RageLite review - Deadpool 2

Deadpool was a massive success for Fox so naturally a sequel was greenlit, and given how successful it was, the sequel was gifted a larger budget of $110m. But does bigger equal better?

Well, critically it managed an impressive 83% Rotten Tomatoes rating with an average 7.05/10 and an audience score of 85% with an average 4.08/5. Including its re-releases, it managed to make $785m at the box office. I am only talking about the original theatrical version for this review. Once Upon a Deadpool never interested me and it didn’t get a 12A (the PG-13 equivalent) rating in the UK anyway.

After Deadpool’s activities as a mercenary result in the death of Vanessa, Deadpool tries to find new ways to die. Continually told his heart isn’t in the right place, his focus shifts to helping Firefist (Julian Dennison) a mutant abused by his home who is now the target of time-travelling cyborg Cable (Josh Brolin) who blames Firefist for the death of his family. Can the merc with the mouth save the boy and the day? Only by employing his usual tactics of violence, pop cultural and fourth wall jokes.

The story is somewhat more ambitious than Deadpool was. Bringing in Cable, as they’d promised to in the last movie opens up some time travel opportunities. What they actually do with it is clever and funny, but opens up a bunch of logical problems, which I’ll get to down the line.

The same writing team that wrote the first Deadpool movie return for the sequel and they clearly have Deadpool down as he doesn’t miss a beat, making exactly the jokes you’d think. The only thing about it is the fourth wall jokes can often come as a bit of a copout. You could've had Domino shout a random 4-digit code and be right thanks to her mutant luck powers as opposed to it just being 1 digit. No need to repeat lazy writing

Oh yeah, I suppose I should mention the X-force briefly: a fun little set-piece that ultimately serves little purpose in the film. It introduces Domino, plus some other characters that die horribly, and she is awesome, glad to see her make it to film, about bloody time.

It’s definitely safe to say that this film shows off improvements when it comes to action. The original fight of Deadpool v Cable is a prime example of this, with them taking full advantage of Wade’s accelerated healing. David Leich clearly has a better grasp of the action than Tim Miller did. That being said, the CGI on Colossus might actually be worse than the first movie.

I like Firefist, he’s a scared kid with a tough exterior attempting to hide how scared he is, despite being the defacto villain of the piece he’s easy enough to empathise with and you don’t want to see Cable kill him. All the supporting characters from Deadpool return, although many see their roles reduced. Negasonic Teenage Warhead is there to insult Wade from time to time, and also have an anime girlfriend, she serves no real plot-related purpose.

Weasel is here and I swear you could pretty much rub out the vast majority of his contributions to the movie without trouble, plus you’d then have less TJ Miller which in and of itself is a good thing currently. Dopiander is descending into wanting to be a contract killer, committing his first kill at the end of the movie. I’m not sure how I feel about his. Blind Al is also rather pointless with her minimal role.

Cable is an interesting antagonist and I like Josh Brolin’s performance, the only problem is how jarring it can be hearing Thanos’ voice from a film that came out so soon after Infinity War.

I have already mentioned Colossus but his character arc is handled exceptionally poorly. He arrests Wade for nearly killing someone, he justifies his actions, then Colossus begins fighting dirty and being totally OK with killing. It was that sudden.

As for Wade himself, I found myself enjoying watching his arc play out. Once again they play on the theme that it’s only 5 or 6 moments that make you a hero. Deadpool, being Deadpool, is still more about the killing, especially if it’s himself.

The Juggernaut is in this one, and his meme worthy dialogue from X-men 3 isn’t even referenced, this should’ve been easy.

So, we need to talk about the ending, because this is both hilarious and something that eats up a lot of good will people have for this franchise. First of all, Cable uses his second and final charge of his time belt to save Wade because… I have no f*cking clue! Then anime girlfriend fixes it and Deadpool uses it. First he saves his wife, and we’ll get back to that but he also shoots old Deadpool from X-men origins Wolverine, to the relief of absolutely everyone and then Ryan Reynolds looking at the Green Lantern script.

There are a few pots-shots at DC in this one, not a single one to the MCU, gee, I wonder why

About saving his wife, her death was a fridging, they even admit that in the PG-13 version. Her death was solely to begin character growth for the lead. Unfortunately, now that you’ve confirmed that you can use time travel this way, and you have the ability to use it limitlessly you’ve essentially destroyed any tension these stories could ever have.

Deadpool 2 some improved action and a more interesting story, but you may find yourself getting bored faster at the humour this time around, especially with how they handle the conclusion

Rating 70/100