Deadpool 2: A Lot Of The Same, But In A Good Way

Marvel is having a very good year. The top two movies at the box office with nearly three billion dollars earned are Marvel movies. You know who's having an even better year? Josh Brolin. You know those two Marvel movies both resting comfortably at the top of the box office charts I mentioned earlier? Josh Brolin plays the villain in both of them. And he's not done. We all knew Avengers was a two-parter, so the dude is gonna be back in Thanos purple next year too. Mad respect for the Brolin. Anyhoo, there's really no point I was trying to make about Brolin, I just thought that little tidbit of information was relatively interesting. So... onto Deadpool 2. What can I say? I am a big Ryan Reynolds guy and it's nice to see him in the spotlight once again. He's got to be one of the most charming and charismatic actors around and not many would be able to do the Deadpool character and make audience members fall in love with him as opposed to sickened by him. I liked the movie. I didn't love it. I liked it. In fact, I liked it just as much as I liked the first one. I've only seen it once. I might watch it again in the future, but it's a movie I was happy to see. laughed at, and moved on from. This is exactly how Deadpool 2 is. If you can't be better than your predecessor, at the very least, don't get worse. And Deadpool 2, while it isn't really better, it certainly isn't worse.

It's the same schtick. Reynolds is Wade Wilson-- a human "avocado" looking anti-superhero who dispenses justice in violent and sickeningly awesome ways. He's crude, he's crass, he's vulgar, and he's hilarious. He frequently breaks the fourth wall with his narration and points out the major faults in most of the pop culture surrounding other Marvel and DC superhero movies. He's the anti-superhero superhero. This time he faces off against Cable (Brolin), a soldier who sends himself back in time from the future to stop the person responsible for causing the deaths of his wife and daughter. It's very Terminator-y, but that can be overlooked because Reynolds' Deadpool is there to acknowledge this and remind us how lazy his writers constantly are with his movies. The action is good, the comedy is good, the CGI is... well... it's sometimes pretty awful. Overall, it's pretty passable, but with each Marvel movie showcasing an ever-evolving technology where most CGI is frighteningly realistic-- there's some pretty bad and cheap CGI. It's not involved with many of the larger scenes, but it's pretty evident the studios cut costs on the quick moments they needed effects. This also could've been done on purpose as an in-joke to the movie constantly complaining about its own budget, but it does stand out like a sore thumb.

We get to meet a few new characters, but the two that stand out are Domino (Zazie Beetz) whose superpower is that she's lucky, and Peter (Rob Delaney) who has no superpower whatsoever, he just found a flyer for the "auditions". There's almost a Mystery Men feel to the middle of the movie and it's definitely not unwanted. There's also a lot more X-Men involved in the plotline-- none of the familiar ones, of course, but they do play more into the central arc of the story. And, finally, audiences who aren't me who were waiting anxiously for it get the inception of the X-Force. The rest of the movie pretty much plays out like the first one. There's the rise and fall of a villain or two. There's the rise and fall of Deadpool himself. There's a lot of swearing, a lot of cool violence, and a lot of narration that holds the movie together. I will say this-- I was impressed at the amount of funny material the first movie generated, but there were a lot of jokes that just didn't land. Or maybe they did land, but they fell very flat. This one has less of that. It's very funny, but the story had me wanting more. The two movies compliment each other very well as they make up for each other's faults.

I do kind of hope that this is one of the last Deadpool movies. Not because I don't enjoy them, but they're so experimental, they should quit while they're ahead. Eventually, the novelty of the movie will fade and it'll ruin what magic it once had. I'm impressed they've been able to make such quality films twice without bordering on offensive and/or failing to achieve an actual comedy value to the film. But, while it's out, it's worth watching. There's a lot of fun to be had and you need to stay for the end credits scenes because they're funnier than they should be. Deadpool doesn't break any new ground with the character and they may have gone a little bit overboard with the self-awareness of being in a movie, but if you liked/loved the first film, it's a lot more of the same. And for once, that's not a bad thing.

B