Deadpool 2 (2018)

Jump to "MCU" Review for 'Deadpool & Wolverine'

<<

Gearing Up

>>

At the end of 2016's 'Deadpool', we got our typical-by-now post-credit sequence, involving Deadpool doing a take on the post-credit scene to 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', and ultimately teasing us that the film already had a sequel in the works with the casting of famed badass, and never-before-used Cable in mind. We were ready for it, and the rumour mill started up on who was gonna play Cable - most famously, Brad Pitt, but we'll come back to him in a bit. It was one of the more discussed topics among friends until they cast Thanos, himself, Josh Brolin.

I think everything worked out for the best in the end, but instead of talking about casting, maybe I should just get into the film itself. Riding on the coattails of the ultra-successful, R-rated 'Logan', this one actually opens with a dose of tragedy, and another great opening sequence with humorous credits, this time parodying the 'Bond' movies. Even though this all happens right at the beginning, and the film is on the older side at this point, I'm still not gonna say exactly what happens, but it does lead to Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) entering a deep depression, which makes him search for a greater purpose.

Soon enough, Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic (Brianna Hildebrand) come back into Wade's life, in another attempt to recruit him to the X-Men. Wade reluctantly agrees, and is soon given his first mission; to try to help a destructive young mutant by the name of Firefist (Julian Dennison) before things go wrong. That particular "wrong" involves killing the headmaster of his orphanage (Eddie Marsan) who want to cure him, and consider his mutant abilities a sin. That murder will ultimately direct him down a dark path of destruction.

We learn of this destruction through the aforementioned Cable, who travels from the future to "present day" (2018) to get to Firefist early, and prevent him from eventually growing up and slaughtering Cable's family. The kid then becomes Deadpool's go-to source for having a change of heart and ultimately doing the right thing by not only preventing his 'T2'-like murder, but also trying to set him on the right path. Although the jokes and gags here are plenty, this one is still quite a bit darker than the first, and a better glimpse into Wade's more serious side (small though that side may be).

I might suggest that this chapter of the 'Deadpool' series might have been better for the time, especially with the introduction of 'X-Force', which was the original direction these films were heading. We were introduced to characters like Domino (Zazie Beetz), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgård), Bedlam (Terry Crews), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), Vanisher (remember when I mentioned Brad Pitt?) and of course, Peter (Rob Delaney). I may argue that things really did turn out for the best in the end, when these films took a different direction with 'Deadpool & Wolverine', but still, an 'X-Force' movie lead by Deadpool could have been a lot of fun!

So this now kind of suffers as a bit of a hinge movie with different expectations by the end of it, but I will say that it's not something in plain sight. It's not like the movie left us with a major cliff-hanger for the upcoming 'X-Force' movie. Instead, we actually get a time-travel sequence that lends itself more to the direction they went with the series. One might call it a happy accident, but one might also just say that the concept of time travel opens too many easy doors. But that's the nice thing about Deadpool - either way you slice it, we're gonna have fun with it.

It's hard for me to say whether I like this one of the first one better, but I do feel like the first had more going for it as a film the fans were clamouring for. That's not to say this wasn't effective, it's just that we've seen what DP can do at this point. On top of that, this now carries that "What if?" scenario involving 'X-Force' that we never got to see. But there's still enough here in fourth wall-breaking, jokes, gags, cameos and all-around action that it's a super solid and super worthy sequel to its predecessor. Just thank god 'Deadpool & Wolverine' picked up some of the missing pieces!

5/5

---