When you have a formula that works, it’s tempting to just keep riding with it as much as possible, which is what Deadpool 2 does against its predecessor. David Leitch takes over as director from Tim Miller’s original 2016 film, working off a script co-written by star Ryan Reynolds, and this latest entry doubles down hard on the gory mayhem and rapid-fire jokes that made the first such a hit.
Fortunately, it still has a good element of heart and affection behind its title character to keep the audience on his side. Sometimes being good means getting messy, as he expresses to his more traditionally heroic X-Men friend Colossus (Stefan Kapicic). And while it does adhere to a few clichés, it generally avoids the trap of so many sequels being a mess.
Things seem to be going great at first for the crimson-clad hitman as he gleefully slashes and blasts his way through criminals while his fiancé Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) waits for him at home. She’s an important part of Wade’s continued character development here, but- spoiler alert- not before she is killed by an assassin’s stray bullet.
Depressed and heartbroken, Deadpool is comforted by his friends Weasel (t.J. Miller), his roommate Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) and the luckless taxi driver Dopinder (Karan Soni) who all return from the first film, but he’s beside himself. He can barely pull himself together, and in fact attempts for the very opposite using a pile of gasoline barrels, cocaine, and a match.
Colossus helps Wade pick himself back up- literally- and offers him a position on the X-Men as a trainee, alongside a returning Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hidebrand, dry and cool as ever), and they set out on a mission to rescue an angry teenage mutant named Russell Collins- nicknamed Firefist (Julian Dennison)- as he violent lashes at his boarding school.
When Wade learns that the young man is being abused by the staff, his attempts to rescue him get him sent to prison, where he reluctantly bonds with the pyrokinetic boy.
But Cable (Josh Brolin), a warrior from the future who’s after Russell for some unknown reason, isn’t happy to find out that Firefist has made an early friend. Deadpool takes it upon himself to protect Russell, leading him to organize a progressive-minded, gender-neutral spin on the X-Men he brilliantly dubs the “X-Force”.
His new recruits consist of Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgard), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), Bedlam (Terry Crews, packing tons of charisma into a brief cameo), a random guy named Peter (Rob Delany), and a telekinetic mutant named Domino (Zazie Beetz) with powers so refined, she can briefly alter “luck” itself. Unlike the other members, her skills actually come in handy for Wade in a pinch.
A key theme of Deadpool’s stories is his consistent cynicism, and the various situations he counters that challenge it. Like his more family-friendly ally Spider-Man, his wisecracking is something of a façade to mask his inner turmoil. In the 2016 film he sulked and fretted about his scarred appearance, though he’s actually nowhere as frightening as he thinks he is. Here, he struggles with doubts on whether he’s the kind of hero who can properly function in a team, and even his need for a family. Heck, he even points this out to the audience to open the film.
Even among all of the dick jokes and lampooning of superhero films (Marvel, DC and other unrelated properties all get equally sharp barbs thrown their way), Reynolds manages to garner some genuine affection along the way, and he’s got good chemistry with Dennison and Brolin. As such, Cable makes a perfect straight man for the scarred hitman, while much of Pool’s dialogue towards Russell is surprisingly devoid of his usual sarcasm and comes off very genuine.
There are points when it feels Deadpool 2 is about to drown in its self-referencing and lampooning of the superhero movie genre, but there’s enough empathy around the character and his stories combined with some sharp wit to counter it. More jokes hit than miss, and even the ones that don’t quite work aren’t too troubling. It never takes itself too seriously nor goes overboard towards mindless jokes. Any film that can showcase two contrasting main songs like French Montana and Lil’ Pump’s banger “Welcome To The Party” alongside Celine Dion’s torch ballad “Ashes” has its tongue firmly planted inside its cheek.
Fortunately, it’s a movie that knows when to get meta and also when to properly ground itself. If there are certain tropes of comic book films you might be growing weary of, this sequel is more than happy to throw a cream pie in their faces, while being an appealing superhero romp in its own right. Strongly recommended.