Deadpool 2 Review
R: For strong violence and language throughout, sexual references and brief drug material20th Century Fox, Marvel EntertainmentDir: David Leitch | Writers: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Ryan Reynolds1 Hr and 59 MinutesRyan Reynolds, Zazie Beetz, Josh Brolin, Leslie Uggams, Jack Kesy, Shioli Kutsuna, Julian Dennison, Morena Baccarin, Brianna Hildebrand, Stefan Kapicic, Terry Crews, Bill Skarsgård, Karan Soni, T.J Miller“Deadpool 2” has finally arrived. What else is there to say? We waited for the first film ever since that test footage leaked in 2014. Then the sequel was greenlit right when we got to the end credits of the first film. Now we finally have “Deadpool 2". So let's cut the bullshit and get right straight to it.
Foul-mouthed mutant mercenary Wade Wilson (AKA. Deadpool), brings together a team of fellow mutant rogues to protect a young boy of supernatural abilities from the brutal, time-traveling mutant, Cable.THE GOODWhen you watch the first “Deadpool” you may notice that the story plays like an indie movie where there were limited locations while managing to be faithful to its source material. The film had 58 million dollars in its budget, but it was still relatively cheap as far as superhero movies go. Since this is a sequel, “Deadpool 2” does everything a sequel should do: go bigger, bolder, and of course bloodier than its predecessor. Which means you get crazier jokes, more gags, bigger action sequences, more cameos, and more shots at Fox for the films they’ve released in the past two years, especially “Logan” for copying the R-rating. It’s not even just Fox they take shots at. The writers take no prisoners for they destroy everyone involved in pop culture in the most innovative ways other than just name dropping.For God’s sake, the movie parodies the terrible “Spectre” opening credits with a better CG sequence and a better theme than that terrible Sam Smith song, “Writing's on the Wall” (I still don’t understand why it won an Oscar). In other words, “Deadpool 2” does a better Bond intro than the previous Bond film.
Due to the obvious fact that the studio put more money into the film’s production, “Deadpool 2” feels more like a superhero studio film this time around while pertaining to what the character is all about. What keeps the entire film afloat isn’t just the action and the violence, but mostly the writing. This franchise has three key people who were passionate about this project since day one: screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and of course Ryan Reynolds.
While this is Reynolds’ first time in the writing booth you can tell a lot of his material is pretty much Wade’s dialogue which doesn’t stray from Reynolds’ typical humor. That said, a lot of the jokes Wade Wilson makes are hilarious. Though he hits and misses his shots this time around, Wilson is still the hilarious merc with a mouth we know and love. Reese, Wernick, and Reynolds has proven once again that they know this beloved character in and out so much that they never lose focus of Wade's story being HIS story. Besides capturing the superhero and humorous aspects of him, they maintain Wade’s humanity by displaying his emotional side. The majority of this plot focuses on Wade’s reaction to tragedy and trying to get in control of his feelings. Here, we see him at his very worst where he has to face reality and the consequences of his actions. Just like its predecessor, this is another character story that displays the depth of Deadpool in ways we’ve never witnessed before.Director David Leitch knows how to make big action films with exhilarating action sequences. Though I wasn’t fond of his last film, “Atomic Blonde,” the action kept the film entertaining and fun to watch despite it’s weak story. To his benefit, Leitch’s approach with “Deadpool 2” is fully realized by providing a good amount of fun and well choreographed action sequences while hitting the right tone with his direction. Tim Miller did a great job with the first film which was small and also Miller’s first film as a director. Leitch has been attached to more elaborate action flicks, most notably “John Wick”, and his direction captures the brilliant violence the character is known for. When people are killed here, they go out in the most gruesome way imaginable and yet Leitch makes sure it’s engaging and often funny which is what Deadpool is all about.
Besides Reynolds being the heart and soul of the movie, a lot of the supporting characters are also fun. This is the first cinematic onscreen incarnation of Cable and Domino and their respective actors do a great job portraying them. Brolin is fun and does a great job portraying Cable and Beetz is hilariously charismatic, mainly because they are the main two who call Wade out on his bullshit. One does it physically and the other verbally. Fans of the source material will be satisfied by them and moviegoers will be thoroughly entertained. You even have returning characters such as Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead who get a couple of great jokes in.THE BADIn the previous feature, the jokes had a 80-20 hit or miss ratio. This time around you have a 75-25 ratio where jokes and running gags fall flat on their face. There is a running joke revolving around dubstep that isn’t that funny the first time, but then they go on to joke around with it like three more times and it never works. Dubstep isn’t even that popular anymore so it’s a running joke that is ultimately dated to begin with. Then you have T.J Miller ad-libbing lines and trying to be funny when we all know T.J Miller is not funny. While some of his jokes landed before, here he’s just completely unfunny. Only a few of his lines land but even they were only at the expense of Karan Soni’s Dopinder who is far more hilarious than Weasel this time around. Plus the name dropping insults has become way too excessive that by the time Wade finally says, "Zip it Thanos" to Cable, you're forcing yourself to laugh. Wilson nearly steps into Adam Sandler territory of insults where he just insults people based off a pop culture reference.
There is a point in the movie, right in the second act, where it peaks in hilarity and absurdity. So every major joke or comical sequence that occurs after that moment doesn’t live up to that one sequence. Without giving anything away, there is an insanely graphically violent sequence which involves cartoonish deaths that could’ve been taken straight out of “South Park” but leaves you in both shock and laughter to a point that will have you wheezing.But here’s the thing: not only is the film unable to make you erupt in laughter as hard as that sequence (until the post credits sequence which might be the best post credit sequence in a comedy movie since the meta end credit sequence in “22 Jump Street”) but they don’t give you enough airtime for you to catch your breath. Because of the film not being able to let you breathe after shelling out joke after joke, you start to feel the film’s length which by any means does not need to be close to two hours.At first you’re eating the jokes up like this:
But then, due to it’s relentlessness, by the third act you end up looking like this:
While this categorizes itself as a comedy more than just a superhero movie, “Deadpool 2” wears out its welcome really fast to an extent that it becomes pretentious. By the time the climax rolls around, while different, does a serviceable job concluding this story that is good natured but tends to drag in places it didn’t need to. Reynolds has a moment where he is mugging the camera and while funny at first, the longer it goes on, the more you end up going, “Okay, you can wrap it up now.”
Though this manages to be a differently-structured story, the narrative isn’t tight and consists of confusing plot holes. For example, after a sequence where Wade and Weasel are holding auditions for X-Force, the next scene has Cable interrogating Weasel and you’re just there thinking, “Wait. When did this happen?” On top of that, you have a moment prior where Wade is in a snowy location where he emerges from a lake after escaping a prison, but then right after we cut to Wade back home willy nilly for the next scene he’s at the Wayward Sisters bar. The film starts to have the “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” syndrome where time is just a construct and nothing chronologically aligns together in accordance to time.LAST STATEMENTThough being more bloated and narratively looser than it’s tightly-written and more grounded predecessor, “Deadpool 2” still manages to be a fun summer R-rated blockbuster that maintains faithfulness to it’s character while going bigger as any sequel would.Rating: 3.5/5 | 78%Super Scene:
