Trailer Analysis 2: Deadpool

For my next trailer analysis, I am going to evaluate Tim Miller's Deadpool, starring Ryan Reynolds. This superhero comedy is one of Marvel and 20th Century Fox's highest grossing films of 2016, and is also the highest grossing R rated movie. The film's director, Tim Miller, has been known for making the opening sequences for films such as 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' and 'Thor: The Dark World', so he has previously worked with Marvel before and have experience and credibility with them as a company. The narrative type for this trailer is mostly linear, however, towards the end, montage's are used which makes it non-linear.

Deadpool, as an entire film links to Steve Neale's genre theory of repetition and difference. Which states that "difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre" and by not subverting to the standard genre conventions, a film becomes more appealing to audiences. Alternatively, a film also needs to conform to these genre conventions in order to still be considered a film of that genre. Deadpool manages to fit this genre theory perfectly: superhero films are known to be dark and somewhat gritty but Marvel has begun to use more comedy and gimmicks in their movies, and with Deadpool, that is shown through a lot of it's R-rated content. In addition to this, the trailer follows Todorov's narrative theory with the equilibrium where the characters are introduced, the protagonist (Wade Wilson/ Deadpool) experiences a disturbance/dilemma in their life (cancer) and then realises something needs to be done about it. Which leads to the dis-equilibrium (where he becomes Deadpool). The new equilibrium isn't shown in the trailer which gives the audience a narrative hook and they would want to go and watch the film in order for them to find out what happens to Deadpool. There is also Propp's narrative theory which is shown in the trailer to some extent, with the hero, villain, damsel, helper and donor.

There are several camera shots which are used throughout the trailer, such as two shots, close-ups  and tracking shots. The trailer begins with a medium close up two shot of a sad couple sitting in a doctors office. The audience can connote that they are a couple due to how closely they are sitting to one another and the body language that they use towards each other, two shots are useful for establishing the relationship between two characters. The audience can also connote the sad atmosphere due to the facial expressions of the actors and the mise-en-scene, which produces a sombre tone; the colour palette is extremely dull with grey being the main colour and this makes the lighting rather dim. Following this shot, there was a close up of the couple’s hands which were held together, once again helping to present the relationship between these two characters. In this same scene, there is then another shot which zooms on some scans which show cancer (as told due to the doctor’s dialogue). Already in this first scene of the trailer, there has been a background to the characters presented to the audience within the first few seconds and would begin to create the narrative hook as they would feel sympathetic and empathetic for these characters.

After this shot, a more non-linear style narrative begins with an askew shot of a hooded man (who is Wade Wilson, the protagonist) sitting in a bar, there are many shots of him with his hood us, concealing most of his face. This creates a sense of mystery about the protagonist and creates a narrative hook for the audience as they would want to know why he is hiding his face and what has happened to him. There is then a jump cut to a tracking shot of wade on a gurney, being pulled along a corridor. This shot is on him face down so we can only see him and not where he is or where he is going, once again leaving audience members questioning what is happening. Not long after, there is then a medium close up of a silhouette of Deadpool, this silhouette and the medium close up once again conceals who he is, which links to the recurring theme of hidden identities. There is then an eyeline match shot of a business man looking at Deadpool, which is where the face of the man is shown in one shot, where audiences can notice he is looking at something and then in the following shot, it is showing what the man was looking at, which in this case was Deadpool.

There is then another shift in the tone for the trailer as more gritty scenes and action starts to arise. There are three shots which show this and they revolve around Wade Wilson, as opposed to him as his superhero alter ego. Firstly, there is a high angle shot of wade being pushed in a bath; this high angle makes Wade look lower and weaker than anybody else to the extent that even the audience is positioned at a higher vantage point and alternatively a higher place of power and strength. This is the beginning of Wade’s physical breakdown with the damage and abuse he receives. There is then an action match shot of Wade being suffocated. An action match shot is where Wade is being suffocated. This action match shot shows the antagonists setting up the suffocation chamber through each movement with a new shot and then showing the effect. And finally there is a wide shot of an explosion and then a close of up Wade as he gets punched in the face and it then cuts to black. All of these violent actions towards Wade are sectioned off from the rest of the trailer and they have a much more sinister tone than the rest of the trailer. Wade’s treatment from those shots may once again trigger empathy for him from the audience as Wade is shown as the protagonist who shouldn’t be hurt.

To contrast from the malice placed towards Wade, there is another change in the tone of the trailer. There is an extreme close up of a Walkman with Salt n Pepa’s “Shoop” playing in the background as the shot then zooms out and tilt’s to a medium close up of Deadpool. This shot then cuts to a close up of him drawing, which gives an idea of the light-hearted and childish nature of this superhero. From the background of these shots, it is made known that he is sitting on the edge of a freeway bridge then in a tracking shot, he jumps off this bridge and lands in an SUV through the roof. There is then a handheld shot of him fighting in a car which is cross cut with handheld shots of pedestrians running. This handheld shot gives a sense of mayhem, disorder and chaos to this part of the film and it shows that at this point this is where the crime fighting and action is about to occur. One of the most iconic shots from the trailer is an extreme close up of Deadpool’s face as he inhales the smoke from a gun and the smoke can be seen filtering through his mask in great detail.

After this scene Deadpool’s comedic side is brought into play where he throws some witty one-liners in between fight scenes and then there is a montage of action with text edited over it and this theme continues for the remainder of the trailer.

Overall I would say that the Deadpool trailer was rather effective and it had a lot of content included in the trailer, however I feel that for my film, as it is a horror, I would not want to give away as much of the narrative as what was done in this trailer. But I will take the variety of shots on board for my own trailer.