Deadpool 2 Review

After getting punched in the gut by "Infinity War," Fox had rather good timing with their release of "Deadpool 2," because after going through something so emotionally wrenching, we now get to kick back and relax with a "Deadpool" sequel. As far as my quick opinions on the original "Deadpool," there is a lot to love about that movie, namely the fourth-wall-breaking social commentary that Deadpool adds throughout the film that gives you gut-busting laughter from beginning to end. I also appreciated the fact that the movie was revolutionary in terms of teaching Hollywood that if you have a good movie that people want to see that is boosted by good marketing, the MPAA rating really doesn't matter. If a comic book character was written a certain way, you don't have to water that character down or spice that character up in order to achieve the desired rating that you think will make the most money. You can do the character justice as is and people will show up. Yet unlike many, I wasn't necessarily caught up in the novelty of seeing a proper Deadpool movie. I had plenty of issues with the film stemming in what I call origin-story-itis that I hoped a sequel could improve upon with that out of the way. I'm happy to tell you that "Deadpool 2" mostly does just that.

When I say "Deadpool" suffered from origin-story-itis, the specifics in that case were a bit of a tricky balance as what they did was completely necessary due to the fact that Deadpool's origins were completely screwed up in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." I don't hate that movie like most of the world does, but when it came specifically to Deadpool, that was perhaps one of the most embarrassingly awful introductions to a popular comic book character that this world has ever seen. Thus when they decided to do the "Deadpool" movie, they were required to spend a good portion of the movie on the real origins so that the world could be properly introduced to this character. There was no getting around that. And yes, they did tell the origins in a clever way as they started the movie in the middle and then spent the first half of the movie bouncing back and forth from the present to the past, so that we weren't spending 100 percent of the time on the past. But still, I found this setup to the character a lot less interesting than when we were in the present with him all suited up and ready to roll, thus the narrative balance of the movie wasn't completely in sync for me even though I was rolling around in laughter at the humor in the movie as I love fourth-wall breaking.

The second part of this origin-story-itis is that it's often not wise to introduce your protagonist's main arch-nemesis in the first film. Thus origin stories often introduce more of a throwaway villain for the hero to face right off the bat while they're in their early stages of herodom. After the character has successfully established themselves as a hero in the origin story after beating this first villain, then the franchise is ready to move forward with the major drama of that hero in the sequels. In the case of "Deadpool," we have Ajax, played by Ed Skrein, as our villain. And I only knew that name because I looked it up. Ed Skrein does a fine job with the role, but the villain is simply not memorable. I felt he was a throwaway villain whose purpose was solely to serve as a placeholder while they waited for the sequel for someone bigger and better. Thus in both of these cases, I feel "Deadpool" compares quite well to "Guardians of the Galaxy." Since no one knew the Guardians before the film was announced, that first movie had to spend a major portion introducing us to all of the characters. On top of that, they also had one of Marvel's worst villains in Ronan. Yet both "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Deadpool" were absolutely hilarious, making them fun, rewatchable movies despite the narrative flaws stemming from origin-story-itis.

I bring all of this up for a very specific reason and that's because how you think of "Deadpool 2" will most likely depend on whether or not you agree with my assessment of "Deadpool." If you are in agreement with me that "Deadpool" was a funny movie that had some significant flaws that left the door open for a sequel to be even better, then you will most likely agree with me that "Deadpool 2" delivers on the potential of it being an improvement. Or at least you might agree that is just as good. On the flip side of that, if you were one of those people who have loved the character of Deadpool for years and were crying tears of joy that he finally got justice done to him in the form of a gloriously R-rated movie, then I think you're going to like "Deadpool 2," but I don't think you'll conclude that it hits the heights of its predecessor. I'll admit that part of the reason that I wasn't necessarily elated with the idea of a proper Deadpool movie is that I'm not part of the crowd who begs for R-rated films to be made and am disappointed when something ends up as PG-13 instead. Raunchiness, language and excessive blood and gore are not requirements for my entertainment and I'm not disappointed when they are removed. But I can often tolerate them if they have a purpose to the film.

I've now gone through all this setup without having talked about this actual movie at hand and that's mostly because I feel like I'm walking on glass when I talk about it. The marketing campaign for this movie was excellent. Not only did they make Deadpool fans extremely excited to see the movie, but in hindsight, the meat of the of the plot is completely absent from the trailers. We got a lot of Cable and X-Force stuff in the trailers and I had a good idea of how I thought they were going to integrate that, but I was mostly wrong. What we got instead was a movie that was surprisingly emotional and family-driven. Deadpool jokes towards the beginning that this is the perfect family film and in an odd, twisted way, he ends up being exactly right. Although the warning he gives right before is valid because you shouldn't take your kids to this movie. I still facepalm at stories I heard of parents taking their kids to see the original, then complaining at the movie for exposing their children to such content. I mean, did you NOT see the rating on your ticket that you purchased? Anyways, while this is not a kids film, family is the theme. Deadpool wants a family, but said opportunity gets ripped away from him until he learns to discover a new sort of family. It sounds cheesy, but it works. 

There's some opening jokes that had me rolling in laughter, especially after seeing and loving "Logan" last year. But then we have an opening sequence that actually punches you in the gut, almost negated the previously stated idea of this being a relaxing film following "Infinity War." But then when the actual opening credits roll, we are reminded that this is in fact a Deadpool movie where the main focus is comedy, thus the hilarious opening credits do a great job of easing the audience back into a state of relaxation as we prepare for what the rest of the movie has in store for us, which mostly involves a kid named Russell, the kid with the fire abilities that we are introduced to in the trailers. Drama happens there that builds the emotion of the film, then Cable arrives and things start to get real. And much different than I was expecting, which was a pleasant surprise to me. Unfortunately I do have to be honest with the fact that the movie gets a bit clunky in the process of this setup. The flow of the film isn't the best in the first several sequences. The movie felt like it was bouncing around a bit and the story seemed to just be happening, if that makes sense. Instead of having a polished narrative flow, the movie kinda just wandered around without much focus.

Even though the humor was great, sometimes the movie tried too hard to be a comedy and wound up sacrificing story in favor of humor instead of having a natural balance between the two. And finally, the movie didn't quite know what to do with all of its characters. There's multiple examples of this, but the biggest one is Negasonic Teenage Warhead. We learn she's a lesbian, which I was fine with, and her girlfriend was pretty awesome, but the movie had no idea what to do with them as they didn't really serve a purpose and thus they became more of a side thing. All of this did a great of reminding me that this was David Leitch who directed this movie. Him and Chad Stahelski teamed up to direct "John Wick," which was amazing. Then they separated, which resulted in Stahelski to do "John Wick: Chapter 2" on his own while Leitch did "Atomic Blonde." The John Wick franchise never missed a beat as the second one was just as good while "Atomic Blonde" had moments of greatness, but was mostly just bland and stale. In my mind, that showcased to us who the better of the two directors is and unfortunately we got the lesser of the two with "Deadpool 2." Yet this being a more collaborative effort from Fox and company, I feel the others around Leitch did a good job of helping him get back on track.

The obvious answer as to who saves this film and elevates it for me is Ryan Reynolds, who proves once again that he was born to play Deadpool. Even in sequences where the movie felt a bit clunky, he still owned every scene he was in, which happened to be most of the movie given that it's his movie. In addition to playing Deadpool, Reynolds also helped write the film and there are so many moments where you can tell that he had his hand on a huge part of the script and dialogue. Not to be forgotten, though, when it comes to the cast is that of Josh Brolin. The man is having himself a really good month at the moment as his turn as Thanos in "Infinity War" has him etched in stone as one of the greatest comic book villains of all-time. And now he follows that up with Cable, who has a unique relationship with Deadpool in this movie, which takes a twist I wasn't expecting. Nevertheless, Brolin and Reynolds bounced off each other perfectly in the film. Topping things off, the kid named Russell is played by Julian Dennison, the troubled kid from "The Hunt for the Wilderpeople," a movie that you all should see if you haven't. And we have Zazie Beetz as a character named Domino. I don't want to say much about them, but they are definite highlights and I'd love to see more of them.

There is a moment in this movie where any clunkiness is recovered from, characters evolve, the humor and story become mostly well balanced, and the result is an absolute blast that I simply can't talk about. I also appreciated the fact that, despite having the door wide open for them to do whatever they wanted, the movie is fairly tame when it comes to the raunchy humor. Instead of bathing the movie in debauchery just because they can, they only make certain jokes when they feel it's appropriate for the moment. Yes, the movie gets very graphic and bloody in terms of violence and is loaded with language, but it's really not a raunchy comedy, which I appreciated. Deadpool is constantly funny throughout without feeling the need to rely on sexual-based humor to make people laugh. When push comes to shove, though, what ended up standing out the most to me comes from the bizarrely perfect soundtrack which is highlighted by the song "Tomorrow" from the musical "Annie." That song is one of my favorites as there's a strong sense of optimism despite the current miserable situation. In ways I can't say, that's the whole theme of "Deadpool 2" and it's rather beautiful. Add in the comedy and action and "Deadpool 2" delivers a solid 8/10 from me.