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Movie Review: 'Deadpool 2'

'Deadpool 2' is not as good as the first, but that's not bad.

By Sean PatrickPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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Deadpool 2 takes up the story after Deadpool/Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) suffers a tragedy. How is it possible for Deadpool, the snarkiest of the snarky superheroes, to genuinely feel a tragedy? You’ll have to see it for yourself. How this incident changes Deadpool is really not all that much. He becomes slightly morose for a time and then gets back to killing people.

The plot revolves around Deadpool protecting a child mutant named Russell (Julian Dennison) from a hitman from the future named Cable (Josh Brolin). Russell can throw fire from his hands and apparently grows up to be a killer. Cable has come back in time to kill Russell before he commits his first kill. Deadpool, inspired by his beloved, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), tries to change Russell’s potential future and keep Cable from killing him.

Deadpool’s plan involves starting his own superhero team with the help of his pal Weasel (T.J Miller). The star of the ‘X-Force’ is Domino (Zazie Beets) who claims that her superpower is Luck. Domino’s superpower is played for some terrific laughs and Beets is a total star, a badass with style, more than a match for Deadpool. The rest of the team you will need to meet for yourself when you see Deadpool 2.

It’s hard to tell you much about Deadpool 2 without getting into spoilers, so I will leave that as it is. The story has some genuine heart to it that is entirely unexpected from this particular hero. Ryan Reynolds is incredible at digging new layers of Deadpool while never losing the aspects of Deadpool’s personality that made fans fall in love with this bizarre character.

The fourth wall breaking moments still work even as the film goes for the heart. A sequence set at the X-Men mansion is especially meta and filled with fun Easter Eggs. The relationship between Deadpool and Stephan Kapcic’s Colossus is so much fun and gains some depth. It leads to some terrific gags between the two and solidifies Colossus’s place as an essential part of the Deadpool franchise.

Atomic Blonde director David Leitch takes over direction of the franchise from Tim Miller and the change is noticeable. Miller was much more skillful in weaving together Deadpool’s meta side with the necessary story stuff. There is a more self-conscious vibe to Deadpool 2, more typically cinematic, less of the comic book vibe that Miller brilliantly captured in the first film.

Leitch is not a bad director, and things that are different from the first film aren’t bad, just slightly more mundane. Leitch occasionally slows the pace of the movie in a way that is more typical of a Hollywood action movie, and while there is nothing wrong with that, it isn’t what we remember of Deadpool the first time around, a movie which maintained a breakneck pace with its own very unique beats.

The original Deadpool moved quickly with a smart reliance on montage and Ryan Reynolds’ snarky voiceover that effortlessly moves from voiceover to actual dialogue, setting the voiceover apart from what happens in a regular movie. The voiceover of Deadpool 2 is less deft and more typically cinematic, which isn’t a bad thing; just a little different from the first film.

I keep talking about the lesser aspects of Deadpool 2 in relation to the original Deadpool, but I do really like this movie. David Leitch directs the film well, just differently from the way Tim Miller directed the original. Ryan Reynolds is still the perfect Deadpool. His stewardship of the character is the most important aspect of Deadpool; it is what makes Deadpool, Deadpool. Even with the director change, Reynolds keeps the feel of the character, his snark and his genuine aspects.

The surprises are big, the laughs are big- especially the big mid-credits sequence, no need to stay until the end of the credits- and the cast is exceptional. Deadpool 2 is not as good as the original but it’s also at the disadvantage of not being able to surprise us in the way the original did. The sequel is more of a classically styled action movie with familiar beats and fewer surprises. That’s not a bad thing, just different, Deadpool 2 is different from the first movie and that’s okay. It’s still really funny.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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