(Image credit: Business Insider)
There is a wicked sense of dark humour in Deadpool, which Ryan Reynolds portrays to perfection as an incredibly entertaining anti-hero. Even though he’s wearing a mask the entire time, we can almost see the spectrum of hilarious expressions cross his face throughout the film series. The latest big-budget action film from Netflix, 6 Underground stars the funny actor, but even he could not save this wreck of a movie. Nor can director, Michael Bay’s cinematic expertise keep you on the edge of your seats, as most of his action flicks do. In fact, I fell asleep watching it, and my dreams were more exciting.
First of all, the main characters’ names are numbers, which reminded me too much of Dauntless faction instructor, Tobias Eaton AKA Four (Divergent fans, anyone?). Six individuals are selected based on their individual skill sets. They erase their past and fake their deaths, and then set off to save Turgistan from a tyrannical ruler by attempting to switch him with his more agreeable brother.
The main protagonist, One (Reynolds), leads the group, and the rest of the characters/numbers are too bland for me to care or remember which one is which – except that parkour guy (Ben Hardy) jumping from one building to another and giving me an adrenaline rush, coupled with oh-God-he’s-going-to-fall paranoia. There is a scene where One answers that he is “no one” that just feels like a rip-off from iconic Game of Thrones’ Arya Stark, but whether he is One or he is not One is still a pun I’m yet to register…
Secondly, the film is supposedly a comedy, yet if I counted the times I laughed throughout the movie, they surely would not add up to six. I get it, the humorous tone aims to lighten the mood when scenes get too tense, but those particular moments were not as effortless as Reynold’s previous Deadpool glory days, and not worthy of my precious chuckles. The music is intentionally unfitting in a few scenes to cut the tension, but at other times, it still sounds too odd with what is happening on screen. I can’t help but wonder if the soundtrack team took a snooze midway as well.
I woke up the next day to finish the rest of the film, and honestly, the ending did not answer any of my questions. Why the numbers? Why would the characters continue with their charades, knowing their loved ones were grieving? How was One behind the Tesla cars? Why did I waste over two hours of my life watching this film? Little made sense anymore, and most certainly, this film made none.