I loved the Deadpool movie.
I hated Star Wars : Shakespeare by Ian Doescher.
So how then should I feel about the upcoming special Deadpool Shakespeare issue this fall, written by Mr. Doescher?
I’m cautiously optimistic. Well, that’s not the right word, that implies that I’m leaning toward “it’ll be good.” I don’t think there’s any reason to put any real effort into it. I think there’s a pattern here where you take a pop culture phenomenon like Star Wars or Deadpool, and you make it do vaguely Shakespearean things like putting the main character in a ruff, or maybe some puffy sleeves or pantaloons, maybe have him talk to a skull. Then force all the dialogue painfully into iambic pentameter. You ever try to read iambic pentameter for any length of time where it’s clear the author is doing it just to prove that he can? It’s like someone telling you that they’re awesome at haiku, that they’ve written hundreds of them,
but when you begin
you see that they’re just
counting syllables.
There’s much more to it
than just the simplistic math
of five seven five.
I also fear that they’re going to take a cue from Kill Shakespeare, another project that I very much did not love. Saying that something has Shakespeare content needs to be more than just naming your characters the same.
Yeah, optimistic clearly isn’t the word. Is there a single word for “wishful thinking”? I’m that. I wish that it’s going to be something I like.