Review: “Deadpool 2” May Be The Best Sequel Ever Made
Deadpool 2
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, TJ Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, Julian Dennison
Such Beautiful Man-Love – Photo Credit: Comicsblog
First and foremost, I need to mention that I was a HUGE fan of the first Deadpool and my expectations were through the roof for this. The original Deadpool film was a passion project for Reynolds so I wasn’t worried about how this was going to turn out but even in that mindset, I set myself up for disappointment. That being said, it exceeded every expectation I had and, as far as sequels go, it may be the best follow-up I’ve ever seen. I’m going to keep this as spoiler free as possible and I’ll let you know right up front that it’s a lot of exactly what you’d expect if you loved the first Deadpool movie. And now, onto the review!
The film opens with Deadpool…setting up his own death, talking shit to Wolverine for dying in “Logan” and breaking the old 4th wall immediately, letting you know how he got to the point of wanting to kill himself in the first place. He’s smoking and walking around a destroyed apartment before laying on a bunch of gas cans and flicking a cigarette into them, blowing pieces of our red suited anti-hero all over the place. It then takes us through a beautifully fun, gory, tour de slaughtering in various countries as Wade tells us of his worldly escapades. While in Russia, a bad guy locks himself in a panic room as a shit load of other bad guys chase Deadpool down an alley into a cab with the returning Darpinder from the previous film. Deadpool goes home and has a playful back & forth with his wife, Vanessa, and they exchange anniversary gifts. His gift to her is a skeeball token from their first date and hers to him is her IUD, signifying they’re looking to make a baby. ****SPOILER ALERT**** Russian bad guy shows up with other various bad guys and kills Vanessa. ***END SPOILERS*** That all happens BEFORE the opening credits even roll. What a rollercoaster of an opening.
Colossus Is A Giant Pile Of Steel Russian Love – Photo Credit: Flickr
All of this happening causes Deadpool to spiral and try to kill himself but, as we know, he can’t really die, Colossus shows up and bags up all his parts and brings him to the X-Mansion and attempts to make him part of the X-Men. We’re reintroduced to Negasonic from the first film and she has a new mutant girlfriend. I’ll pause here and say that the jokes up to this point in the movie have been A+ and they toy with current societal issues of sexuality and gender identity very nicely. It’s really great seeing them straddle the line of super dark fucked up humor and societal acceptance. Well done, writing team. Well done, indeed. There are also some amazing cameos in this whole sequence. So they go on their first “X-Men” mission to a Mutant Rehab Center where a kid, “Firefist”, is essentially holding people hostage and threatening to burn the orphanage down because they abused him. Shit hits the fan, Deadpool fucks up and they end up being taken to a prison for mutants where they have to wear collars that disable their superpowers. While they’re in the prison, we’re introduced to Cable (played by Josh Brolin), who is looking for Firefist so he can kill him. I won’t get into why, but I will say that it makes a lot of sense and it’s a cool plot twist. Cable, if you don’t know, is a time travelling super soldier with a shit load of awesome weapons, a mechanical arm and a real bad fucking attitude. The rest of the movies is “Deadpool vs. Cable” and the introduction of The X-Force, a group of mutants helping Deadpool fight Cable. If you thought they’d dilute the formula and take away from Deadpool, don’t worry, they don’t. I won’t say why that is, but I will assure you that they don’t.
You Make Fun Of His Boy Tits, He Burns You To Death – Photo Credit: Revenge Of The Fans
The script is extremely tight in this sequel. The jokes fire off left & right with a good 95% success rate in my view. All your favorite characters from before are back, including TJ Miller and Wade’s old blind roommate. The story doesn’t jump around too much and shows just enough variety to keep you interested the whole time. The fourth wall breaks are very well done in this. The X-Force is used in a way that I thought was great but some may be disappointed. Call backs to the first movie were used very well. The effects were so well done. They obviously got a higher budget and utilized it well. Cable is a fucking bad ass and I was really happy with how Brolin played him. Ryan Reynolds was in prime form as The Merc With A Mouth and he was firing on all cylinders the whole time. Also, they milked the R rating for all it was worth. There was a SHIT LOAD of gore and R rated humor all over the place. It was gratuitous as fuck but it was done well so it didn’t SEEM gratuitous. And finally, stay for the after credits scenes. They’re absolutely fantastic.
4.5 Out Of 5 for me on this one. I can’t say it was perfect but as far as sequels go, it’s hard to think of a better follow up to such a beloved original.
