For one thing, the PG-13 version (because of the new material and the trimmed offensive parts from the original film) sometimes feels like trying to pay attention to the film being derided on Mystery Science Theater 3000 or the music video that Beavis and Butt-head were skewering. To state what’s probably obvious, you have to have seen Deadpool 2 (and, in theory, the first Deadpool ) to really appreciate what’s being attempted here. You watch Once Upon a Deadpool aware of the parts that aren’t there.
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In fact, it might be the most meta film yet in a series that’s been pretty high on postmodern irony and self-referential jokes from the start. But it’s profoundly weird - and illuminating - to watch Deadpool 2 this way. It’s the same plot, the same thematic arc, the same ending.
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(For instance, Savage brings up Deadpool 2 ’s “fridging” controversy, turning Once Upon a Deadpool into a self-critique of the franchise itself.)įor the most part, the PG-13 version is the movie we saw back in May. The major new addition is a framing device that mocks a similar technique used in The Princess Bride : Here, Deadpool reads to an adult Fred Savage (who played the kid in that 1980s chestnut) the story of Deadpool 2, with the movie occasionally cutting back to them so Savage can ask questions or comment on what’s happening. No nudity, no sex, very little cursing, very little blood. It’s not a good movie on its own, but it does speak to what’s good about this franchise - even if it excises a lot of what makes them so fun.Īs you’ve probably heard, Once Upon a Deadpool is basically a recut version of Deadpool 2 without the stuff that gets movies an R rating. Like an acoustic version of a raucous electric rock song that reveals the depth and craft underneath the noise, Once Upon a Deadpool is practically Deadpool 2: Unplugged. But I was also reminded that these films aren’t, in fact, just a bunch of F-bombs strung together. Yeah, I missed the cursing and shocking graphic violence. Once Upon a Deadpool is here to answer that question - and, it turns out, the film vindicates both sides of the argument. This May’s Deadpool 2 was more of the same, successfully so, but it opened the series up to what might be called the Jerry Seinfeld Criticism: Sure, these movies are funny because Wilson and his buddies curse a lot, but what would happen if the producers had to clean up their act? Could Deadpool 2 work as a PG-13 film? In hindsight, the film’s success wasn’t surprising: Too easily, we can equate vulgarity with edginess, and after years of Marvel’s safe formula, it was nice to have Reynolds’ smart-ass Wade Wilson character call bullshit. Where most comic-book films are PG-13, Deadpool embraced its R rating, doling out copious amounts of blood and cursing. At a time when Marvel was asserting its box-office dominance thanks to a machine-precision assembly line of predictably entertaining product, 2016’s Deadpool was rude, irreverent and satirical. Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool movies have made a killing, in part because they subverted and mocked the conventions of the superhero film. If an audience is laughing only because he swore, he figured the joke wasn’t good enough. Jerry Seinfeld loves telling a story about how, early in his stand-up career, he decided he had to nix a punch line when the joke didn’t get a laugh without a curse word in it. Of course, swearing can also be a crutch. It lambastes decorum it punctures stuffiness. No matter how mature we get - or, maybe, in spite of it - a well-placed vulgarity can be liberatingly hilarious. Since the dawn of time, human beings have laughed - and for nearly as long, one of the easiest ways to get them to do so is to drop an F-bomb.