With an ever-abundant stream of superhero movies coming endlessly out of Hollywood, at times superhero movies can seem formulaic; take a regular Joe with an unfortunate upbringing, add controversy, some extraordinary abilities, an adversary and a lust-inducing lover and boom! You’ve got yourself a multi-million dollar-grossing film, complete with a new line of toys and a terrible movie-based video game to boot.

Boy am I glad “Deadpool” isn’t a superhero movie.

While you may have heard from your friends that it is a superhero movie, as Ryan Reynolds’ omni-sarcastic, vulgar, crude crimson crusader tells us, it’ is not. Deadpool himself breaks the fourth wall to tell us that it’s a love story, and while it isn’t necessarily that either, “Deadpool” falls somewhere between romantic-comedy, superhero action film and a Seth Rogen/James Franco collaboration.

Reynold’s portrayal of Deadpool, also known as Wade Wilson, also known as Mr. Pool, is spot on and utterly hilarious. Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein and Brianna Hildebrand are all completely adequate in their roles, but Reynolds steals the show.

The entire film is dedicated to the following of one specific mission for Deadpool: find the man who gave him his powers in order to have him reverse the horrific side-effects to his appearance. With well-placed flashbacks showing us how Wade Wilson became Deadpool, the writers do a fantastic job of building a captivating narrative without sacrificing a single second of the film’s satire. This all builds to a singular extremely tense moment which is made all the better by the fact that this is not a superhero movie, and you can’t assume there will be a happy ending.

All in all, “Deadpool” is a unique, captivating superhero movie . The comedic genius of the writers and the aptitude with which Reynolds delivers his character’s sass mesh beautifully to create an hour and forty eight minutes of brilliance.

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: PHOTO CREDIT: TABERCIL/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS