Movie Reaction: Deadpool 2

Formula: Deadpool +

I sure am split about the first Deadpool. On one hand, it was a game-changer and a breath of fresh air in a stale superhero market. While I appreciate how well the MCU pushes up against the limits of their formula without ever breaking them, I love that Deadpool actively broke every rule it could and found great success doing so. It broke the fourth wall so often that the audience virtually became a character. It openly acknowledged the ridiculousness of the whole thing. The stakes of the film were comically small for a superhero movie. There were no rules about who could and couldn't be killed. On the other hand, watching the first Deadpool was a thoroughly exhausting experience. At some point it went from being anarchic to self-congratulatory.

Ever since a sequel became a forgone conclusion, I've been wondering how they would approach it. Two franchises immediately come to mind as points of comparison. The first is obviously Guardians of the Galaxy: the movie that essentially got Fox to greenlight Deadpool. That movie had lot of fun with pop culture references and playing against audience expectations about a superhero movie. The sequel exposed some of the limitations of the idea by doubling down on the humor at the expense of everything else. The other franchise I think of is 21 Jump Street. That movie was just as meta as Deadpool and found a lot of success playing on the limitations of its premise. That sequel openly and unapologetically went bigger with everything but it remembered to still have a good story at its core. 

Thankfully, Deadpool 2 is more 22 Jump Street than Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, which I did not expect. I fully assumed the astronomical success of the first film would embolden David Leitch, Ryan Reynolds, and company to push even more against expectations. Oddly enough, Deadpool 2 is, in a lot of ways, a pretty traditional superhero movie. As Deadpool points out early on, it's a family movie and has an actual emotional core to it.

Don't get me wrong, the movie is still all over the place. The story is a bit bigger this time too. After suffering a personal loss, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) finds purpose in trying to keep a young mutant, Rusell (Julian Dennison) safe. A time-traveling badass named Cable (Josh Brolin) is trying to kill the Russell. Deadpool decides to put together a team to stop Cable. This team includes Domino (Zazie Beetz), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgard), Bedlam (Terry Crews), and others. There's a few twists along the way, including an All Time misdirect in the middle that I'll get into at the bottom.

Deadpool 2 works because it's not concerned with how it can top the first movie. It really feels like they started with a basic story, made sure to get all the emotional beats right in it, then did 10 drafts after that adding in as many jokes as possible. I appreciate how minor the story was in the first film but it did throw off the balance of it. Let's say the first movie was 10% story and maybe 15% action. That leaves another 75% for jokes, which is what exhausted me. Let's say Deadpool 2 is 20% story and 20% action (thanks, bigger budget). That still leaves 60% for jokes, which is far less unrelenting. I can't say those are the exact numbers, but this movie certainly felt like less of a workout.

Ryan Reynolds was born to play this character and that remains true in the second movie. He's somehow able to get across sincerity even as he's undercutting every emotional beat with a joke. I don't know how he does it. While Cable isn't at all like Thanos, there's a similarity in that Josh Brolin takes both characters completely seriously. He doesn't half-ass this, even though the nature of this franchise would make it so easy to phone it in. The most notable member of Deadpool's team is Zazie Beetz's Domino. Only people who haven't seen her wonderful work in Atlanta will be surprised by how good she is in this. I think, as a rule, every summer movie should have a member of the Atlanta cast in it. It would make the world a better place.

The people who love Blazing Saddles the most are the ones who love Westerns. The people who love Young Frankenstein the most are the ones who love the classic monster movies. Similarly, the people who will love Deadpool 2 the most are the people who love comics and comic book movies. While I enjoy all the superhero movies, they have a lower ceiling than other types of movies for me. So, even though Deadpool 2 is an improvement over the first movie, I wouldn't say I loved it. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think it's damn near the best version of what it's trying to be.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

After the Credits

OK, there's only one spoiler I want to talk about. Even if you don't care about spoilers, I urge you in this case to not read this until you've seen the movie. It's a great punchline that's better to not know about beforehand.

The demise of the X-Force was brilliant. I know movies have done similar things in the past (Didn't one of the Suicide Squad die immediately?), but I don't recall any movie doing it at this level. I didn't see it coming at all. I just assumed they had a bunch of jokes lined up for all these characters so that Ryan Reynolds didn't have to do all the heavy lifting. Nope! Good on Terry Crews, Bill Skarsgard, and Rob Delaney for being such good sports. I've also enjoyed how Brad Pitt has been less precious with protecting his "brand" in the last year between his recurring role as the weatherman on The Jim Jeffries Show and his 2 second cameo as Vanisher in this. 

I don't know how intentional this was, but could there have possibly been a better response to the end of Infinity War? When the big purge happened at the end of Infinity War, I didn't really buy into the emotional gut punch, because I was too aware that it would undone by the next movie. Meanwhile, in Deadpool 2, they make a joke out of the "maximum acceptable death" of characters. I really can't praise that joke enough.