#1 Introduction
Let's get one thing straight: we absolutely loved Deadpool. After failed turns playing Hannibal King (Blade: Trinity), the Green Lantern, and, incredibly, Deadpool, we're just glad to see Ryan Reynolds find his footing and play the role he was meant to play: the real Deadpool, not that fake one from X-Men Origins. Reynolds' affinity for hilarity is completely on-point throughout the film and is the biggest reason you should watch it. Everyone else around Wade Wilson is kind of stale, but that's okay considering how much Reynolds' comedy brings to the table. Even still, Wade Wilson openly bashes cliche superhero origin filmsbut Deadpool is kind of one itself. Let's put the Chimichangas and crayons down and look at some of the funny things about Deadpool that didn't leave us laughing. Spoilers ahead
#2 The trailers killed its best jokes
Almost every modern comedy gets its best jokes spoiled by its trailers, and Deadpool is no exception. We were hoping that since it's more action-y and a superhero flick that the studio would've saved some of its best gags for the actual movie. Unfortunately, we saw most of them before the movie hit theaters. If you watched the red band trailers for Deadpool, then you've already seen most of its best jokes. Likewise, the 2014 visual effects test footage that leaked online (that featured Reynolds' voice) spoiled a lot of the movie's opening action scene. Even the elaborate uses of DMX's "X Gon' Give It To Ya" and Juice Newton's "Angel of the Morning" were undermined by how prevalent they were in the trailers and test footage.
#3 Ajax is already a lousy comic villain, but even worse on screen
Major props to Fox for actually using the relatively unknown Deadpool baddie Ajax, but casting him as the cliche British-bad-guy-with-a-shaved-head was a bit underwhelming. Even Deadpool makes fun of him for it. All laughs aside, his character is kinda lame, right? It's legitimately surprising that Ajax's powers and relation to Deadpool matched their depiction in the comics. That doesn't necessarily mean Ajax would translate to film all that well. And we all knew he'd never be able to kill Deadpool on his own. Ajax's superpower is that he couldn't feel anything. Appropriately, that's exactly how we felt about him, too.
#4 Its serious parts fall flat
As much as we enjoyed Deadpool, it could've axed a good 15 minutes or so of its more serious scenes. We get that Vanessa legitimately loves him and all that gushy stuff, but we could've skipped a few of their segments together, especially once Wade's diagnosis was revealed. Along with the parts in the experimental lab, we just felt like these serious scenes were where the movie dragged a bit. Because of the Tarantino-esque shuffling of the plot, these parts happen early in Wilson's chronology, but a little before the movie's halfway mark. Just a couple more zingers or something like that could've helped Deadpool's weakest scenes, which ironically were meant to be some of its strongest. The whole evil villain underground lab and head-over-heels love being strained by someone getting a terminal disease both stood out as too cliche in a movie where Deadpool gets intimate with a unicorn.
#5 Being a one-trick pony makes a sequel tough to craft
Where does Deadpool go moving forward and into a sequel? The shuffled flashbacks help disguise its see-through plot. So how do you continue to build on it? Deadpool's inner dialogue and gimmick rely on a lot of him saying "you've never seen a superhero movie like this" and the tried-and-true "I'm no hero" lines uttered by a reluctant do-gooder. Now that we have seen that, and we got the idea that he is his own brand of superhero, it's not really clear how they'd do a second movie. The post-credits scene teases Cable, but Deadpool's buddy from the future has a lore that is so heavy that he could get his own solo X-Men movie. Who knows how the filmmakers could possibly write Nathan Summers into Deadpool's life without axing or skipping a lot of his backstory? There are plenty of routes you could take with Cable, Taskmaster, X-Force, Domino, and the like, so we're still hoping for the best. At the same time, it's kind of like moving forward from The Dark Knight, where it's impossible to out-do the previous accomplishment and a brand new direction might be needed.
#6 The pop culture references won't live forever
Wade Wilson is easily the most hilarious superhero ever to hit the silver screen. On the other hand, while Iron Man's snide sarcasm will probably hold up for decades to come, Deadpool's dialogue might not. There are simply too many timely pop culture references throughout Reynolds' jokes in order for everyone to laugh at every intended beat years in the future. Thankfully, a lot of people are already starting to forget about Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, so the horrific references to Mama June's rotund grossness won't resonate with everyone (we provided said-grossness in the provided picture just to jog your memoryand that's probably the first time "Mama June" and "jog" were ever used in the same sentence). Nevertheless, there will be a point in time where all the references to the Shake Weight, Adventure Time, Sinead O'Connor, Spin Doctors, Ring Pop, and Hello Kitty won't resonate with Deadpool's viewers.
#7 Too many flashbacks to hide the cliche origin story
Throughout Deadpool, Wade Wilson makes fun of other superhero origin films. If you think about it, how Deadpool gets his superpowers is as formulaic as the rest. Captain America is put into a giant capsule where he goes through immense pain in order to come out with incredible powers. The movie even has a similar notion to Wolverine, where he finally breaks free of being turned into a science experiment/living weapon and ends up wrecking the place. Of course, the girl he loves becomes a target of the bad guys to be used as a bargaining chip for the final showdown. Despite trashing the godawful X-Men Origins: Wolverine film, Deadpool does share a lot of similarities to it. We love you, Wade, but you're not as original as you thought, no matter how funny you are. Deathstroke can attest to that.
