The plot: Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), in-between killing anyone he sets his sights on, is contemplating starting a family. Whatever domestic roles may be involved will have to wait, however, as his reconnection with the X-Men leads to him to a young boy named Russell (Julian Dennison), a powerful mutant with the potential for great disaster. As he connects with the young mutant, time-travelling mercenary Cable (Josh Brolin) has arrived in the present to hunt down the one responsible for the death of his family. With multiple threats on his life and others and his anti-social tendencies making his want to start his own superhero team a bit wonky, it's just another day in the life of everyone's favorite Merc.
Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool. It’s not even a
matter of him giving a performance anymore; he just straight-up is the character and between how much
dedication he’s put into getting that character right and the increased creative
freedom Reynolds got as a producer this time around, he still pulls through as that lovable,
immortal asshole that we have all come to adore. Morena Baccarin, even in a decidedly
reduced role this time around, still works very nicely as the perfect romantic
match for someone like Wade Wilson, which makes her importance to the plot
actually resonate pretty well.
Miller as Weasel… yeah, kind of a good thing in
hindsight that he isn’t in this movie that much, but he works out just well
enough. Stefan Kapičić as Colossus still works very well opposite Reynolds
while also getting a boosted role in the fight scenes, and for reasons I’ll get
into further down, they work far better than they should. Brianna Hildebrand as
Negasonic Teenage Warhead is little more than a cameo here, but she gets some
good verbal barbs in, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al follows the same pattern, and
Karan Soni as Dopinder… man, he has gone straight psycho by this point, and
weirdly enough, the character turns out the better for it.
And now, the newcomers. Brolin as Cable not only nails the
overbearing 90’s aesthetic of the character but also serves as a near-perfect
team-up with Deadpool. Given the two characters’ comic book history, that
should be a no-brainer, but he seriously impresses here in how well he plays
off of the Merc With A Mouth. Dennison of Hunt For The Wilderpeople fame as
Russell AKA Firefist, apart from doing exceptionally well with the dialogue,
actually makes for a seriously compelling character in his own right. His
physical performance is great, treating his powers in a way you would
definitely expect a teenager to wield them, and when he’s called upon to get
emotional (yes, emotions in a Deadpool movie; we’ll get to that further down as
well), he absolutely delivers.
Zazie Beetz as Domino not only works solely because of how well
the character’s powers are realized on-screen but her rather dry sense of
humour makes for a nice counterbalance to the filthiness of the rest of the
comedy. For a film that emphasizes the superhero team, it’s nice that they made
her feel like an essential part of that team. Terry Crews, Lewis Tan, Bill
Skarsgård and Rob Delaney as members of the X-Force team work out as well as
can be expected and… okay, I don’t want to give all of the surprises away but those of us who were
disappointed by the lack of recognizable X-Men characters in the first film are
in for a real treat with what this film has in store.
The first film’s director, Tim Miller, is out of the
picture. In his place, we have John Wick co-director and Atomic Blonde director
David Leitch along with his now-recurring DOP Jonathan Sela. This was a
definite change for the better in a number of ways, not the least of which
being Miller’s reasons for leaving the production (creative differences with
Deadp… I mean Ryan Reynolds). Miller’s inexperience in the director’s chair
definitely showed the first time around, and while I admit to being entertained
with that first effort, it still felt like more could have been done. Now,
while some problems persist from the other film, namely the extremely wonky CGI
work, Leitch and Sela definitely had the right approach when it comes to the
fight scenes.
They benefit from the vibrant colour palette that the duo
brought with them from Atomic Blonde, but they also show a masterful approach
to the staging of the punches thrown. This is where Deadpool and Cable’s ideal
team-up yields some of its biggest results, as Deadpool’s very acrobatic
high-flash fighting style compliments Cable’s economical low-flash fighting
style brilliantly. To add to that, the use of mutant powers is given more
consideration during the action beats, resulting in stellar and eye-catching
brawls. Also, the use of Domino and her luck powers during one of the fight
scenes might actually rival the extended fight scene in Atomic Blonde for
sheer, tightly-constructed spectacle. Hell of an achievement there.
But enough about the guns; what about the dick jokes? Well,
this definitely matches the first film as far as “we could not give less of a fuck” humour. We got the fourth-wall breaks,
which occasionally slips into the tedium of “hey, this is lazy writing; let’s
acknowledge it as such and just move on” but mostly stay on target, especially
with how cutting some of the jabs at other comic book movies can get. Bonus
points for the end credits scenes, which take two notable jokes from the first
film about Reynolds’ past acting roles and pushes them right over the edge,
making for some rather… cathartic moments. We got the incredibly filthy
one-liners, which range from the more-than-deserved like the descriptions of
the workers at the orphanage where we first meet Firefist, to the straight-up
bizarre like a scene where Deadpool has to regenerate his legs that truly needs
to be seen to be believed. I can’t remember the last time I hurt myself this much just from laughing at a movie,
but that’s the effect all of this has.
We also have a return of the anarchist’s
kitchen sink of a soundtrack, which combines some of the pop culture character
themes of the first with some pretty solid new picks (dated or not dated, that
dubstep running gag still works really damn well) and even a few original bits
of music: A solid rap song for the ending credits and easily one of the
funniest pieces of operatic music you’re likely to hear in a movie all year.
The best part about this film’s sense of humour, though? It
in no way clashes with this film’s more serious moments, and it’s here where the film genuinely began to
impress me. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, while keeping things nice and
irreverent as far as references to other superhero films, also manage to
incorporate rather vital parts of the X-Men formula into this story. It takes
the concepts of prejudice and mistreatment that have run through pretty much
all of the X-Men films to date and give it that renegade Deadpool spin while
still making it resonate. Firefist’s character works so goddamn well because he
truly feels like a character from that same universe, echoing quite a few of
the moral dilemmas that films like Days Of Future Past made bank on. This
combined with what we see of Firefist’s time at the orphanage, under an
incredibly creepy headmaster played by Eddie Marsan, ends up making Deadpool
feel like less of an anomaly in this world and more like a very tongue-in-cheek
part of it.
And then there’s Deadpool himself, who as a character really gets
put through the wringer to turn what is ostensibly a joke about this film’s
family-friendly cred into a precursor for some of the most unexpected feels
I’ve gotten from a comic book flick. It taps into the age-old superhero trope
of the ‘super family’ and, again while keeping the tone nice and balanced,
turns the unlikely hero themes of the first film into a look at not a
mercenary, not a gun-for-hire, not even a cocky arsehole, but a genuine hero.
All in all… I am quite stunned by this. This is the Deadpool movie I have been waiting for; it is
essentially everything I wanted to get out of the first film, while surprising
me with things I didn’t even realize I wanted. The acting is phenomenal, with
Reynolds expertly leading the pack of new and returning faces, the action
scenes show that director David Leitch has not even begun to slow down yet, the
comedy is still nice and vulgar while doubling-down on the cultural references
to great effect, and it even manages to aim at true-blue drama and hit the
target dead-on. What’s more, the deliciously offensive content never ends up
rubbing up against the more tender moments to any real detriment, meaning that
we get to have the best of both worlds without everything just falling apart.
Oh, and on top of all of this, this film also perfectly legitimises Deadpool’s
place in the X-Men canon, reinforcing the tried-and-true societal commentary of
those films while still keeping its own bombastic identity. Even coming from a
casting as perfect as Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, and the director behind some
of the best action flicks of the last few years, I never would have expected this to be as good as it is.
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