Directed by David Lietch
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison
Well, it wouldn’t be much of a sequel if life stayed as perfect as it was at the end of the first film, and for the hired assassin who looks “like an avocado that had sex with an older avocado” things fall apart pretty fast. After a personal tragedy before the opening credits, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) finds himself with a death wish running contrary to his mutant healing factor, and crashing on a couch in the X-Men’s mansion. As he tries to shake himself out of depression by joining the X-Men, he encounters a troubled young mutant calling himself Firefist (Julian Dennison). So Deadpool tries to save the boy from his own worst instincts, but things get complicated when a time traveller from the future, Cable (Josh Brolin), crosses their path with a mind for murder. Well, they do say that merc-ing ain’t easy.
Three words pretty much sum up his film: “woooo superhero landing!”
Deadpool 2 sticks the landing, giving you everything you could want from a Deadpool sequel, and just a little bit more. It is the irreverent, outrageously funny, action-packed, violent, fourth wall breaking comic book film we expected and hoped for. What is unexpected, is Deadpool 2 has just a touch of emotional depth to it. Not enough to interfere with the constant mayhem on screen, but at least enough to give it some tonal variance, and add a couple of layers to the characters, as well as a bit of added stakes to the tale.
Story-wise this is a rather standard superhero film (with a couple of shocks), but it is what Deadpool 2 does within this confine that makes it a great viewing experience. It functions as a good comic book action romp, but the script is also packed with rapid fire one liners. Hilarious in their own right, the fourth wall breaking nature of the character allows for a fantastic running commentary on the superhero genre and our current obsession with it (ok for some of us it might have been going on for decades). At times it’s a pretty deep dive, and occasionally cutting (such as calling out mutant persecution as an outdated racism metaphor), but it shows an understanding of the material and why we love it.
Then there is the pairing of Deadpool and Cable. Rob Liefeld’s other popular 90s antihero creation is a perfect foil and straight man for the ‘Merc with a Mouth’. Grim and gritty to absurdist lengths, Cable is ripe for parody, and it’s something that Deadpool doesn’t shy away from. Brolin leans into this, playing him straight laced and gravely voiced, like a cross between Bale’s Batman, and Schwarzenegger’s original Terminator. Reynolds and Brolin bounce off each other well, both in their banter, and in a number of impressively staged (and occasionally stomach churning) fights. It also has a host of returning and new characters (finally we see X-Force get the treatment they deserve), that add a rich variety, managing to keep up with Reynolds’ relentless motor-mouthed performance.
The end result is a roller-coaster ride of a comic book film. Deadpool is once again lewd, crude, violent and rude, but it also may be one of the funniest films we’ve seen this year.
DAVID O’CONNELL
