Deadpool 2

After Deadpool had raked in just under $800 million worldwide two years ago, it made perfect sense to have a crack at a sequel. And I think Deadpool 2 is slightly better than the original. Maybe this is because there's less of the TJ Miller riffing, which was intermittently solid but overcooked. In this one, they dialled it back quite a bit, as they did the old blind lady and the taxi driver. All fine characters, and this time, used sparingly.

Another reason is the identity of the antagonist. At first, it seems to be Josh Brolin's Cable but then, for story reasons, it kind of morphs into circumstance, I guess. There are several moments when our potty-mouthed hero struggles to keep all the pieces together (metaphorically and literally). In fact, Pool begins to fight more against himself and his 'unkillability', which prevents him from [SPOILER - REDACTED], so you might say Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson is the pro/an-tagonist. The direction also seems more assured in this second outing, with David Leitch taking over from Tim Miller, and maybe all relevant parties were more comfortable, knowing this film would probably 'wash its face' (its takings are running just shy of $620 million worldwide as I write).

Now this was a chuckle-fuck all the way through but specific mention must go to the introduction of the X-force. Reynolds said on the Empire podcast that the whole section was really just a way of linking the scene where Cable beats DP to a pulp to the one where he goes after the convoy. So the best sequence in the film was intended as a narrative bridge and Reynolds is right when he says nothing would be lost story-wise if you removed the whole chunk. A nice bit of fortuitousness there.

Some of the supporting cast are worth mentioning. Brolin as Cable is suitably austere and hardened and he's made a bit of a thing out of playing psychotic killers - Thanos, Bush, now Cable. The 'not very cinematic' Domino sequence, which showcases her luck superpower, is another treat. Zazie Beetz plays this just right. She's a step up from NegaSonic Teenage Hedgehog. Ricky Baker Julian Dennison's Firefist has some nice moments, especially his prison wallet. There are also a few neat cameos, which are handily spoiled in the podcast below.

[THE FOLLOWING PARAGARPH HAS ONE WHOPPING SPOILER IN IT - STOP HERE IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM]

One of the lesser points of Deadpool 2 is that even though they step outside the box in many ways - fourth wall breaking, meta gags about other films (Wolverine has some legs), great swearing and unusual deaths - they also stick to some of the tropes of your run-of-the-mill Hollywood fare. 'Fridging' being a prime example. This is, roughly speaking, killing a female character to enable the male hero to become motivated enough to drive the plot forward. Though this was probably unaviodable here, as it served to drive DP's suicidal mania, it's still an unfortunate cliche.

See also:

Park Chan-wook's Oldboy (2003) for a similar scene to one at the start of Deadpool 2 and maybe even Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969) for bags of slow-motion bloodshed.

SPOILERS WITHIN PODCAST!!

Listen to "Deadpool 2" on Spreaker.