Cinema Dispatch: Trailer Talk (Deadpool)

Oh look!  It’s Ryan Reynold’s Hail Mary to bring his career back from the brink of obscurity!  The guy has had it rough the past couple of years, what with his big years (2010-2012) being mostly filled with disappointments and him just kind of slumming it since then in crap like RIPD and Self/Less.  Will this turn out to be the film he needs to revitalize his career, or do we have another Green Lantern level disaster on our hands!?  I have no idea, but let’s take a look at the trailer!!

The trailer starts by giving us some backstory on Wade Wilson who is a guy dying of SEVERAL cancers and is given an offer that will save his life.  Wait.  A Ryan Reynolds movie where the main character goes through some strange experiment to save his life but there are dire consequences for doing so!?  Am I watching Self/Less again!?

After seeing Wade get treated for cancer (which involves punches and swirlies) the rest of the trailer mostly consists of Deadpool kicking ass and Wade (out of costume) making… okay jokes.  It’s very cool stuff with Deadpool having a very fantastic costume (the white eyes are perfect) and the action being well shot and in tune with his extreme character.  Also, if you saw the test footage they released a while ago then you may recognize the car scene they use to introduce Deadpool once he’s in the costume.

All of this though is completely without context and we don’t get any real story after Wade gets his powers, but what they do in these disparate scenes is REALLY cool.  The action beats with Deadpool and the one-liners he spouts inspire a lot of confidence that the film makers get the material it’s working from unlike the LAST time they decided to make Ryan Reynolds Deadpool.  Oh, speaking of terrible Ryan Reynolds films (this would be the third one I’ve mentioned by now), they take some jabs at Green Lantern which I’m SURE will make it in the movie, right!?  Yeah, no.  I’m taking bets.  That line about the terrible costume in that movie?  Not in the movie.  Besides, I don’t recall you bitching about it at the time.  Weren’t you the guy who said if given another chance, you’d do everything the same way in regards to that film?

The second half, while completely devoid of any indication what the story might be, does give us some more tantalizing details about what’s going to be in the movie, what with Colossus showing up to kick his ass and this one lady who I’m sure is significant but have no idea who she is.

While all that stuff does indeed make it a fantastic trailer, it still doesn’t ease my concerns about making a movie ALL about this dude.  I get that this first trailer is pretty much a proof of concept (like the test footage was) but there’s little indication what this movie will be outside of these scenes.  Do we establish an antagonist?  Do we know why Wade went from a jokey guy to the straight up psychotic he becomes with the suit on?  What will this movie be about in between scenes of Ryan Reynolds saying witty quips?  Look at a trailer like Spectre.  In the same amount of time, they were able to establish Bond’s strained relationship with MI6, the identity and significance of the evil organization he’s after, at least one character who will prove to be vital to the story (the woman who knows about Spectre), and it even gives us a glimpse at the new villain this time around.  Here?  We get that Wade wants to live for his girlfriend and is willing to do anything to do so… and that Deadpool is a badass psycho.  Once again, all this is GREAT to watch, but this is feels more in common with a Funny or Die parody than anything else.

The movie is also riding a VERY fine line and could easily make this one of the most obnoxious super hero movies of all time if the filmmakers aren’t careful.  What we are seeing in the trailer is mostly encouraging, but just look at something like Duke Nukem Forever or even Pixels to see what this movie could become.  When you’re comedy is THIS self-assured or your main character is THIS cocky, it really needs to back it up or else it will fail to get any laughs AND will piss off your audience.  If Deadpool comes off as even slightly obnoxious in this, then the movie’s going to be a total slog to get through and that’s a HUGE thing to worry about with a property this risky.  Okay, only KIND of risky, seeing that it’s a superhero movie and even the worst of those tend to at least break even nowadays.

If this trailer’s job was to get me to watch a YouTube video over and over again, then it definitely did its job.  If it wanted to sell me on the movie, well it’s going to have to do something else, and future trailers will probably fill in the gaps.  Other than that, the only thing that didn’t hit for me is the two scenes of Ryan Reynolds and T.J. Miller talking about how ugly he is.  We got it the first time and it was mildly amusing, but why do it twice!?  It also makes me wonder how much of this movie is going to be Deadpool IN the suit as opposed to Wade Wilson fucking around with his friends.  You know, like that OTHER super hero movie with Ryan Reynolds as the lead character!

I hope Deadpool is a fantastic film and a lot about this trailer is reassuring in terms of tone and execution.  The story though is a completely other matter than can derail this movie in a big way and turn this into a disaster.  Even if that does happen though, at least we’ll still have this REALLY cool trailer to look back on and think what might have been.  Also tacos.