On The Cultural Significance of Deadpool’s Opening Weekend

What can I say about Deadpool that isn’t already being said by 200 million satisfied customers worldwide this weekend?  This film has broken every record in the book and at a 58 million is going to be one of the most profitable films of all-time.  What does it say about the state of pop-culture that a character famous for lampooning the establishment of a once marginalized medium is now going to be more famous than ever for pulling the same trick in the world of film?  

Lord knows I do not care about preamble – and neither does he – so if you want to read a structured review then consult Google but they are all going to say some variance of the same thing: this movie works…so well because 20^th Century Fox (wait isn’t it 21^st Century Fox yet…I feel like it is but they are just slow-rolling it out over the next fifty years) did the unthinkable and let a bunch of passionate creative types as well as God’s Perfect Idiot take an anti-establishment, irreverent character they love from the world’s preeminent media company and showcase him in a way that is palatable for mainstream audiences that are 17 or have a fake ID without sacrificing the spirit of the character in the name of positioning it in the direction of this-or-that version of some asshat’s bureaucratic view on what makes a successful film.  

You know, the people that perpetrated such crimes against the global economy and collective conscious as: Green Lantern, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the last few Transformers, I assume last year’s Fantastic Four even though I don’t know anyone who reads comics that actually sat through it, 300 #2 or whatever it was called but it really sucked balls, X-Men 3: The Last Resort, Green Lantern and Batman V. Superman…hold that thought, let’s get back to Deadpool. This film works because Deadpool works, period.  It works because Ryan Reynolds, Tim Miller & co. bring the Merc-with-a-Mouth to life and he is allowed to speak to his audience which, judging by its record-breaking opening weekend, is pretty damn large and probably filled with a lot of people that have grown tired of the stagnancy of the Hollywood system and were ready to pay to see this movie, twice.

At Least!

Do I need to tell you the plot? No! Go watch it. It’s awesome. The superhero genre has been in sore need of a revisionist take and lord knows that Watchmen got lost in translation somewhere around the…everything…but this movie more than makes up for that overly-commercialized, pandering piece of garbage (minus one actor) and gives the genre a reminder that telling the same old super-hero story is not the only thing in it’s utility belt because if there is one thing that Deadpool stands for it’s gratuitous violence, inappropriate sexual humor, being what Alan Moore probably considers emotionally sub-normal having a voice.  The voice of Deadpool is the voice of the fan and the incredible success of this film proves that empowering that voice isn’t just an ideal to live up to…but it can make you over 200 million dollars in one weekend.