Hey folks. Time to talk about our favorite merc with a mouth Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) as he’s in a new movie that’s pretty damned entertaining.
What They Say:
Foul-mouthed mutant mercenary Wade Wilson (AKA. Deadpool), brings together a team of fellow mutant rogues to protect a young boy of supernatural abilities from the brutal, time-traveling mutant, Cable.
Review (warning: portions may contain spoilers)
We catch up to the nearly unkillable mutant doing what he does best: taking contracts, wiping out villains and talking trash while doing so. However, our hero is pretty sad these days, so in comes Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) the steel-skinned strongman of the X-Men who offers to let Deadpool stay at the mansion and train to join the team. Eventually, they go out to deal with a situation where a boy named Russell (Julian Dennison) is preparing to unleash his incredible powers against the orphanage where he’s been living. Meanwhile, in the war-torn future, the heavily armed cyborg known as Cable (Josh Brolin) has decided it’s a good time to hop through the past to our present to execute a deadly mission of his own.
As it’s my job to talk about the good and bad of any movie, I’ll get the bad out of the way first. There are parts of the script that do feel predictable and not quite as strong as the first film. Also, there are times that we see characters tossed aside as I would’ve liked to see used more. That being said, many other aspects of Deadpool 2 are much stronger than the first. We get a lot of characters to start off with. If you’ve been into Marvel’s mutant comics like X-Men, New Mutants, X-Force, etc., you get some serious eye candy here (much better than X-Men, The Last Stand. I promise.) There’s a lot of mutant mayhem to go around.
In that vein, we get to have scene-stealer Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) return from the first film to help out, as well as newcomer Domino (Zazie Beetz) who also shines big time as she establishes herself as an arse-kicker and trash talker in her own right and becomes more of a highlight as the film goes on. Meanwhile, the usual background cast of bartender Weasel (T.J. Miller), grouchy neighbor Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), and cab-driver Dopinder (Karan Soni) (who desperately wants to emulate Deadpool more) still manage to get laughs throughout the movie and keep things interesting.
The action sequences are both well-timed and laugh-inducing. We can tell what’s going on much like the first, which puts these above any Michael Bay flick. Serious kudos to director David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, John Wick) deserves serious kudos for this aspect and the film’s pacing overall. Also, there’s one rather amusing sequence between Cable and Deadpool that’s quite memorable. Speaking of Cable, I have to say Josh Brolin does an admirable job bringing the hard-edged mutant to life. Basically, picture Clint Eastwood’s grizzled drill sergeant in Heartbreak Ridge or Gran Torino and you’ll get an idea of how Brolin portrays him here, grit and all. The machine arm and endless use of guns and martial arts complete the ensemble.
But through it all, it’s easy to see Ryan Reynolds has a wonderful time immersing himself into Deadpool and happily pulls the audience into his world. Through the quiet moments with his one true love Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) which are well-placed to break the action and humor, we get to truly experience every facet of Wade’s personality. At all other times, he remains one of the best at making a comic-based antihero come to life and keeping us laughing, right through the very end in possibly the absolute best closing sequence of any comic book movie. I was still thinking about it the next day after seeing the flick. The opening sequence (designed to parody another successful franchise) was also quite good.
All in all, Deadpool 2 isn’t quite as good as the first film but still great fun and the perfect antidote to what many Marvel movie fans are feeling after Avengers: Infinity War. Definitely recommended.
Grade: A-