Sunday, July 12, 2015

Deadpool Trailer Thoughts

Since I've established on this blog that I'm a big fan of "Deadpool" (though I've fallen way behind on his comics, something I eventually intend to remedy) I thought I'd throw out my thoughts on the new leaked trailer for "Deadpool" from SDCC.

First off, I won't link to the trailer because Fox is taking it down every few hours and they haven't put it up officially yet, probably because if they did, it would have to be a red band trailer (too much cursing). Shouldn't be too hard to find. Your Google Fu is strong.

The first big takeaway I get from this is that it's very heavily influenced by the Joe Kelly run of "Deadpool", which is my personal favorite take on the character. The inclusion of Blind Al (who I don't THINK was in the original leaked screenplay from a few years back, but it's hard for me to remember) makes me giddy. Blind Al is one of my favorite Deadpool supporting characters. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

As I mention above, a rough screenplay for this movie leaked about 5 or 6 years ago. I found a copy and read it (I've tried to find it again since, but to my surprise, it appears to have been effectively expunged from the Internet, a very rare feat indeed) and I loved it. It was written by the "Zombieland" guys and it wasn't perfect, but it had the potential to be a way better Deadpool movie than I thought Fox was capable of producing. And so I was pretty convinced that it was never going to happen. I knew it would have to be R-rated, which is the kiss of death for a lot of comic book movies, and while I thought that Deadpool would be appealing enough to pull it off, I knew it would be next to impossible to convince Fox executives of that. I knew that a movie with this screenplay was too good to be true.

And yet, here we are. An actual trailer, and judging from it, it bears a very striking resemblance to what I remember from the screenplay I read. Specifically that Colossus is in it as a supporting character and a few jokes and action scenes I remember were shown in this trailer. I mean, I knew when they announced it that the "Zombieland" guys were still the ones credited for the screenplay, but so much time had passed that I was worried they were forced to rewrite it into submission. Luckily that doesn't seem to be the case. And we got a joke teaser a few months back stating emphatically that this movie was going to be R-rated.

This is really happening guys.

Ryan Reynolds is (as everyone suspected all along) a great fit for the role. At least judging from this alone. After over a decade of hoping and praying that he'd get to do this role (the right way), he finally got his wish. Whether or not this movie turns out to be good, you can't deny that this is exactly the Deadpool Reynolds has always wanted to play.

OK, so Negasonic Teenage Warhead. She was not in the screenplay I read (I don't think) and her presence here is... odd. Is she there as an X-Man backing up Colossus? If so... I don't know, I feel like this was a missed opportunity to bring in Siryn, especially since they already established her dad existing in "X-Men: First Class" (though I guess he was apparently killed according to "X-Men: Days of Future Past", so I suppose that puts a damper on things). Ah well, if they're going from the screenplay I read, they would probably focus on Copycat being the sole love interest for Deadpool, which is fine. I hope they change the ending I read, though. Copycat doesn't have nearly enough agency in that draft. I guess we'll see.

Also, Morena Baccarin as Copycat is totally OK in my book. We barely see her in the trailer, but I'm always happy to see her get work.

Oh, and Weasel is fantastic. The "topographical map of Utah" joke was one of the funniest things I've heard in a while.

Alright, now for the stuff that I don't like so much.

The "red shirt/brown pants" joke is old as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore. Even the people of Westeros have heard that joke a million times and they haven't invented indoor plumbing yet.

It's hard to tell from the bootleg, but I don't think Wade's face is ugly enough. Like I said, this a tough call from the view we get, but I don't think they went far enough.

I'm sad that this is made by Fox because that means we'll never get Bob of HYDRA in a hypothetical sequel (unless they come up with a HYDRA knockoff).

I don't know how I feel about the music used. I feel like a soundtrack more similar in tone to "Guardians of the Galaxy" would suit it better, but this is a nit-pick at best.

Aside from that... I really can't wait to see this. I never thought this would actually happen, but here we are.