studios have been trying to push for “darker” and “brooding” incarnations of famously optimistic paragons of morality like Captain America and Superman, I hope Deadpool will remind a few executives that these creations shine brightest when they play to the strengths that drew fans to them in the first place. Perhaps if they sit in a dark theater and imagine what Deadpool would have been like if they’d made him a PG-friendly shadow of his true self, they’ll realize it’s just as wasteful to cram Superman-types into Deadpool-shaped molds.
But enough about that. Let’s get to the wicked headshots and fabulous stripper booty. And maybe take a moment to appreciate that this comment was actually typed out and posted by the official 20th Century Fox YouTube channel:
(Please be advised the following trailer is not safe for work/school and features profanity, brief nudity, and violence):
*I totally almost spelled Paul Verhoeven’s name right on the first try. Almost.
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