Art of the Title: Deadpool

The title of Deadpool begins with the logo of the intellectual property owner; Marvel. The establishing shot of this title sequence begins with the camera panning back from a close up of a man, the entire scene is a continuous, mid-action, freeze frame of a scenario that appears later in the film. The camera continues to pan around the car showcasing the mercenaries and Deadpool in the car being fought/ fighting in various different ways; the first mercenary we are shown has been attacked with a car lighter; the second mercenary we see in a close up of his face being sat upon by Deadpool as the camera pans from the man’s face; the third mercenary is briefly shown having his eyes being poked out as the camera pans past him; the next close up we see is that of Deadpool himself, this is the first time that the audience is introduced to the protagonist and so the camera stays on the close up of his face for the longest time out of any character so far to allow the audience to familiarise themselves with him; the final mercenary never has their face shown as they are wearing a motorcycling helmet. 

After the slow pan through the car, the camera finally pans back allowing the audience to see the entire scenario of the burning car and motorcycle as they both go hurtling through the air before a, presumably, spectacular crash before the scene is obscured by a drawing of Deadpool decapitating a someone with the text “Hi! I’m Deadpool”, aiding any fans unfamiliar with the source material as to who the man in the costume was. Throughout this lengthy title sequence this movie ironically doesn’t credit the people who contributed to the film, acting, writing, directing, and instead subverts the audience’s expectations by instead crediting them by ‘Written by: the real heros here’ or ‘Directed by: an overpaid tool’.