Just over two decades ago, a big effects-laden movie from Fox destroyed box office records and helped Celine Dion shred the musical charts with “My Heart Will Go On,” a song that managed to teach entire new generations a deep and abiding hatred of the penny whistle. This week, apparently somebody, probably Ryan Reynolds, is hoping history repeats itself, as Deadpool, of all people, has managed to lure Dion back into English-language pop music with “Ashes.”
This needs a little context: You may not have heard Dion on the radio in a while, but that’s probably because you don’t speak French. Dion’s last English album was in 2014, although she’s been fairly steadily turning out hit singles for Canadian and French charts. The song “Ashes,” which is indeed on the Deadpool 2 soundtrack, is legit adult contemporary ballad all the way, and the video, at first, is pretty much every possible adult contemporary video cliche, empty theater, spotlights, and a ballet dancer filling in while the artist wildly gesticulates. The only difference is who’s doing the heavy lifting with that dancing, namely our man Deadpool, who we discover is using his healing factor to do ballet in heels. Let’s see Wolverine do that.
Is this just a gag? Maybe not. As funny as the opening of the original Deadpool was, a literal slow-motion car wreck set to notorious slice of cheese “Angel Of The Morning” from Juice Newton, it was also a stealth nod to the movie’s emotional arc, where Wade Wilson struggles with whether Vanessa will still love him after abandoning her. So the fact that the song is about rebuilding from something burnt to the ground, and the plot centers around a mutant who can literally burn things to the ground, may not be entirely coincidental. We’ll find out May 18th, when Deadpool 2 hits theaters.
