Deadpool appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Overall, the image satisfied.
The majority of the time, sharpness worked well. A couple of interiros could be a smidgen soft, but those remained in the minority, so most of the flick offered positive delineation. No signs of jaggies or moiré effects occurred, and edge haloes failed to mar the presentation. Print flaws stayed absent.
Though the palette favored blues and greens, it eschewed the oppressive teals that dominate so many modern movies. The hues seemed fine within the stylistic choices. Blacks were deep and dense, while shadows looked smooth and clear. I expected a good presentation and got it.
In addition, the movie’s DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack added spark to the proceedings. As anticipated, the soundscape opened up best when it indulged in its many fight sequences. These used the various channels in a vivid, immersive manner that placed the elements in logical spots and meshed together well. The track gave us a strong sense of place and action.
Audio quality also pleased. Speech remained natural and distinctive, while music was full and rich. Effects came across as accurate and dynamic, with tight low-end. I liked this mix quite a lot.
A bunch of extras arrive here, and we begin with two separate audio commentaries. The first comes from director Tim Miller and co-creator Rob Liefeld, both of whom sit together for a running, screen-specific look at the opening credits, story/character areas, cast and performances, costume and visual design, stunts and action, effects, music, and sets and locations.
Miller does the heavy lifting here, as Liefeld offers little other than gushing praise for the movie. Actually, Miller's remarks can veer toward the fluffy side at times, but he manages to give us a reasonable amount of filmmaking information. While we learn some good movie-related information here, the commentary becomes a moderate disappointment due to the too-high level of happy talk.
For the second commentary, we hear from actor Ryan Reynolds and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. All three sit together for their own running, screen-specific discussion of the film’s long, slow development, the opening credits, story/character/screenplay subjects, the Deadpool costume, cast and performances, sets and locations, stunts and action.
During the early moments, I feared that this commentary would be a dud, as the participants seem slow to warm to the format. However, it gains speed before too long and better digs into the production. It’s still inconsistent but the discussion usually offers a fairly satisfying examination of different topics.
10 Deleted/Extended Scenes fill a total of 19 minutes, 14 seconds. Only one of these counts as major: “Cancer World Tour”, which shows Wade/Vanessa’s attempts to cure his disease and an alternate way for him to leave her. I prefer the finished film’s stab at this, but “Tour” offers in interesting alternate take.
The other sequences tend to be less significant. They do little to expand characters or story, as they mainly give us more jokes/violence. That makes them fun but there’s little I’d say would’ve suited the final film.
We can view the “Scenes” with or without commentary from Miller. As expected, he gives us background for the segments and lets us know why he cut them. Miller delivers good notes about the excised sequences.
Up next comes a Gag Reel. It lasts six minutes, 12 seconds and provides some of the usual goofs and giggles, but it also packs a bunch of alternate lines. That factor makes it above average.
Under From Comics to Screen… to Screen. we get a collection of five featurettes. All together, they run one hour, 20 minutes and include notes from Reynolds, Liefeld, Miller, Wernick, Reese, executive producers Aditya Sood and Stan Lee, co-creator/comics writer Fabian Nicieza, producer Simon Kinberg, comics writer Joe Kelly, specialty costume designer Russell Shinkle, makeup designer Bill Corso, production designer Sean Haworth, director of photography Ken Seng, executive producer/unit production manager John J. Kelly, previs supervisor Franck Balson, stunt coordinator Philip J. Silvera, visual effects supervisors Pauline Duvall and Jonathan Rothbart, visual effects producer Annemarie Griggs, 2nd unit director/stunt coordinator Robert Alonzo, special effects coordinator Alex Burdett, utility stunts Regis Harrington, composer Tom Holkenberg, and actors Morena Baccarin, TJ Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, Leslie Uggams, Ed Skrein, and Gina Carano.
“Screen” examines the source and its path to the movies, story/character areas, cast and performances, Miller’s test reel and how he got the job. We also hear about costumes and makeup, sets, locations and production design, stunts and action, effects, and music.
Like many pieces of this sort, “Screen” starts off a little slowly, but it gets better as it progresses. The program shifts from generalities and praise to dig into the nuts and bolts of the production. These moments offer nice insights.
A Gallery breaks into five subdomains. We see “Concept Art” (22 images), “Costumes” (19), “Storyboards” (645), “Pre-Vis” (7:08 of footage) and “Stunt-Vis – Shipyard” (2:03). All of these offer good material, though the interface can be clunky for the stills – especially in “Concept Art” and “Costumes”, where we go through brief collections and constantly need to return to the menu.
Within Deadpool’s Fun Sack, we get a mix of components. “Videos” provides 19 forms of promotion, with an emphasis on trailers and teasers. Many of these sell the movie in clever ways, so they’re much more fun than usual.
“Stills” includes seven posters. Sneak Peek also presents a trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse.
A second disc presents a DVD copy of Deadpool. It includes the gag reel, the “Fun Sack”, and the “Sneak Peek” but leaves off all the other Blu-ray extras.
On occasion, the sardonic, self-referential nature of Deadpool threatens to overwhelm. However, it usually stays on the right side of that line and gives us a crazed, action-packed anti-hero tale. The Blu-ray offers very good picture and audio along with a compelling collection of supplements. Deadpool shakes up the superhero genre in a lively manner.