One-up on action

Ervell E. Menezes

‘Deadpool’, the eight installment of the ‘X-Men’ series, is replete with witty dialogues, action and suspense. The focal point of the film is Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), a mercenary who spends time in New York City protecting teenage girls from would-be stalkers. Here he meets female escort, the pretty Vanessa Carlyle (Morena Baccarin) and falls in love.

Then one night he suddenly collapses and is diagnosed with multiple-organ cancer. Wade then reluctantly agrees to undergo an experiment to cure him. It involves being injected with a special serum by Francis Freeman/Ajax (Ed Skrein), but results in badly disfiguring his face. With the advice of his best friend Wiesal (TJ Miller), he becomes a masked vigilante named Deadpool, who is armed and dangerous. Now, Freeman/Ajax becomes the villain of the piece.

So much for the story, but director Tim Miller adeptly shuttles between the witty screenplay by Paul Wernick as well as Rhett Reese and doses of action to keep the attention-span going. Lines like ‘what’s a nice place like you doing in a girl like you’ or more emotional like ‘the worst part of cancer is not what happens to you, but to the people you love’. 

The doses of action are a tad overdone (catering to action-Jackson fans), but in the midst of all the action is a good cameo by cabbie Dopinder (Karan Soni), whose diction is the clearest in the film.

There’s not much by way of acting with Ryan Reynolds under disguise most of the time. Morena Baccarin is not only cute, but also has emoting powers. Ed Skren and TJ Miller merely make their presence in this classy offering, even if form overshadows content.