megasmartdani

We sure enjoyed the superhero movies in the last years, didn't we. A look at the box office gives sufficient evidence for this thesis. However, as much as I and everybody else loved these movies there's always been something missing. By "something" I mean violence, sex and a psychopath who tends to break the 4th wall.

Yes, we had Frank Miller adaptations namely 300, and Sin City but these trends never seemed to set foot in mainstream superhero movies. Batman, Superman, even Iron Man all of them had some kind of asexuality to them. Furthermore the lack of blood somewhat made it hard to believe the action. I witnessed scenes, in which whole buildings collapsed and cities have been destroyed, yet you couldn't see one civilian get harmed, what BS. I am certain, that, if there would have been buildings collapsing in Deadpool with some random civilians in it and debris flying around, the writers wouldn't have been afraid to break with the cliché of people not getting harmed in this kind of situation.

Where does this conclusion come from, you want to know? It's because the writers weren't afraid to break or ridicule any other superhero cliché either! This is what made Deadpool such fun, along with the over-the-top violence, nudity, and the hilarious comments of course. On a side note: being immortal Deadpool's persona also had more credibility to himself, than let's say Captain America, if you let both fight against 20 guys with MPs, Captain America would have to dodge every single shot, abilities, which he does not possess and which make you wonder how bad the aim of the bad guys has to be, that he can survive such stuff. Whereas you actually can see Deadpool getting hit, but you know, it doesn't matter anyway because he just regenerates, he cut of his own hand, and he was glad about it. Why? Because in the aftermath he considered it would be nice for the purpose of masturbation (and yes that's the reason for the spoiler warning in this review). Anyhow, this universe really does make sense. Also on the plus side: Vanessa, Wade's girlfriend is played by the wonderful Morena Baccarin, who has been reduced to the role of the girl with the crazy eyes in How I Met Your Mother to his point, hopefully this is a game changer for her as well.

This sure isn't a movie for sophisticated movie goers, also, if you don't have any clue about nowadays pop-culture, if you aren't entrusted with Marvel movies in general and if you aren't a fan of obscenity (like there was a scene (another Spoiler) of Wade getting a strap on up his butt), don't watch it. Also don't watch it if you aren't 18 yet.

Unfortunately the movie had some downsides to it as well, the plot wasn't that great, the enemy was kind of lame, most of the characters somewhat felt flat (Looking at you cab driver, Wade's friend, the enemy sidekick, Megasonic-something and all of the bad guys) also people all around Deadpool were somewhat too cool with the things happening to them, and not everyone of Deadpool's comments was as funny as it was meant to be, then again, being annoying kind of is part of his character as well.

In conclusion I sure hope other studios took notes, whilst watching this movie and may the second installment be at least as good as this one.

Looks like the Internet already found a winner for the upcoming Academy Awards when it comes to the category "Best Actor". Stories of how Leonardo actually slept in a carcass and ate bison liver in order to prepare for the role made its round. I think it is certainly most honorable to prepare that obsessively for a role, but that's not what constitutes a great actor - not alone at least, otherwise we could have given Bear Grylls some Emmys already, what actually does not seem like a bad idea either, but back to the Revenant. In the end DiCaprio's portrait of what Glass might have been like is quite intense and gritty, but to me it also seems over the top at times. I didn't really believe any of his relations with the Indians, the Character somewhat falls flat. And that's the next problem this movie is facing. It seems like Iñárritu wanted to mix his story of a man overcoming the odds in the face of death all too bad with a political statement of how bad the white people were and how good and noble the Indians were. To me the characters are all portrayed too black and white, with only little shades of grey in between. Every Indian is good, white men mostly bad. From what history taught us about these days, this holds up to the truth to a certain degree, but still it does not really fit into the story. The movie would have worked perfectly well without Glass having an Indian wife and a son. All this dream sequences and flashbacks about him moaning his dead relatives, were nearby ridiculous at times. Yet one has to remark, that the Indians had some badass moments, that helped to carry the film. As well as the cinematography did. Oh boy, it certainly looks like Lubezki is about to get his third Oscar in a row for this one. The way he captured the landscape and follows the battle scene, this really gets you into the movie. As the credits rolled I was glad, that I watched it in the cinema, mostly because of the stunning visuals, the story itself is a great vengeance story as well, driven by a great cast (cheers to Tom Hardy who seems to be in the prime of his life) but I somewhat feel like it could have been a masterpiece, if only Iñárritu wouldn't have gone too far making it really kitschig and too much of a cliché at times. Still, good movie, recommend watching it in the cinema.

This is the first time ever I am writing a review on the IMDb, I just feel the need to do so because it seems like the movie does not get the attention it deserves, especially on a international level, but in Germany as well. But holy ... moly (boo you IMDb and your censorship) would it deserve that attention. The concept of using a one shot technique really works with this film. Pretty soon you become sure, that you are a part of the group and witness the events first hand, thus it is one of the most intensive movie going experiences you can have, I am saying this, as somebody who has seen "Gone Girl", "Rush", "Birdman" all these great intense blockbusters, but this movie really takes it to the next level. There have been quite a lot reports of movie goers who had to leave the cinema and I thought this had been due to the shaky cam, but the cam is actually led quite sturdy. The movie just drags you into the action, that some of it is hard to witness (even though there is no over the top violence or nudity scenes) It has been called the best German movie since "Run Lola Run" and as a matter of fact it is, even better, it does not even need any Nazi or DDR references, all it needs is a solid script with (especially in the getting-to-know-each-other-scenes between Sonne and Victoria) funny dialogue, a really great cast (most notably Frederick Lau and Laia Costa), a great subtle soundtrack and a very capable director who could pull this cinematic masterpiece of. It is very unfortunate, that there was no possibility of nominating it for the Oscars because 80- 90% of the conversations are held in English (English with a strong Berlin or Spanish accent, but still English). Yet the movie has all the potential to become a classic.

10/10, both thumbs up