The One Where a Movie Trailer Made Me Mad

I don’t know if anyone has seen the previews for the new superhero movie, ‘Deadpool,’ but from the regular trailer it looks like it could be funny. I appreciate the occasional dark humor and Ryan Reynolds has good comedic chops, so I initially thought this was just going to be another superhero movie we would see.

We just watched the red band trailer—which I will not link to here—and by the time it ended I was just so…angry. This was me:

In the ten or so seconds following the preview I tried to process just what it was that made me so mad and it was this: why on earth is there a superhero movie in which the f-word is used at least a half-dozen times in just the trailer. In the trailer, people! To say nothing about the nudity and violence.

Aren’t superhero movies for kids? How did we get here? What happened to these superheroes? When did superheroes stop being about silly humor and jokes for kids?!

And then it hit me.

There is a whole generation of ‘adults’ who are chomping at the bit to see this movie. A whole slew of legal adults who can’t wait to see a superhero movie with ‘their kind of humor’ and what appear to be (from the trailer) a few steamy sex scenes. I enjoy a superhero movie as much as the next gal who’s married to a comic book fan, but ultimately the movies should be geared toward their original audience. Teenagers.

Let’s call a spade a spade here, y’all. ‘Deadpool’ is a kids' movie with adult humor. Why was it even made? Because a lot of so-called ‘grown-ups’ have the attitude and sense of humor of a teenage boy, but a birthdate that allows them to buy booze, vote, and gain entrance to R-rated movies. 

There’s a possibility that I’m making too much of this. There’s a possibility that the expectation I have for ‘adult humor/entertainment’ includes too much actual thinking and not enough nudity or references to body parts and sex acts. Silly me for appreciating dry humor and intelligent comments. But I tell you what. I’ll keep ‘The Newsroom,’ ‘Downton Abbey’ and ‘The King’s Speech,’ and all those man-boys can enjoy ‘The League,’ ‘Archer’ and ‘Deadpool.’

Deal? Deal.