Deadpool 2 Review

Synopsis
When Cable (Josh Brolin) travels from the future to kill a mutant kid named Russell (Julian Dennison), Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) puts together a team to stop him.

Review
Deadpool quickly shot towards the top of my favorite superhero movies when it hit theaters in 2016. The irreverent tone, genre-deprecating humor, constant pop culture references and fourth-wall breaking, and the perfect casting of Ryan Reynolds in the titular role made one volatile and vulgar adventure. I, for one, could not wait for a sequel, especially after Deadpool‘s post-credit scene revealed Cable would be in the sequel. Thankfully, what Deadpool 2 delivered on was much of what made its predecessor so enjoyable, along with greater stakes and more character development. Or in other words: exactly what a good sequel should do.

One of my favorite things about Deadpool was the humor. The jokes came at you quickly but the nearly almost landed. Ryan Reynolds’ delivery was sharp and snappy. It’s no surprise the the sequel would deliver much of the same. The jokes come in greater quantity and quicker this time. Not as many of the jokes stuck the landing this time around but quantity trumped quality in this case and before you had time to realize you didn’t laugh at the last joke, the film was already on to the next.

If you didn’t like the amount of pop culture references in the first film, I’m sorry to say that you’re in for more of the same here. My favorite moments from Deadpool were those that broke the fourth-wall. While those were abundant in Deadpool 2, they didn’t seem as frequent. So in essence, this film traded fourth-wall jokes for pop culture ones.

You could not ask for a better Deadpool than Reynolds. Even way back in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I thought he made the perfect Wade Wilson. He killed it in the previous outing as Wilson and only gets better in the sequel. The casting is so perfect it is hard to determine where Reynolds ends and Wilson begins.

Superhero newcomer Zazie Beetz is an absolute scene stealer as the luck-manipulating Domino. She has the most screen time of any of the members of X-Force and she makes the most of it. Whether it is her back-and-forth banter with Reynolds or the display of her unique powers, Beetz is on point. I can’t wait to see what she does next in film.

As big of a deal the trailers made X-Force seem, they weren’t around as much as I expected before the film sent Wilson back on his own. I wish more time would have been spent with them because many of the members (read as all except Domino) didn’t get much screen time. The members of X-Force all had various powers that were seen too briefly. Except Peter. Peter has no powers. Which easily made him the most compelling member of the group. I have no doubt that if Peter had a bigger role, it would have made this movie even better. However, despite the limited time spent with the team, it was enjoyable and generated several good laughs.

For a vulgar blockbuster such as this, it was a lot more heartfelt than I expected. The basis of the movie is that Cable came from the future to kill a young mutant before he can become bad and Deadpool tries to stop Cable from doing so. The comics version of Deadpool has been shown to be capable of such actions (look up comic panels of Deadpool and a young version of Apocalypse named Evan). Many of the scenes when Deadpool was opening up to Russell or Cable were genuinely emotional. I wasn’t expecting that from this kind of film. It sounds like these scenes would feel out of place but they fit it seamlessly and naturally.

I thought Deadpool 2 was GOOD 🙂 Knowing what made Deadpool a hit, the sequel offers much of the same. Although not quite as funny as the first, it trades some humor for something more heartfelt. Almost every member of the cast delivers fantastic performances but Ryan Reynolds and Zazie Beetz offer some of the more memorable of the film. I hope a third film is made because I can never get enough of Ryan Reynolds in his signature tight, red spandex.

Favorite Quote
Deadpool: With this collar on, my superpower is just unbridled cancer. Give me a bow and arrow and I’m basically Hawkeye.

Trailer

Cast & Crew
David Leitch – Director
Rhet Reese – Writer
Paul Wernick – Writer
Ryan Reynolds – Writer
Tyler Bates – Composer

Ryan Reynolds – Wade Wilson / Deadpool
Josh Brolin – Cable
Morena Baccarin – Vanessa
Julian Dennison – Russell / Firefist
Zazie Beetz – Domino
TJ Miller – Weasel
Leslie Uggams – Blind Al
Karan Soni – Dopinder
Jack Kesy – Black Tom
Stefan Kapicic – Colossus (voice)
Brianna Hildebrand – Negasonic Teenage Warhead
Shioli Kutsuna – Yukio
Eddie Marsan – Headmaster
Nikolai Witschi – Head Orderly Frye
Rob Delaney – Peter
Lewis Tan – Shatterstar
Bill Skarsgard – Zeitgeist
Terry Crews – Bedlam
Brad Pitt – Vanisher