Deadpool 2 Review

Director: David Leitch
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarinm, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, Jack Kesy

Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool is back in Deadpool 2, this time he has to deal with a half-man-half-cyborg time-travelling mutant in Josh Brolin’s Cable who’s come from the future to kill Julian Dennison’s young mutant, Russell.

Deadpool feels compelled to do something to stop Cable from murdering the young and angst-ridden mutant and brings together a team of less-than-honourable mutants in a team that he dubs X-Force (we all know how much of a feminist Deadpool is and he feels that the name X-Men is far too sexist).

Image via @20th Century Fox

We’re gonna form a super duper fucking group: we need them tough, morally flexible and young enough to carry a franchise for 10-12 years. We’ll be known as… X-Force!

The question that always comes to people’s lips when talking about a sequel is, “Is it better than the original?” In Deadpool 2’s case, I’m going to say that for the most part, yes, it is. It’s bigger, louder, swearier, bloodier, more violent, and there are a lot more jokes in this one. That said, quantity doesn’t always mean quality, and quite a few of the jokes don’t land. There are a few references to the DCEU for instance, which are amusing, but the writers can do better than just pointing out bad comic book movies.

I also felt that the film lacked the shock-factor of the first movie. We’ve seen a lot of Deadpool recently, and even though Ryan Reynolds was born to play the role, I do worry that we may be reaching Deadpool saturation.

Image via @20th Century Fox

Tell me they got that in slow-motion…

That said, bringing in John Wick’s David Leitch certainly added something to Deadpool 2. The action set pieces, for instance, are far superior to the first film, especially the hand-to-hand combat and I enjoyed seeing the John Wick-esque gun-fu action.

Deadpool 2 is also a more complete film than its predecessor. It has a better plot, a better antagonist in Josh Brolin’s Cable – who’s on incredible comic book movie form this by the way – and it also has a far better final the third than the first film.

Deadpool’s main problem was its uninspiring final fight scene, which took place on a crashed helipad if my memory serves me well. Yet, Deadpool 2’s final act is very clever and gloriously well choreographed. The film’s writers and producers (which includes Reynolds) have learnt from the mistakes of the first film and have sorted out the ending this time around.

Image via @20th Century Fox

You’re no hero. You’re just a clown, dressed up like a sex toy.

Also, I couldn’t review Deadpool 2 without mentioning the film’s incredible post-credits scenes. I would go so far as to say that they’re the best post-credits scenes of any comic book movie ever. It’s easily the best part of the film, yet that’s not to say that what came before it was terrible, much the contrary. The post-credit scenes are just that good.

I mentioned how good Josh Brolin is as Cable earlier on (incidentally, I can’t wait to see him reprise the role), yet practically all the new additions to the Deadpool franchise are on fine form. Zazie Beetz plays Domino in the movie, whose superpower is luck (yeah, you’d think that isn’t a superpower, but trust me, it is), and she is so good in this film that I would say she warrants her own standalone movie, which is actually one of Deadpool’s many jokes in the film.

Image via @20th Century Fox

So dark. You sure you’re not from the DC universe?

Then you have Julian Dennison’s Firefist, who’s basically playing his character Ricky from Hunt For The Wilderpeople, but he feels at home in this setting, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of him in future Deadpool or X-Force movies.

One thing I will say, however, is that I was expecting to see more from certain characters. For instance, I would have liked to have seen more of Morena Baccarin’s Vennesa, and I was excited to see more of Rob Delaney’s Peter. Much like Dennison’s Russell, I’m pretty sure that we’ll be seeing more of Peter moving forward.

I would have just liked to have seen more of him in this movie. The same could be said about Terry Crews and Bill Skarsgård who are both fantastic actors and I loved that they were part of this film. I’m just a bit greedy and wanted more of them.

Image via @20th Century Fox

Doing the right thing is messy. You want to fight for what’s right, sometimes you have to fight dirty.

The other slight issue I had with Deadpool 2 was that some of the special effects and CGI felt a bit subpar. I realise that this film doesn’t have the budget of say an Avengers: Infinity War, yet they had more money to play around with than the first movie, and I think that Tim Miller did a better job when it came to special effects that David Leitch did.

That said, they are very different directors and concentrate on different things. Special effects are a big part of what Tim Miller is about, whereas Leitch is more about fast-paced and stunning combat choreography, and it shows in Deadpool 2.

All in all, I enjoyed my time with Deadpool 2, and there’s no doubt that Ryan Reynolds was born to play Deadpool. Yet, I do worry that people might have got their fix out of the Merc with a Mouth. The film is good, but it is just more of the same and it didn’t really push the boundaries. Yes, it’s gory. Yes, it’s violent. Yes, there is a lot of foul language. But it’s not giving us anything new.