If you don’t know by now that I’m a Deadpool fangirl, you’ve obviously not been reading this blog or listening to Geek Watch One. But anyway, we all know Deadpool opened this past weekend and, of course, I was there Thursday night to see it. (I’ve already seen it a second time too.) So it was a pretty obvious choice to make this week’s blog a review of the movie… a spoiler-filled, geekgasm heavy review. So if you haven’t yet seen the film and don’t want to know all the details, here’s my one sentence, spoiler-free review: This is everything a fan could want in a Deadpool movie – the characters are done right, there is violence and mayhem galore, and it’s absolutely hilarious. Now that that’s done, stop reading because the rest of this post is full of spoilers!

Deadpool fans (especially those of us who’ve been there since he first showed up in the 90s), have been waiting a long time for this movie, a movie that does our favorite character justice. And this really is that movie. From the opening credits ( that don’t give any names but instead describe those involved like “Hot Chick”, “Gratuitous Cameo” and, my favorite “The Real Heroes Here” for the writers) to the post-end credits Ferris Bueller scenes, this movie delivers the humor that readers of the comics have come to love. Of course, we also get the massive amounts of fighting and stabbing and shooting and killing that we expect too. But the movie also has a heart, which those who are mere tumblr fans of the character probably didn’t know was true to the Merc.

Now they did change his origin story a little bit, but it works for the movie. Especially since, for the moment, it’s not expected that Deadpool will become part of the larger mutant-verse (though joining the X-Men is a bit of a theme throughout the film). So even though he is an ex-military mercenary for hire, there’s no Weapon X program involved here. Instead it’s a private organization creating super slaves, run by some folks who already have mutant abilities thanks to the “workshop”. (And btw, I think Gina Carano does a great job kicking some ass as Angel Dust.)

The other part of the origin story they kept was Wade Wilson battling cancer. I think these segments in the movie really get the audience to empathize with Wade and Vanessa. It’s part of the unexpected heart that comes through for the character of Deadpool – you realize that he suffered physically and emotionally when dealing with the news of having late-stage cancer and deciding how to handle it, not wanting his girlfriend to suffer with him. Then, of course, when he’s told about the potential for a cure the audience already knows it won’t go as planned (this portion is a flashback after all), but we’re right there with him as he realizes he’ll never be the same.

They did the right thing by bringing in some lesser known and completely unknown supporting characters here. You couldn’t have a Deadpool movie without Weasel and Blind Al (and who would have thought the iconic Leslie Uggams would show up in an R-rated comic book movie?). And even though Colossus is a pretty well-known X-Men character, you don’t hear much about him so he was a good supporting character who didn’t take away from the main thread. And even though they changed her powers, including a relatively unknown mutant like Negasonic Teenage Warhead was cool for building a name and allowing for some good “moody teen” jokes.

Speaking of jokes, this is by far the funniest superhero movie ever (intentionally funny, anyway). The jokes come so fast at times that more than one viewing is needed to catch them all. Some are sarcastic, some are raunchy, some are juvenile, but just about all the jokes and one liners hit. And there are quite a few that are inside jokes for geeks who know the comics, comic book movies and even the actors involved.

By the end of the movie, you realize that something Deadpool said near the beginning is true – this is a love story. Ultimately, it’s boy meets girl, boy leaves girl when diagnosed with cancer, boy is cured of cancer but becomes a regenerating mutant, bad guy abducts girl, boy kills bad guy and saves girl, boy and girl are reunited (can’t say “live happily ever after” just yet) and boy returns in a sequel. Yes, even if you haven’t been reading the latest Deadpool news, the post-credits scene reveals a sequel is on the way… and it will have Cable (squee!!!!!).

So to recap, Deadpool is a funny, bloody, raunchy, action packed love story that everyone should see (except for your maiden aunt who can’t even watch crime dramas on network tv because they’re too violent and who thinks ach-ee-double hockey sticks is a curse word). It’s already cracked $300 million worldwide, giving it the biggest R-rated opening weekend of all time and putting it in the top 20 biggest openings in history. Not bad for a Canadian boy.