6 Reasons That Deadpool Is Better Than Any Marvel Movie

Deadpool may be a Marvel creation, but director Tim Miller and producer/star Ryan Reynolds' movie version is about as distant as a super-character can get from the usual Marvel Studios hero. Through 20th Century Fox - the studio having the cinematic rights to the character after introducing him in X-Men Origins - Deadpool has been allowed to become very much the anti-Marvel crusader. Free of any kind of the usual constraints reserved for superhero blockbusters, Miller and Reynolds' Deadpool movie has evidently been allowed to explore uncharted territory and become something more original. It is within the comic book movie sub-genre but is entirely its own beast, sometimes for worse, but more often for the better. Had the Deadpool movie come about under the Marvel Studios banner, it would unquestionably have been a very different movie, more in line with the conventional, PG-13-rated Captain Americas and Iron Mans. As it stands, however, the Deadpool movie from Fox stands apart as a singular picture, and here are six reasons why it beats any of Marvel's efforts. 6) The R-Rating Lifts Any Restrictions It's impossible to imagine a profane, sex-obsessed, puntastic killer like Reynolds' Deadpool ever getting a Deadpool movie like the one we got this month from Marvel Studios. The MCU has a character that calls people out whenever they curse; Deadpool, meanwhile, features a hardcore sex montage, scenes of prolonged torture and a 'hero' that drops F-bombs and teabags his enemies after he's killed them. An R-rating doesn't necessarily make a movie better, but with Tim Miller's Deadpool the removal of any usual PG-13 restrictions has allowed the character to flourish, and behave as he does on the page. The movie can do what it wants and does, basically, which is refreshing in a world where you sense MCU movies are at times having to hold back in order to remain family-friendly. 5) It's Funnier Than Any Of Marvel's Movies This isn't necessarily a criticism of Marvel, but Deadpool is funnier than any MCU movie. The MCU films, in particular Guardians of the Galaxy and Joss Whedon's two Avengers, are somewhat unique among comic book movies in that they possess a lightly humorous tone missing from most. It makes Kevin Feige's superhero universe on the whole more enjoyable as popcorn entertainment than, say, any Batman or Spider-Man film. Deadpool, unlike Marvel movies, is styled like a comedy (more specifically a romantic comedy) with superhero trappings, rather than the other way around, as for example Guardians is. Where Marvel movies drop jokes in now and again to lighten the mood, Deadpool throws gags at the audience relentlessly, much like a conventional comedy would. It gives Deadpool the edge over any Marvel movie in the humor stakes. 4) It's Refreshingly Radical If you know anything about the film's background, you know that 20th Century Fox never really had much faith in Deadpool. For years the studio wouldn't give a green light, then when it finally did, it handed a paltry (for a superhero movie) budget over to a first-time director and a C-list cast (Reynolds excepted). Then, to add insult to injury, Fox dropped the film in the February doldrums, way out of typical summer blockbuster season. What all this lack of giving a shit by Fox evidently meant was that Tim Miller, Reynolds and co. could go off and make the film they wanted. And so, the Deadpool movie we have is more intimate and character-driven than your usual superhero film (likely forced to be more 'intimate' with the low budget), while the fourth wall-breaking, real world-referencing and ironic use of pop music all seem like radical decisions. No Marvel film has ever felt this revolutionary. 3) The Film Isn't Tied Down By A Wider Universe In another case of Deadpool making an advantage of Fox having so little faith in the film, Deadpool isn't really connected to Fox's wider superhero universe. There are no references to the Fantastic Four, and Deadpool the character even ridicules the fact that no big-hitters from the X-Men universe appear in his movie (just a fresh version of Colossus and brand new character Negasonic Teenage Warhead, as Wade Wilson's sidekicks). This means Deadpool isn't tied down like the movies in the MCU, none of which - perhaps with the exception of Guardians - are ever really allowed to be self-contained stories. There are gratuitous cameos (Hawkeye bafflingly showing up in Thor), references and in-jokes that take you out of the movie (Cap in Thor 2), while some Marvel movies basically just act as cynical stepping stones to the next film. Deadpool is weighed down by none of this; probably because Fox didn't want to associate its other superheroes with Deadpool in case the film failed, but it works well all the same. 2) The Deadpool Character Is More Interesting Than Any MCU Character With no wider universe to distract away from the main character, Wade Wilson pretty much gets to have Deadpool to himself. If the character hadn't worked, the decision to keep Wade always front and center could have sunk the film; Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza's hyperactive, obscene creation, however, is too engrossing to be a failure, and in Ryan Reynolds the Deadpool movie has the perfect lead to play him. Even when he's at his most annoying, Deadpool is wildly entertaining. He's a joy to watch because he's so unhinged and uninhibited where Marvel heroes are always fundamentally nice guys out for the good of humanity. Deadpool is a real antihero, and not just another sulky or quote-unquote 'troubled' hero like Tony Stark or Bruce Banner. He's unpredictable, and he's as flawed and vulnerable as people would be in the situations he finds himself in. 1) It's Not All About Saving The World Every Marvel movie has something unique about it, whether it's the irreverent humor of Guardians or the retro stylings of Captain America. Just about all the Marvel movies also have something in common: the plot almost always revolves around saving the world, whether the threat comes from villains from the sky (The Avengers, Thor), the Earth (Iron Man 1-3, Ant-Man), or from the heroes themselves (Age of Ultron, Winter Soldier). Taken as a whole, the MCU is weaker, more predictable because of the insistence on always making the movies about saving all humanity. Deadpool is different - very different. In Deadpool, the hero's objective is simple: get the villain to fix his disfigured form so his fiance might consider getting back together with him. It's a plot that both ridicules the overblown Marvel norm and recognizes that superheroes can be at their most compelling when being, well, simply human.