'Ant-Man' already did what 'Deadpool' tries to do, and did it better

I finally got around to seeing the blockbuster superhero film Deadpool. And after all the hype, I can't say that I hated it but I wasn't all that impressed either.

When watching this slick, ultraviolent movie I kept thinking about a film I enjoyed much more -- Ant-Man -- even if it is decidedly less hip.

The more I reflect on Ant-Man, the popular though somewhat dismissed little-Marvel-film-that-could, the more I like it. The film was one of the few Marvel properties to not take itself too seriously, and instead delight in its own absurdity while taking subtle jabs at the very genre it's immersed in.

My take on these films is that they should always be light entertainment. Christopher Nolan pulled off quite the high-wire act by making three Batman films that were deadly serious and really resonated with real world events -- but they were outliers. Too many superhero films feign substance but wind up coming across even more like products because of it.

Of course, in our fanboy-driven, critic-proof age it doesn't matter how good a movie like Suicide Squad, Batman vs. Superman or even Deadpool is, as long as it looks cool, and more importantly, affects coolness in its trailers and promotional materials.

I, like most audiences, had never heard of Deadpool until the main character (played by Ryan Reynolds) started becoming ubiquitous in a series of ads that I felt were smug and obnoxious. Having finally seen the film some of my worst fears were confirmed.

The movie is so impressed with itself and so eager to earn its hard R rating that it ends up diminishing the elements of the movie that work. For instance, some of the action is quite great, at least prior to requisite third act punchfest that has bogged down so many superhero movies. But Reynolds' quips, some of which are funny, are so rapid-fire and smarmy that I found myself detached from everything I was viewing.

Paul Rudd in Ant-Man

Hollywood has been toiling for years to make Reynolds a bonafide movie star, and this is the film that finally helped him make the jump. But he is not the natural comedian that Paul Rudd is. Reynolds performance is the kind of thing that Chevy Chase used to do with ease in his heyday, but even he could occasionally project vulnerability. Reynolds has this off-putting ability to almost always seem self-satisfied, even when he is being tortured, and it makes for a tough slog.

Ant-Man, on the other hand, benefits immeasurably from the presence of Rudd, who can't help but to appear slightly embarrassed to be appearing in a superhero film in the first place. He has fun poking fun at the silliness of what he's being asked to do in a way that doesn't condescend to the audience or alienate them either.

Deadpool tries to have its cake and eat it too. It breaks the fourth wall with opening credits which call out its own cliches and inside jokes that will certainly have any comic book fan tittering. But for all of its gore and four-letter words (not to mention its paper-thin, teenage boy fantasy of a female lead), it didn't give me a single moment that felt extraordinary and went beyond the cliches -- like Iron Man's first flight or The Hulk's debut in The Avengers.

I wonder how well the movie would have played if it actually tried to be more conventional and told its story straight (instead of flashing back repeatedly to the character's origin story amid the action). In a way, I think Deadpool suffers from trying too hard to be edgy.

I know I am in the minority here on this movie; its reviews were strong and its fans are so devoted they even tried to lobby Saturday Night Live to let Ryan Reynolds host the show in character as Deadpool. There will inevitably be at least one sequel, maybe more, as all of these films can't shake their assembly line origins.

I still have hope for this genre. Doctor Strange at least looks interesting. And I thought Captain America: Civil War struck a really great balance between drama and pure old-fashioned summer movie fun. Still, I feel like the older I get the more the industry isn't interested in catering to people like me. The best I can hope for is an adaptation of a halfway decent best-selling book for adults (think Gone Girl) as a opposed to a terrible but popular one (Fifty Shades of Grey).