Review of Deadpool 2 (2018) by K Nife C — 24 May 2018

Dudebro 2 is exactly what you thought it would be and a little worse. Ryan Reynolds' passion project to claw his way back off of the B list paid off two years ago and proved to studios that yes, you can dial back the edgy realism and make a comic book film that eschews family friendliness for graphic language and violence. As if Family Guy had overdosed on nihilism and ultra-violence, Deadpool offered pop-culture onanism on Valentine's day for the unwashed masses, breaking the box office record for the largest opening of an R-rated feature. Finally, the cynicism and boredom of our murder obsessed society could huddle together and enjoy the lowest brows of entertainment in the context of manufactured childhood nostalgia.

In that regard, even if I didn't particularly enjoy the first film I could still respect it for pushing boundaries and seeming fresh in a film genre that fatigued me long before reviewers were buzz-wording "franchise-fatigue". There was a coy bleakness to the first one that, while it has no moral value and ultimately proved as disposable as the films it was lovingly satirizing, it was the exact kind of spirit one should approach a comic book movie with: this is crap, it doesn't matter, so have fun. If only lightning had struck twice I could have enjoyed this movie as well, but aside from a few jokes, I pretty much resented watching Van Wilder in spandex.

Now Wade Wilson is ready to settle down and have kids, and "this is a family film har-har", and "children give us a chance to be better than ourselves" and other generic procreation propaganda. Those would be great as cannon fodder for our sardonic anti-hero, but instead they're just emo-signals for his pseudo-depth. Not for a moment do I buy any of these shoe-horned concepts emanating from goofy looking mass murderers, yet these lines are played in earnest as "character development". We get enough of these dinky character arcs in other films, so is it too much to ask that they just cut the bullshit in this franchise?

As for the technical aspects, director David Leitch has demonstrated his action genre stylings quite well in John Wick and Atomic Blonde, but here he showcases his contrived sense of emotional motivation. Plus it looks like he was phoning in most of the fight choreography. It's just the same old tricks with none of the flair, and when the Dung fu stops, the generic CG set pieces pick up the lack of pace. There's nothing fresh here, just more of the same. I won't lie though, if you still bust a gut watching the first one, you will probably find yourself completely satisfied with this movie, like eating McDonalds when you're drunk at 4 AM, or flushing a cockroach down the toilet.