Deadpool review round up: 'The funniest Ryan Reynolds film since Van Wilder'

Reviews are positive about the humour, less so about the plot

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool (Fox)

After more than 10 years in development hell, Deadpool, a movie about one of Marvel's second-tier superheroes, will finally arrive in cinemas across the UK this week.

It's more like Kick-Ass than The Dark Knight, according to critics, with star Ryan Reynolds delivering on-point zingers about the now well-worn comic book movie genre.

Reviews are largely positive, though not exactly glowing. Everyone seems to agree that this is a funny movie, but perhaps a bit self-satisfied.

The Guardian calls it 'the funniest Ryan Reynolds movie since Van Wilder' while The Telegraph is more reserved, saying it would have been fresh had it come out in 2008. Industry trades Variety and The Hollywood Reporter also seemed to enjoy it.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian — 4/5

The meta the better. This seems to be the mission statement for this horribly violent, shriekingly self-aware and macabre Marvel super-antihero movie. The funniest Ryan Reynolds film since Van Wilder: Party Liaison, Deadpool is dripping in irony, zinging and stinging with pop-culture gags

Robbie Collin, The Telegraph — 3/5

The fourth-wall-smashing is fun in a Ferris Bueller kind of way, but it’s never pulled off with the devious panache of Blazing Saddles, let alone Funny Games or Hellzapoppin’. Since it's this stuff, rather than the ongoing thud-thud-thud of bad language and gore, that feels mould-breaking, it’s a pity Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick’s screenplay doesn’t have the courage to experiment a little more. This isn’t the future of superhero movies, but it’s an enjoyably obnoxious detour.

Justin Chang, Variety

As a vehicle for the impudent comic stylings of Ryan Reynolds, this cheerfully demented origin story is many, many cuts above Green Lantern, and as a sly demolition job on the superhero movie, it sure as hell beats Kick-Ass. It's fast, ferocious and inevitably a bit too pleased with its own cleverness.

Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

Beyond even what Robert Downey Jr. has done in the Iron Man series, Reynolds lets fly here in a manic, sly, self-conscious way that leaves you not quite knowing what hit you; the irreverence slides quickly into lewd comic territory, the inside jokes about Marvel in particular and pop culture in general come fast and furious, the fourth-wall breakage is disarming and the actor's occasional fey, high-pitched voicings add yet another strange element.

As in the presence of motor-mouthed comedians, you either sit there stone-faced or eventually capitulate to the cascade of weirdness and the fertility of wayward minds unleashed.

Hugh Armitage, Digital Spy

Deadpool is almost exactly what you'd expect it to be. Like the antihero at its bloody, boisterous core, it's loud, stupid and full of crude jokes, with wild lashings of cartoonish violence. All of this you'd expect from its trailers. ​

Susana Polo, Polygon

If nothing else, Deadpool is a breath of relatively fresh air. It's past time that cinematic audiences were shown that there's moral space in superhero universes between the Hero Who Saves the Day (Even If Reluctantly) and the sadistic, all-life-destroying villain. Those characters often reveal more about the nature of superheroism than their nobler counterparts. And they're often a lot of fun.

Chris Nashwaty, Entertainment Weekly

The jokes in Deadpool are delivered with such a sly, smart-aleck wink that it takes a while to figure out that it’s selling a jokey tone rather than actual jokes half the time. But it’s got the perfect salesman in Reynolds. Even with a face that’s been horrifically crispified into what his pal (Silicon Valley’s T.J. Miller) likens to the offspring of an avocado that had sex with an older avocado, Reynolds and his character are a blast of laughing gas in a genre that tends to take itself way too seriously. Deadpool may not be a cutting-edge comedy, but it is a cutting-edge Marvel movie. And right now, that’s something.