Review of Deadpool 2 (2018) by Paul F — 22 May 2018

At the end of 2016's Deadpool, Wade Wilson walked out of a door in his costume and a bathrobe and promised audiences the inclusion of Cable in the sequel. Given the amount of meta humor, 4th wall breaks, and general un-seriousness of the film, many people probably thought this was just another joke and no more than an empty promise. Alas, 2018's Deadpool 2 delivered on that promise and brings another round of over-the-top violence, profanity, humor, and more of everyone's favorite Merc with a Mouth.

Ryan Reynolds once again stars as the titular character of the film: Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool. He is joined by a colorful cast of new supporting characters, including Josh Brolin (yes, the actor who plays Thanos) as Cable, a time-traveling mercenary with a metal arm and a tendency to kill people; Zazie Beetz as Domino, a mutant with the surprising helpful power of luck; and Julian Dennison as Firefist, a young mutant who was anger issues and the ability to produce fire from his hands. We also see the return of many of the supporting characters from the first Deadpool, including Weasel, Blind Al, Colossus, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. The film's story follows Deadpool as he tries to prevent Cable from murdering the young Firefist, whom Cable believes is destined to become a ruthless killer.

Now, Deadpool 2 is a difficult movie to critique. Its predecessor made its mark as an original and creative departure from typical superhero films. Many argue that the R-rated violence and profanity paved the way for the release of other R-rated hits the next year, including Logan and It. The film itself was gleeful in its abandon of action film norms and was a joy to watch... I've watched the film myself 5 or 6 times, and it is still one of my favorite movies to date. Deadpool 2 tries its best to capture the same lightning that made the first Deadpool such a success. In doing so, it cranks up the amount of pop culture and comic book references, makes more excessive use of 4th wall-breaking jokes, and makes the action more explosive and fast-paced than before. Film critics and concerned Deadpool fans might read that statement and raise a red flag... but don't be ashamed, I did the same thing at first. Those qualities are used to create a film that is exciting and a blast to watch. As a result, Deadpool 2 is somehow able to be a worthy sequel to its 2016 predecessor.

So why does Deadpool 2 work? It's hard to say. So, I'll go through and list some of its strengths. To start, the pacing of the movie is usually very fast. The pacing suffers the most at the beginning of the film after an event (which I won't spoil) happens and sends Wade into a spiral of sadness. It created some scenes and dialogue that just didn't seem to fit with the tone of the film, and while I saw why the writers had included it in the film after it had ended, it was still hard to justify its inclusion. Nevertheless, aside from those scenes I mentioned, I was never bored in the film. The action scenes, expositional scenes, humorous dialogue, and everything else flowed smoothly for most of Deadpool 2, allowing it to be entertaining throughout. And let's not forget to talk about the humor: it's back and on par with the standard that the first Deadpool set. To me, it felt like it was more abundant this time around. I was worried that this would become a problem, but almost every joke in the film landed well with me, and there were even a few scenes where I laughed myself into tears. And since this movie is aiming to be a comedy, it's safe to say that it did its job. Finally, the action in Deadpool 2, which I was worried would be far too over-the-top and excessive, it just as satisfying and fun to watch as the first.

I'll wrap up this review with a couple of other tidbits that I wanted to mention. First of all, I was very happy and satisfied with the amount and depth of the pop culture, film, and comic book references that were present throughout the film. As a movie buff, comic book fan, and Marvel film enthusiast, these made me a very happy filmgoer. Unfortunately, my second point brings up a problem that I had with the film. This problem is that Deadpool 2's CGI is... pretty bad. Maybe I'm being nitpicky, or maybe my expectations for computer-generated objects in film has been set way too high by films like Avengers: Infinity War, Annihilation, or War for the Planet of the Apes. Nevertheless, there were several moments in the film where I couldn't stop paying attention to noticeable green-screen, poorly rendered CGI characters, or effects that looked fake. One example I remember was a scene where the camera focused on Colossus' face as he was talking, and it was a rough scene to watch. This was even more baffling to me when I remembered Colossus looking much more believable in the first Deadpool. Maybe these issues will be fixed with future releases of the film, like when it comes out on home media. Until then, I'll just try and forget about it.

As you've probably already heard from the critics that actually get paid for doing this, Deadpool 2 isn't quite as good as 2016's Deadpool. However, this doesn't stop it from being one of the funniest and most fun movies I have seen in a while. The film continues to do justice to its titular character's legacy in the comic books and it acts as yet another apology for the abomination (that Ryan Reynolds also portrayed) that we received with 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It has some issues regarding pacing and tone and the unfortunate CGI problem that I mentioned, but it is otherwise a blast to watch. I'll definitely be buying Deadpool 2 once it comes out on Blu-Ray, and I'm giving it 4 out of 5 stars.