Deadpool 2

2018 superhero sequel

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Deadpool, following a personal tragedy, tries to stop a time-traveling guy with a metal arm from killing a kid who can make fire with his hands or something.

Ryan Reynolds, his character, and a couple of the other characters are much better than the actual movie, which takes a slight dip in quality from the first movie. Part of the problem is that this character's antics are no longer novel. This largely dicks around in the same way the first movie did, only instead of an origin story that satirizes countless other superhero origin stories some of us are kind of sick of seeing, it satirizes the adventurous good vs. evil stories of already established superheros.

Well, sort of. Where the movie succeeds is where it's not really taking anything at all seriously. Quips and throwaway one-liners, really good physical comedy that really has no place being in a Marvel movie, odd character dynamics, and unpredictable silliness that you'd expect to see more in a Looney Tunes cartoon than in a superhero movie. Those are the things that really work. When this has a tongue firmly in a cheek--likely with Deadpool turning that into an obscene gesture, making you think it's a dick he's got in there--this is a lot of fun. Its boisterous frenetic energy still feels fresh, and the whole thing moves quickly and is a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, there's a whole lot of story and character development going on here, and when director Leitch and the writing team--two alliterative names (Rhett Reese and Ryan Reynolds) and another guy with a boring name (Paul Wernick)--demand that the audience takes all this seriously, it doesn't work as well. And there are even times when a lot of the fun is sucked right out of the room. Take that moment of tragedy that Deadpool--more accurately, Wade Wilson--has to deal with. Sure it's toyed around with during yet-another funny opening credit scene, but in order for a lot of the serious parts of this to work, that moment of tragedy has to feel real and have some weight. And it just doesn't. During the first half of this movie, I even felt a little bored at times. There were humorous blips, but watching Deadpool being mopey and trying to find himself in a narrative that mattered just took a little too long. It felt like the pace was a little off, and the clash of tones didn't quite work.

Once this thing ventures into your typical superhero chaos with big CGI choreographed fight sequences and supernatural fisticuffs, the story might even get more generic and typical. And there's way too much going on. We have this personal tragedy that's at the heart of this character's story, this stuff with this kid, time-traveling guys played by the same guy who voiced the big baddie in the last superhero blockbuster, an assembled X-Force posse, another villain thrown in, some political stuff that feels more like something that would belong in the X-Men movies or an X-Men television show if that's something that actually exists and isn't something that I'm just making up in my head. It's really a lot of stuff thrown at the audience at once. And it's really hard to buy into something entirely when it's both lampooning action movie tropes and cliches and plot devices and using all of those to move a story or three forward.

Airplane came to mind as I was thinking of why parts of Deadpool 2 didn't work. No, I'm not saying that Airplane is some comedic masterpiece or anything, but I think the reason Airplane works as a comedy and has lasting appeal is because the narrative isn't complicated at all. There's the potential disaster, and there's a rekindled romance. It's about as complex as most silent movies, and I think that gives the movie's gags and jokes a lot of wiggle room. Deadpool 2 might try to bite off a little more than it can chew at times.

Would I rather watch Airplane or Deadpool 2 right now? Well, Deadpool 2. For one, I know there are references and jokes that I missed the first time. The writers are taking that approach where they care less about each and every bit of humor being perfect and just throwing as much as they can out to get as many audience chuckles as they can. It's raunchy at times and sometimes I think they're trying a bit too hard to self-referentially take the piss, but a whole lot of this lands. This sequel probably does have that rewatchability factor because there's so much packed in there. And so much of it is really really clever that I don't even think I'd feel guilty about watching it again instead of some Czechoslovakian movie from the early-70s.

What else did I like? Well, I definitely liked Josh Brolin's character more than I thought I would in the previews. Knowing nothing about the comics and his character made him sort of a confusing character to me. I always underestimate Brolin, and I'm not sure why because he's really good in almost everything I see him in. I figured he'd play this Cable guy like the Thanos guy, but he handles both the humor and the action in this sequel that makes this performance better than the one in the Avengers sequel sequel. I also enjoyed Zazie Beetz (maybe my current favorite actress name, by the way) and her character, especially the way the movie plays with her superpower that isn't really a superpower, at least not, according to Deadpool, a cinematic one. I'm not sure what else I can say about the rest of the X-Force without spoiling a lot of what makes that part of the movie so much fun.

I supposed Deadpool might start to wear out his welcome in a third installment. The overuse of ironic song choices during action scenes, the quips, the contemporary references, and the dick jokes might start to bludgeon more than delight. For now, this character is still a lot of fun, and it's the perfect vehicle for the particular talents that Ryan Reynolds brings.

One more thing that doesn't need to be said but I'll say it anyway: the geniuses behind the marketing for this should win some sort of award. There's a whole other dimension of funny with this franchise before anybody even sets foot in the theater. I'm pretty sure other studios will try to duplicate that and fail, but it's certainly a lot of fun now.